The Island of Sun, Smiles and Powercuts!

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From the moment you arrive on the plane, Koh Samui feels like a tropical island. After another short flight, we arrived at the airport, which is effectively a runway next to a scattering of beach huts.

The island is small, with the most famous beach being Chaweng - have to admit, we were a little bit put off this when we read that it had a McDonalds and a Starbucks, but wanted to try it, as it's where all the night life is. We decided to stay for 2 nights to soak up the atmosphere before we move on.

Chaweng is a long perfect sandy beach (the powder fine sand that everyone craves!) with a road running behind it full of hotels, bars (including go go bars!) touristy shops selling what we have learned Thailand is famous for: a) stuff you can buy back home for the same price or b) fake brands at a cheap price. Despite this, the town is full of character and has a real buzz about it. Definitely worth a couple of nights to see, even if it's not your bag.

We've now learned why they call this the land of smiles and powercuts - yesterday we got about 100 smiles and 4 power cuts! All part of the island's charm. Unfortunately we've seen rain for the first time - it only comes is small bursts, but floods everywhere within 10 minutes. We now realise why the hotel made a point of showing us the complimentary umbrellas in the room!

Last night Chris had a night out on his own and treated himself to a ringside seat at the Muay Thai boxing - a fantastic experience and one he'd been looking forward to all holiday - it certainly lived up to his expectations. He was just as interested in the irrate Thai men shouting at the ringside and gambling, as the fighting itself. What he didn't realise til he left was that the stadium was situated in the middle of "go go land" so had to run the gauntlet of hundreds of scantily clad Thai women trying to drag him into their dimly lit bar for an even better evening. Jackie now understands why she had a text saying the fights were going on late and he would be back late 😊

We've always said we would spend our last few nights of this holiday in a perfect, idyllic 'honeymoon' type resort and Samui seems to be the island to do that. Instead of trawling through brochures and internet pictures, we decided to find our perfect resort in person. Fortunately, the island is small enough to hire a taxi for a couple of hours and explore the various beaches and resorts.

We're going to head to the north of the island for our last few days of paradise. Talk to you all from there, love C & J 😊

ps despite our concerns about the island having a Mcdonalds, we regret to admit that we caved in after a night out and it was very tastey (sorry health freaks, but it was the only 24hour food stop, and we are on holiday!)

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Photos

Chaweng Beach
from our hotel (great here but two nights was enough for us)

Chaweng Beach
Not the most idyllic of Samui's beaches but lively and full of character

Bedtime reading. The lack of understanding of the english language is amusing at times!
As part of the evening 'turndown' service, our Chaweng hotel left a bedtime note out on the bed.........not what you would expect from a family hotel?

Comments

[Mags]

meanwhile .....
your blogs have been great Jax, what an adventure !! Meanwhile in planet Derbyshire, we grapple with temps falling to 5, homework and the day jobs........Chill out and enjoy Samui and have a safe journey home. TTFN, Mags