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Published: February 19th 2007
Leaving Malaysia behind (see my previous
journal entry), we caught a taxi from Kuala Besut (mainland access point to Perhentian) to the Thailand border, walked through the passport check, and caught the train to Surat Thani, a city in southern Thailand. Arriving late, we had to stay the night at a cheap hotel. The next day we went to Ko Samui for a price of 280 Baht, which included the half-hour bus trip to the port as well as the two-hour ferry trip. The same ferry goes on to Ko Pha Ngang and Ko Tao, which we unfortunately did not have time to visit. We paid 200 Baht each for a minibus ride to cross the island from the arrival point in the west, Nathon, to the main beach Chaweng in the east, however, shoestringers might jump on the open buses instead and pay 50-100 Baht. We soon found out that this was the preferable way of travelling compared to taxis, as taxis are really expensive, even for very short trips. However, the very best way to travel, is by hiring scooters! For 100-150 Baht per 24 hours, you get around the island very easily, in your own pace.
Chaweng, the 
Na Thian beach
Na Thian is the next beach south of Lamai beach. This is where the aquarium and tiger zoo is located. You can have your photo taken next to a tiger here... if you dare!party beach
Chaweng is a very busy place with a nice beach that is surfable, although the waves were too small when we were there. It reminds me of being in the Mediterranean, with people trying to sell you stuff all the time when all you want to do is enjoy the sun and the water, and as such, we were not too keen to stay for more than a night. It is also the place with 90%!o(MISSING)f the island prostitutes, which makes for a tiresome experience at night when they try to get your attention. We also felt that most of the people in Chaweng were 40+ years old, and consequently, the hookers were even more keen to get
us to come home with them instead of some fat American tattoed biker. To complete the hassle, our guest house, the Moby Dick, was situated in the heart of Chaweng, thus when simply going out on our balcony to enjoy a cold beer at dusk, four or five girls would dance and scream at us from the bars and clubs along the street, telling us to come down for a visit! Apart from this fact and that the neighbouring
Scooters
Our scooters at Na Thian. clubs played music until 6 o'clock in the morning, the Moby Dick was very clean and good value. However, unless you are really into partying with half-naked Americans covered with tattoes, we suggest staying away from Chaweng and rather go the the tuned-down Lamai beach.
Ok, admittedly, the above is a bit harsh. There are in fact a few clubs that have a more sophisticated clientel, mostly frequented by Swedes, but also other tourists. A local told us that almost all tourists to Ko Samui are from Sweden, which explain the high frequency of people with blonde hair. But apart from partying, Chaweng is pretty boring. There is of course lot to shop for those into that (No, we are not), and being the main town on the island, Chaweng is also the place to book dive trips or other excursions. However, if you are going to lie at the beach all day, consider hiring a scooter and find your own hidden spot with noone around!
Laidback Lamai beach Lamai is much more laid-back than Chaweng, and although they have their strip of lady bars, it is not as intense as Chaweng. We stayed in the Platuna Resort
Sunrise at Lamai beach
Sunrise at Lamai seen from the river that flows into the sea and divides the beach. Platuna Resort where we stayed is to the left of the bridge when looking at the sea. just across the bridge that divides the beach. This was a perfect location, as we could easily walk to the more hectic restaurant areas, but still get some sleep at night. Using this as our base, we hired scooters and drove around the island.
