As smitten as a kitten in Ko Samet

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HE SAID...
We checked out of our Bangkok hotel and jumped into an air conditioned minibus at 7.45am for the four hour trip to the Ban Phe ferry terminal. We picked up an elderly French couple from another Bangkok hotel who were also travelling to Koh Samet. The traffic was very heavy in the morning rush hour. It was strange seeing an ambulance stranded in traffic, its emergency lights were flashing but it was unable to move. I couldn’t help but wonder where it was going and how long it’s intended patients would have to wait before it arrived.

We eventually emerged from the bustling Bangkok traffic at 9am. It was a great way to see this huge city come to life. We had driven through the CBD and watched people as they made their way to work. In a way, we could have been in any big city, although the food stalls that dotted the footpaths were a continual reminder that we were in Thailand. The cars of choice here seem to be Toyota and Mercedes. Nearly every second car on the busy highways and city streets is a Toyota. Hyundais make up the remainder, and there’s an obvious proliferation of motorbikes and scooters (although nothing to rival Hanoi or Saigon).

We sped along the three lane motorway at great speed, weaving our way in and out of huge trucks and normal traffic. At first the elderly French couple were convinced they were going to die, but they eventually realised that this was the approach to driving on Thai motorways. They initially had been glued to their seats staring wide-eyed over the driver’s head at the traffic ahead, but they eventually calmed down and started to look out at the country that surrounded them.

We stopped at a petrol station for a toilet break, and the poor old French guy had a cultural moment of significance. I don’t think he’d ever experienced a non-flushing squat toilet with a bucket of water and a water scoop - he was in absolute distress. He must have only just arrived in Thailand, and I felt for him. He rushed from cubicle to cubicle, desperately seeking a utility that was at least vaguely familiar (there were no locks on the doors). It all came to an abrupt end when he burst into a cubicle where a Thai truck driver in an extremely compromising position strongly informed him that he should consider using another toilet. I didn’t understand his language, but I certainly understood his tone. There was nothing I could do - I slipped into an unoccupied cubicle, closed the door and hoped the poor guy would pull through. He did. When he emerged, the distress had disappeared from his face - he had survived. His wife had bought him a hot coffee and a biscuit, which he took willingly. I think he may have even felt a little proud of himself - he had adjusted to another culture. I think we’ve all been there at some time in our lives - a time when our comfort zone is pushed beyond its limit. It’s a great feeling to pull through. There are, of course, those that don’t, and we’ve certainly witnessed our fair share of tourist meltdowns over the years. However, I think it’s more a reflection of the person within than the situation they find themselves in. Having said that, there’s nothing quite like a squat toilet sans toilet paper to separate the men from the boys when it comes to cultural adjustment. The old guy had adjusted, and I was glad for him.

We arrived at Ban Phe at 11.30am to discover that we had missed the 11am ferry to Koh Samet. The next ferry didn’t leave until 1.30pm, so we wandered the streets. Ren picked up a swimsuit and I picked up some Chang beer. There were no shops on our part of the island, so we had to be prepared.

We sat in the ferry lounge, used the free wifi and read the Bangkok Post to catch up on the news of Libya and Japan. At 1.30pm we were transported to our private speed boat in an oversized golf cart. We boarded the boat and sped off to Koh Samet. We arrived 15 minutes later on the secluded and idyllic beach of Ao Prao. A tractor with a portable jetty on wheels drove off the beach to greet us. We stepped off the boat onto our private landing jetty and were driven all of ten metres onto the sand. This was fantastic service. Our packs were carried by attendants along the beach while we were escorted to the resort lobby. We were greeted with glasses of cold sugar cane juice, which we sipped while our chalet on the hill was prepared. We eventually were shown to the chalet, and we were followed by an attendant carrying our bags and another carrying a platter of fresh fruit. This was getting indulgent.

The chalet was fantastic. We unpacked and wandered along the beachfront (mainly to check out the menus of the three beachfront restaurants). When we decided to go for a swim, we were guided to our own private deckchairs - there were probably about 30 or so at our end of the beach. After a forecast thunderstorm passed, we went for a swim in the late afternoon sun. We dried off in the sun, showered in our chalet and then settled down in the beachfront lobby to use the free wifi while we sipped adult drinks. It really doesn’t get any better than this. In terms of plans for tomorrow, I was eyeing off the kayaks and Ren was eyeing off the beachfront massage hut. We drifted into the evening as the sun set on the horizon in front of us.

