Beautiful Samui

What day is it?
A few days ago Sarah was convinced it was probably Friday or Saturday and I thought it was Saturday or Sunday but it might have been Friday - there was an even smaller chance it could have been Monday. But we weren't quite sure.

Life on an Island Paradise

Fortunately life on our island paradise is living up to expectations. It's warm and sticky, sunny during the days, the food's good and you can get an hour-long massage on the beach for just under 3 Pounds. Some of our day-to-day conundrums involve what to have for breakfast, and whether to lie on a beach towel or sarong during sunbathing sessions. Recently I've opted for the towel, but I think I'm going to go back to the sarong. You just get that little bit closer to the beach.

Thai Food Is Yummy

The Thai food is really great, but you can also get a very good egg and chips if you so desire. Tesco have a supermarket on the island, so Heinz tomato ketchup is ubiquitous. Good job the English tourist got here en masse before the Germans or it would be wurst and sauerkraut if you didn't fancy a Pad Thai or noodle soup.
We've tried everything but definitely favour the green and red curries, and pad Thai which is a fried noodle dish with peanuts. Thai food can also be extremely spicy - you ask for a spicy salad, and you get spices. Menu spellings are also a never ending source of amusement : you can have noddles, polidge, and toast with yam in many restaurants and occasionally the rare delicacy of screble egg (which is our favourite).

We landed on the island of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Siam after just over 12 hours in Bangkok; we decided to get right into the relaxing and finish off with a couple of days' madness in the devil's armpit that is Bangkok before catching the 12-hour flight home on the 15th. We're actually beginning to look forward to the sleeper train and some seriously condensed shopping activity in Bangkok. We've both put aside 60 quid to get all our presents for our friends.

Mae Nam is very nice indeed

We had a good recommendation from the friends we met in Tokyo as to which beaches were good; fortunately we knew to stay away from the seedy and loutish Chaweng, and headed straight for the quiet and relaxing Maenam beach. After some lugging of our packs we decided that the best way to find a place was for Sarah to go off down the beach and check out a few places. Soon, we were established in our beach bungalow at Cleopatra's, right on the beach front.

We proceded to spend several days doing nothing but sunbathing, eating and swimming in the sea; a 7am dip was Sarah's favourite and not surprisingly put her in a very good mood. If you're thinking that at 7am it might be a bit chilly for a swim you'd be mistaken; the water never drops below the temperature of luke-warm bathwater, and the air temperature on a 'cold' day is 26C, getting up to the high 30s on a hot one (maybe into the 40s on the beach). If the wind stops and you're lying on your back you've got about 5 minutes before you overheat.

We found a couple of lovely restaurants on the beach, our favourite being "Chokdee", which is a lovely wooden affair with dining tables on the sand and 'cocktail' deckchairs situated so the sea laps at your feet while you drink your frozen this-or-that.

After 9 days at Cleopatra's we left for the nearby island of Koh Tau. Its name means 'turtle island' because it's shaped a bit like a turtle, and it's also much smaller than Samui. We'll be writing about that in a separate article.

On our return from Koh Tau, we ensconced about a mile and a half down the beach from Cleopatra's on the other side of the town part of Maenam. The new residence was called "Palm Point Village" and we quickly grew to like it even more than Cleopatras. There is a lot more life down at this end of the beach - or it might be that the Palm Point is particularly busy (this is low season) with on average about 20 guests out of a possible 80 (by my calculations). Obviously with an occupation rate this low you get great service and even get to know the staff a little bit which is nice - you're living with them after all because they generally live on site: well at least the owners usually do.

Fruit heaven

At Palm Point there are a few more beach hawkers, selling everything from "Rolexes" to silk cushion covers. Amongst the hawkers (who are generally a bit annoying) we found a chap who sells fruit. He carries a polystyrene box filled with ice and coconuts, pineapples and mangoes. He serves the pineapples in a particularly brilliant way, carefully slicing off the skin and cutting away the little tough bits in a spiral leaving a simple ready-to-eat juicy (cold) pineapple - cut up in long vertical slices with two wooden sticks. It's just great to watch him cut the fruit up so skilfully and carefully - and even better to eat it.

Ladyboys and Seedy Bars
The other side of Samui is the town of Chaweng. The beach is much like the Costa Del Sol (imagine blokes drinking and playing football) and it is full of very very seedy bars. Perfect if you're into that sort of thing, but we're not.
Thailand also has the renowned ladyboys - and they're everywhere. Don't be surprised if one serves you in a shop or takes your order in a restaurant, or you see a troupe of them walking down the street, as we did on our one and only night trip to Chaweng. I can't work out the reason for it, maybe the women in Thailand don't smell very nice?

Waiting for the ticket office computer to work again
So, I'm currently in an internet cafe in the town of Nathon waiting for the ticket office of the train and ferry company to sort out their computers. Maybe I should ask in one of the travel agencies and pay a small premium because I want to get back and get on the beach!

I'll put this article live, and go and check again!

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