Waterfalls, elephants, and monkeys About 15 minutes inland from Lamai doing 80 km/h without helmets on our 125 cc scooters (scooters in Norway are limited to 50 km/h; add 5 mins for safety precautions) there is a mountain which has plenty to offer. Thinking we were going to get to shoot with an AK47, the first stop was a shooting range and a offroad fourwheel bike circuit. It turned out that the guns were simply airgun replicas, but we were good sports, paid our 100 baht, and went through a round. For adrenalin seekers, the bike circuit is surely good fun, however, we skipped it and went to see the waterfalls. A 15-mins walk brought us to a waterfall that would have been awesome --- had it not been almost without water! The guard who charged us money did not bother telling us that of course. However, by returning to the main road and going
Remi holds a python
Night on town in Chaweng. Remi holds a python. The bystander is clearly impressed. to the police station, the next mountain road took us to a small waterfall that did have some water. We took some nice Herbal-Essences-shampoo-commercial-photos, before going to the elephant trekking site. We did not go on any of their tours that take you riding on elephants for about an hour into the jungle and to the same waterfall we saw by simply walking there. Besides, we were planning to ride elephants when trekking around Chiang Mai later. Instead, we fed the highly trained monkeys bananas, and as a reward, the monkeys performed amazing tricks jumping around and showing off. From a motor control engineering perpective, it is simply astonishing how they can perform such complicated acrobatics. Humans are still better in fine motoric skills though!
Riding our bikes further up the mountain, we arrived at a cliffhanging restaurant with an amazing view. What better place to have lunch! The food was good too, although Remi, being afraid of heights, may have had a hard time enjoying it, as the restaurant was literally hanging off a cliff! Driving off, we were heading towards yet another waterfall when my scooter had a puncture on its back tyre. Remi had to drive
Remi impersonating Robbie Williams
A little later, Remi was impersonating whoever was singing on the stereo. Sorry, I can't remember which artist... off and get help while I stayed with the scooter. Although we lost the remaing hours of daylight, we also experience fantastic service and friendliness from some locals. They followed Remi with a ute, got the scooter on the car, and took us to a place where they fixed the tyre for 170 Baht (USD 6)! And all this with speaking hardly a word of English!
A different kind of rum The next day we were going to a snake show on the west side of the island when we saw a sign about a rum distillery. As if there were telepathic communication between us, we both immediately slowed down and turned our scooters around. The French woman running the place, called Magic Alambic Rum Distillery, gave us an interesting lecture on the kinds of rum that exist and the production process. Almost all rums, such as Bacardi, Havana Club, and others, have been made by the use of sugar molasses, a byproduct from sugar canes, while the Magic Alambic rum is made from sugar canes directly. This makes the rum have less of the burning sensation of strong alcohol as there are less of the byproducts created from
Dry waterfall
Surely impressive when there is water flowing, this waterfall was disappointing. distilling (an example of such a (lethal) byproduct is methanol). Another effect is a reduced hangover. The latter point I am unable to verify (why, I never have hangovers, as they are a result of
excessive alcohol consumption, not the
wrong type of alcohol!), but the taste was indeed very smooth and milder than most 40%!d(MISSING)rinks I have tasted. In addition to the pure rum, we also tasted orange rum, pineapple rum, and lime rum. In all cases, the fruit is included whole during the brewing process, not added afterwards, as in the case of liqueurs. In conclusion, the distillery was well worth a visit, not only because of the interesting lecture, but also for the great product (600 Baht for a 750 ml bottle).
Game fishing We went to the Topcats Resort, which offers game fishing in two ponds. The small pond has fish up to 25 kg, while the big one has some real monsters, with Harry, a carpe, weighing in at about 35-40 kg. We went for the small ponds, at an hourly rate of 325 Baht, rather than the big one, which cost 1200 Bath for six hours, and no other deal was possible.
Scooters
Scooters was the way to get around the island. Notice the tropical surroundings. Also, in the small pond we were guaranteed to catch fish, but not so in the big one. It was a really hot day, and after catching a couple of fish each, we gave in after two hours. Besides the temperature, this kind of fishing is not as exciting as wild water fishing. Of course, you might not be getting any fish then, but at least you get to keep the fish, and it also feels more of a triumph than catching the same 'goldfish' over again. I recommend going here if you are unused to fishing and want to be hooked (no pun intended) on it, as you are guaranteed to get fish and experience the joy of fighting with it to get it on land. Also, you have the privilege of access to icecold beers delivered to you at any time!
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