We moved to a table overlooking the beach for dinner. Ren started with a cocktail (Paradise Island) while I opted for a beer. We shared a neua phalo (Rayong beef stew) with steamed rice and a pad thai talae sod (rice noodles stir fried with seafood, dried shrimp, egg, bean sprouts, tofu, chillies, fish sauce and peanuts) with. The stew was fantastic and the pad thai was good (but not great). We sat on the deck overlooking the beach as darkness surrounded us - our table was lit by a candle and a citronella candle was burning at our feet to ward off mosquitoes. By 8pm we were exhausted so we retreated to our chalet. Ren crashed from the day’s travel while I sat out on our small balcony and caught up on my writing. I love travel days, travel experiences and travel retreats. This place had all three.

The power went off during the night when a massive thunder and lightning storm hit the island. This meant no air conditioning while we slept, and it was very hot and humid…

The thunder and lightning storm continued into the morning. The power had come back on, so the air conditioning was very welcome. We had planned on getting up early and heading for a swim at 6am and then breakfasting at 7am. However, the broken night’s sleep meant we didn’t wake until 7am. It really didn’t matter - we had all day, and there’s nothing like swimming in a lightning storm, which I did at 7.30am. The heavens had also opened, so it was pouring with rain. Once again, I love swimming in the rain, so it didn’t matter. When I was young I was often bemused by people who couldn’t understand why we surfed in the rain - it still involved getting completely wet, and the rain often smoothed the sea (which in turn made the waves cleaner). There seemed to be a perception that rain made you sick but sea water didn’t. To me, it was all one and the same thing - water - and I loved being in it (I still do).

The rain stopped mid-morning but the clouds remained. This allowed the day to stay reasonably cool for the first time since we’d been in Thailand. At midday I felt as if I could have been on a Tasmanian beach, which was such a change from the previous night when I couldn’t sleep due to the heat and humidity. We had a long and leisurely breakfast between 8.30am and 10.30am and then kicked back in the lobby to catch up on emails and news - the Bangkok Post was becoming a staple component of my morning routine.

We pushed off the beach in a double kayak at 1.30pm and paddled around the small bay for about an hour. It started heating up, so we paddled back, had a cooling swim, showered and then sat on the beach and lazed in the hazy sun (which had managed to break through the storm clouds). It was really starting to heat up by mid-afternoon, and at 5.30pm the humidity had well and truly kicked in. I had a late afternoon nap while Ren caught up on her writing before heading down for dinner at 8pm. We decided to order from the BBQ seafood menu and opted for the large seafood skewers (tiger prawns, squid, bass, lobster, capsicum, onion, tomato and pineapple) served with BBQ corn on the cob and baked potatoes. The taste was sensational. The added bonus of ordering from the seafood menu was a complimentary salad buffet, which comprised a variety of salads and hot dishes (including spicy Thai sausage salad, Greek salad, Bavarian salad, spicy fish soup, stir fried sweet and sour pork and lasagne). It also included a variety of breads, fresh fruits, tarts, and khao niao mamuang (mango with sweetened coconut sticky rice). We hadn’t eaten this much for a long time - we were in heaven. Our table was on the hotel deck overlooking the beach, and we watched local fisherman as they waded through the shallow night water with nets. This was such a fantastic night. We kicked back in the hotel lobby where we listened to a local musician playing guitar and singing predominantly western songs. He had backed himself with unbelievably cheesy sequenced music, but he seemed to get better as the night progressed - until he launched into “Walk of Life” by Dire Straits. It’s the worst of songs at the best of times, but tonight it was the worst of songs at the worst of times. He had been receiving enthusiastic applause from a table of French tourists for his Elvis and Beatles numbers, but he killed the night with “Walk of Life”. He took a break and so did we - to our chalet!

We sat outside on our balcony for a short while but the humidity had really kicked in. Lightning filled the sky and Ren was spooked by a mad lizard that was terrorising something (or someone) on the roof of our chalet. It was all pointing to one thing - sleep. We were exhausted from a fantastically relaxing day. It was only 10.30pm but we had another day of island adventure ahead of us tomorrow. This was the ideal place to recuperate from our travels. Koh Samet is a definitely a haven for the travel weary.

A fierce thunder and lightning hit again during the night - even worse than the previous night - and the power was off for hours. This meant another broken night’s sleep due to the heat and humidity. There were times when the lightning seemed to fill the chalet, and the wind and rain howled around us.

