Final Destination: Ko Samui

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After spending a wonderful, interesting 5 days in Chiang Mai, Alexis and I decided to head south and experience the island life of Ko Samui. Thailand is a really great country in that it offers so much diversity...jungle surroundings in the north, and beach settings in the south. Ko Samui is Thailand's third largest island and is a very popular tourist destination spot. The island has a very unique, tropical feel and as soon as you arrive at the airport it's easy to notice this, as you are picked up in open-aired trolley carts to be transported from the plane to the terminal.

We arrived late at about 10 in the evening on New Year's Eve (flight count: 7), so we rang in a quiet 2006 on the beach. Happy New Year! However we quickly headed inside as fireworks being set off by people on the beach were coming dangerously close to setting our hair on fire...

Alexis and I had originally planned staying 2 days in Ko Samui, taking a ferry to the mainland to go to a National Park and stay in a treehouse, and then coming back to Ko Samui. However, once we arrived on Ko Samui we were greeted with rain daily, although thankfully it didn't last all day. Apparently this is very rare for the island in December...of course it is! We decided to axe the treehouse idea as we didn't think it would be much fun in the rain, and chose to spend our remaining time in Thailand on the island. We had originally chosen a guesthouse close to the ferry terminal because of our original plans, however, the beach there was pretty isolated, and our bungalow was below par (think damp, damp, damp all of the time...ew!, although the strawberry shakes were amazing!), so we decided to change plans and check ourselves into a resort on the most popular beach, Chaweng.

Our new bungalow was lovely and the beach was really beautiful, although very popular and busy. We spent our time on Samui going on a few different day trips, as well as spending time on the beach or at the pool (it was still unbelievable to me to be wearing a bathing suit in December!)

One day we took an "Around the Island" tour. Ko Samui has a lot of interesting sites to see, including a mummified monk wearing sunglasses who died 20 years ago and still remains in sitting in a meditation posture (did he want to be wearing sunglasses?), the Big Buddha which stands at 12 metres high, Hin Yai and Hin Ta, also known as Grandmother and Grandfather rock which are phallic in appearance (in order to keep the family friendly feel of this website, no pictures will be posted...ask if you want to see!), Na Muang Waterfall which is 40 metres high and 20 metres high, and Wat Plai Laem with a colourful 18-armed Buddha statue. We opted to go with an organized tour, as although it was tempting to rent motorbikes for the day, apparently Samui has one of the highest auto mortality rates in the kingdom. This might be due to the fact that although everyone drives a motorbike, no one wears a helmet...

Another day we took a kayaking trip to Ang Thong Marine Park, which is where the novel The Beach was apparently set, although the movie wasn't filmed here. The park is made up of 42 islands located about 20 kilometres away from Samui. The day consisted of taking a 2-hour boat ride to the marine park, docking on an island, where we climbed to a viewpoint to see many of the islands in the group and also an emerald-green lake, kayaking to explore unique cave formations around the island, Stacey falling on the deck of the boat as I got off the kayak (and almost knocking over the lightweight Thai guide...oops!), and snorkelling to check out the marine life. The island group was beautiful, although it was unfortunate about the number of tourists. If I had my wish, I would've been able to relax and enjoy the beautiful beaches in solitude...

Ko Samui is a beautiful island, if not a bit touristy, but it definitely gives you a taste of the island life of Thailand. Despite the rainy weather, we got to enjoy the charm of the island, and on January 7th we departed back to Bangkok for 1 more night, before our 14 hour return trip to Osaka...3 more flights, a 2-hour layover, 3 trains, and a 20-minute walk, and I was finally home....Total flight count: 10!

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