I woke late at 7.30am. The storm had stopped but the rain hadn’t. This meant another swim in the rain to start the day. I dived in around 8am and the water was fantastic. I noticed a small shrine at the end of the beach while I was swimming near the rocks, so I had a quick look when I came out of the water. It was interesting enough, but what was of greater interest to me was the fact that three wild dogs had made it their home. We had noticed them each day since we had been here, but they were wary of humans and the resort staff often scared them off. When I told Ren of my discovery, she was intent on visiting the shrine after breakfast with morsels of food.

We breakfasted at 9am. After my staple corn flakes and yoghurt, I had rice porridge, salted egg, dried mini white bait and chilli onion. It was fantastic. I finished with an omelette and had countless coffees over our leisurely start to the day. We retired to the lobby to check emails and catch up on world and Thai news with the Bangkok Post. Ren had gathered some bread for the dogs, so we walked to the shrine around 10.30am to see if they were there. Sure enough, they were sheltering under the shrine from the morning sun which had emerged from the clouds and was beating down upon us. The pack leader (Socks - our temporary name for her due to her white paws) made sure she was the main recipient of Ren’s bread offerings, while the remaining two looked on. No matter what strategies Ren employed to distract her, Socks would always get to the bread first. Courage and strength will always win through in the end, and Socks had more than her fair share of both. It was hard to watch as the other two dogs looked hungrily on as Socks ate everything Ren threw in their direction.

On our way back from the shrine we discovered the resort’s resident frogs. During the night we had deduced that a loud and irregular guttural noise was an ingenious deterrent (devised by the resort) to ward off the mad lizards on everyone’s roofs. We were wrong - the noise came from frogs in the resort frog pond, and we’re pretty sure it was their mating call. For the rest of our stay the frogs kept it up (literally and figuratively).

The sleepless night had caught up with Ren, so while she slept I walked to a sunset viewpoint at the other end of the beach. It was a nice spot, so I thought we should try and walk there in the evening. Ren needed a bit more sleep, so I hired a mountain bike and headed off to explore the eastern side of Koh Samet. I couldn’t believe the contrast between the east and west coast. Only a few kilometres separated them, but they were worlds apart. Our resort was on the western side - very sheltered, secluded and uncrowded. The eastern side was very windswept, bustling and over-crowded. The dirt road that linked the eastern beaches to the ferry terminal was a quagmire - I was in mountain bike heaven and covered in mud. However, if I had been staying on the eastern side of the island, I would have been in tourist hell. What a difference location, outlook and a short distance can make…

Ren was still sleeping when I returned, so I caught up on my writing with a cold beer on our balcony. At 4pm we decided to catch a songthaew (small pickup truck/ute with seats in the tray) to the eastern side of the island - I had to show Ren the contrasts of Koh Samet. We drove for two hours, first up to the north western tip and then down to the south eastern beach of Tubtim in the middle of the island. Our first driver broke an axel when he was turning at the top of the island, so we switched songthaews (and drivers) and continued on our agreed tour. It was fantastic. Our second driver took us to Tubtim and then drove us to the sunset viewpoint that overlooked our beach retreat. We watched the sun setting in the sky until it disappeared behind clouds on the horizon, and we then headed back to our resort. We arrived at 6pm. We had escaped the scheduled mosquito control operation between 5pm and 6pm, so we had killed two birds with one stone. It was time to relax as the sun disappeared completely before heading down for our last dinner on Koh Samet.

We opted for Buzz Restaurant, the resort’s Thai specialty restaurant. Our table was right on the beach - literally. Our feet were on the sand and the tide was lapping only a few metres away. It was very romantic, and we again watched the locals netting fish in the shallow night water in front of us. However, the mosquito controllers hadn’t been all that effective - there were bugs everywhere. I had bu ja (steamed crab with chilli and lime served in its shell and Ren had talae phad ta krai (stir fried seafood with lemongrass, lime, green peppercorns and chilli). We finished the meal by sharing gluay yang kamin (grilled banana in coconut cream and turmeric). The taste was sensational. We retreated to the lobby to listen to our favourite (and only) musician and check up on our emails. There was a slight sadness to the evening - it was our last full day on Koh Samet. We were leaving for Bangkok tomorrow and leaving Thailand altogether the following day. We retired to our chalet and I sat out on our balcony and enjoyed the last bottle of Chang beer I had picked up at the 7-11 in Ban Phe and bought over on the speedboat. There was no storm tonight - no lightning in the distant sky and no threat of rain. It was quiet and peaceful, and the sound of lapping waves put me to sleep. For the first time since we’d been here we had full power through the night. Ironically, I woke suddenly at 4am because I was freezing. The air conditioning was too cold - I had to turn it off. 😊

I woke early at 6.30 to catch up on my writing. We then headed down for a morning swim at 7am. It was a great way to start our last day on Koh Samet. We dried off in the chalet and headed back down for breakfast. We were the first to arrive, so we had the entire deck to ourselves. bu pad hom yai (stir fried crab with onion) was on the menu, so the chef was obviously using leftover ingredients from the night before. It was great, but nowhere near as good as last night. We shared an omelette, stocked up on bread for the wild dogs and headed over to the shrine to feed them for the last time. Only Socks was there this morning, sunning herself on the steps. She couldn’t believe her luck - four slices of bread and no-one to challenge her.

We headed back to our chalet, packed, showered and prepared to leave this island paradise. We dropped our packs in the lobby and sat in comfort while we waited for our 12.30pm departure in a speed boat. We checked emails, read the Bangkok Post and generally watched the new arrivals to the resort. People are fascinating when they react to difference (and different environments). We jumped on the portable pier and were dragged out the waiting boat by tractor. We eventually left at 12.45pm - a mother and two kids were late for the boat. She had been on a mobile phone the whole time she was on the island. Her kids (a boy around 7 and girl around 15) could have been kidnapped by aliens and she wouldn’t have known. We arrived at Ban Phe at 1pm. Our transfer was booked for 1.45pm, so we settled down in one of the terminal lounges. We didn’t realise our air conditioned minibus was actually waiting for us in the terminal car park. We walked out to investigate at 1.15pm and found seven people staring at us (so much for me criticising the mother for being late, although to be fair, the bus was early). There were only two seats left and they weren’t together - it was the first time we couldn’t sit together since we’d been in Thailand. We left Ban Phe at 1.30pm and embarked on the four hour trip back to Bangkok.



SHE SAID...
Andrew and I usually pack a lot into our travels, but we both love our quiet time while travelling too. While it’s not usually hard to get a few hours to ourselves in the calm of an early morning or an uninterrupted hour of quiet writing at night... we also cherish the opportunity to have a total break of a few days and experience absolute escapism doing sweet nothing. It is hard to believe that neither of us thought we were capable of ‘doing nothing’ while travelling until we went to Mui Ne in Vietnam in 2009. We had plans to do ‘stuff’, but it all went out the window when we got to the resort and saw the luxury and felt an incredible urge to ‘do nothing’. Since then we have both been craving another such absolute and complete getaway to ‘do nothing’. 😊

Not all things we had heard about Koh Samet had been complimentary. Thailand’s gorgeous islands usually come with development hot on their heels (which is not always a bad thing), but it seems to fast escalate to overdevelopment. This usually means the constant buzz of building works on land and the whine of jet skis in the water. Even though true island getaways are few and far between, we have realised that within all the chaos there are still a few beaches on some islands that can offer pure beach bliss... So with this in mind, we booked a few days at Ao Prao Resort on Hat Ao Prao (Paradise Beach) on Koh Samet.

After a rather stressful but large and extensive breakfast at Royal River Hotel in Bangkok, we were picked up at 7:30pm for our transfer to the bustling fishing port of Ban Phe, where we would catch our boat south to Koh Samet. We spent the first hour of the journey fighting Bangkok traffic in an effort to pick up the other two people being transferred to Ban Phe.

I cannot comment on the start of the journey east out of Bangkok as I napped for a good part of it. However, when I woke I did notice that this landscape was very different to the journey west to Kanchanaburi three weeks ago where the dense urban sprawl made it hard to distinguish between one town and the next. Here the towns were distinct and quite affluent, and it seemed upmarket housing estate living was being aggressively introduced. The farms were much larger and I also spotted a few international agricultural industry names. However, in the last hour before Ban Phe, the scenery changed dramatically to small towns which were markedly less affluent.

The other two people in our minibus were an older French couple who seemed a bit worried about how our driver was driving. They sat close together even though they had four seats to spread across, and on a few occasions I heard exclamations of what sounded like ‘oh christo’! I thought our driver was doing a great job negotiating the traffic, so their reaction could have only meant that they were new to Asia and its road. When we stopped at a petrol station to use the toilets, I heard the woman mutter under her breath when she saw the squat toilets, and then a few more mutterings were heard from inside her cubicle. And then I heard the attendant asking her to ‘flush’ her toilet please… I was trying hard not to giggle, because as uncomfortable as I am with squat toilets, I would much prefer a clean squat toilet with an attendant to a dirty western one (which they always tend to be). Andrew came out the men’s toilets giggling about the old guy’s reaction to the squatty too. I did feel for them. If I’d faced my first squat toilet in my sixties or seventies, I don’t know that I would have coped that well. However, then the delaying tactics began...first they wanted to have another cigarette, then they wanted coffee from a café that wasn’t staffed - and had to wait for a staff member to arrive on a bike (instead of buying it from 7-11 as we did). Anyway, to cut a long story not so short, what was supposed to be a three hour drive to Ban Phe turned out to be a four hour drive and we missed our 11:30am boat transfer by 30 minutes. Not happy Jan!

Ban Phe was exactly as you would expect any small but extremely busy fishing port to be - not very inviting. We had two hours to kill, which we spent shopping for bathers for me and then sitting in the air conditioned Ao Prao Resort ferry office at Seree Pier, using their free wifi and watching the comings and goings. However, all my heat and hunger-induced mutterings at missing the 11:30am ferry disappeared when our resort’s 1:30pm speedboat arrived. The 15 minute boat ride to Hat Ao Prao was delightful and refreshing, and I hoped it was a good omen for the rest of our time on the island. 😊

Hat Ao Prao is the only nice beach on the rugged rocky west coast of Koh Samet. It was brilliant fun to be dropped off right on the resort’s beach via a very cool portable pier that was driven - or rather reversed - right up to the boat. The staff here are very very attentive - the service started with a personal welcome at the beach, followed by a welcome drink of refreshing sugar cane and ginger and a cold towel, and then we had all our paperwork brought to us on the comfy lobby couches rather than us standing at the reception counter as we would normally do. Only a hop, skip and jump later we were at our cute little wooden chalet with a bowl of fresh fruit. I finally got to try the brown skinned mandarins and a small mango-like fruit I had been eyeing off at the markets. The chalet was large, gorgeous and comfortable. The shower cubicle could have fitted five people at once (if that’s your thing of course), and we also had a superb west-facing balcony where you would have found us most evenings before we hit the beach for a cocktail. 😄

We are very very happy - even though the resort promised ‘plush’, ‘quiet’ and ‘secluded’; they delivered ‘very plush’, ‘very quiet’ and ‘very secluded’! Our resort was only one of three on this stretch of beach, and the shallow water and coral reefs stopped the noisy water sports brigade from ruining the ambience. The resort itself was set in a lush hilly tropical garden that rolled down to the beach. They had built this resort to really blend into the hill and into the old trees around it. We were high on the hill and should have had fantastic views, but they were somewhat obscured by the four massive trees right in from of us. Yey for the life of old trees mattering more than water views! The hill around our chalet was alive with all sorts of night life, the most vocal of which being the frogs (who were in breeding season) and a Thai lizard with the most unusual call. Its name is also the sound of its call, so there are a few variations as to what people think it’s called. We think it’s called Tup-aie. I will have to research this when we get home. 😊

The resort was very well designed in how it was laid out. It offered lots of seating in its nooks and crannies - big comfy couches in the open sided lobby, which then flowed into the undercover open sided Breeze Restaurant on one side and the restaurant’s deck on the other. The free wifi extended down to the beach chairs. As expected, we had lazy days filled with white sand beaches, clear blue seas and quiet orange sunsets. Oh and visiting the three dogs Andrew discovered in the local shrine at the end of our beach. 😊

The only downside of being on an isolated part of the island was that restaurant options were limited. Our resort’s Breeze Restaurant was great for breakfast but we were worried on the first night when dinner from the a la carte menu turned out to be only 50% spot on. Andrew’s neua phalo (Rayong beef stew) was fabulous but my pad thai talae sod (rice noodles stir fried with seafood, dried shrimp, egg, bean sprouts, tofu, chillies, fish sauce and peanuts) was only just ok. However, we tried the BBQ grill option the next night and thankfully found that the seafood skewers were exceptionally cooked - the lobster and prawns were especially outstanding. The grill also came with an extensive soup, salad and dessert bar with outstanding khao niao mamuang (mango with sweetened coconut sticky rice). By the end of the night I was so full that walking up three flights of stairs to our chalet was a big effort! Buzz Restaurant right next door to our resort offered a Thai menu that was brilliant too. One night we dragged ourselves away from the gluttony of our restaurant and had a sensational bu ja (steamed crab with chilli and lime) and a talae phad ta krai (stir fried seafood with lemongrass, lime, green peppercorns and chilli). We finished with their signature dish of gluay yang kamin (grilled banana in coconut cream and turmeric). That would rate as one of the best desserts of the holiday! However, the location and ambience of the restaurant at our resort could not be beaten! Pre-dinner cocktails on the beach at lantern lit tables with a cocktail list that included signature cocktails like Ao Prao Sunset and Paradise Island; and then dinner with a cheesy musician playing slowed-down elevator type versions of Elvis and Beatles classics were all just too good!

The breakfast at our resort was absolutely beyond reproach. On the large wooden deck in the shade of two big old Umbrella trees right on the beach - we had breads with a table laden with condiments, many fresh juices, fresh fruit platters, pancakes, an egg station for fried or scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages and cured meats... and that was just the western side of the breakfast room! I attempted a few Thai savoury dishes one morning and really loved it. I had wanted to try Asian breakfasts on many occasions, but I was careful not to do it on a travel day or when we had a full day of activities… my favourite had become khao pad kai (egg fried rice) with whatever black pepper stir fry was on offer. The goong pad gratiam prik (stir fried prawns with garlic and black pepper) here was very very good as was the bu pad hom yai (stir fried crab with onion). I tried the congee (rice porridge) too - it is salty and you have with condiments such as salted egg, crispy fried mini white bait etc - but I wasn’t a big fan.

The weather on our first day was hot and gorgeous beach weather, but on the first night the sky fell on us. That’s the only way I can describe the suddenness and sheer volume of water that engulfed us and pounded upon our chalet at approximately 4am. It was enough to justify a rebuilding of the ark. Technically, the rainy season shouldn’t have started yet. Damn you climate change... but I had a feeling these sorts of storms were not unusual for this island, as our chalet came equipped with two massive golf umbrellas. Luckily, the rain disappeared by about 10am the next morning and allowed us to take a sea kayak out for a paddle. This was very exciting for me, as it was my very first sea kayak experience. I think I’m in love. We only paddled around the large cove that our beach was set in, as I wasn’t brave enough to go out past the headlands where the water was much choppier and where we would have had to contend with the wakes of big boats. The storm came through again on the second night here… we were starting to see a pattern…

It sounds wrong to say we squeezed every last drop of relaxation from the few days we had in Koh Samet... but I’m sure you get the picture. We also had early nights and late-ish mornings, as I think our bodies were starting to recover from the last three weeks of sometimes full-on travel. On the first night I slept like a baby for 11 hours, only waking briefly to watch and listen to the thunder storm at 4am. On the second night I slept through the earlier thunderstorm but was up bright and early at 2am and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I started sorting through my 100s of photos. A couple of hours later I drifted back to sleep, but as a result the next day was a slightly slow one for me. I wasn’t sure if too much sun or too much food (or both) contributed to my laziness, but all I wanted to do was curl up on the day bed! Andrew went for a mountain bike ride and came back with news of the rest of the island which motivated me to get up and get going.

Koh Samet is a national park (and incurs a national park entry fee), so tourist related development has not been as prolific as on other islands. However, being the closest island escape to Bangkok and not affected by monsoonal rain like other islands, it is probably more developed than it should be. It has a ‘busy strip’ on the east coast of the island and more resorts on the southern side. We hired a songthaew over to check it out - the island was not as big as it first seemed, but it was a bit of a shock to realise how much more densely populated it was on the other beaches. On the other hand, this meant that it was also very vibrant and full of hotels, restaurants, shops and massage parlours. We went as far north and north west as we could go, east to Ao Hin Khok, and as far south as Ao Tubtim. While this was nice for a few hours, we missed our quiet beach too much and hurried back to our refuge. The songthaew ride was lots of fun on those bumpy muddy unsealed roads! 😊

Sadly, after four days in this dreamy place, it is time to pack our bags and head back to Bangkok, which also meant that our travels in Thailand were drawing to an end. We had one last big breakfast on the beach, one last walk to the shrine at the end of our beach to feed the three puppies that live there, and one last dunk in the warm ocean. As always, this part of our journey raised mixed emotions - niggling blues at the end of a journey, but also pangs of happiness at going home to see our own puppies and kitten.

See you in Bangkok for one last time!

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