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Published: January 20th 2012
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Lantern ceremony
Our favorite part of the evening at the Le Meridien We have arrived to Koh Samui on a short flight from Krabi – amazingly, food was even served on this domestic flight that lasted only 30 minutes. We quickly grabbed our bags, local guides and maps and took a taxi to our resort on the south-east part of the island, Le Meridien. The resort has truly exceeded our expectations – from great welcome service, through beautiful lobby and a very spacious room with a private plunge pool in the bathroom and outdoor shower. However, the most important thing – an extremely comfortable bed! On our first day we spent some time just relaxing and ended up meeting Dan and Gabi from Seattle (it seems like if we do meet Americans in Thailand, they are from the Pacific Northwest area) and Kevin from Vancouver.
The hotel has a really nice ceremony every day at 719pm of lighting Chinese lanterns and releasing them into the sky. It has been a highlight of our every day here. After the ceremony we all ended up going to the town of Lamai (smaller and much less noisy and busy than the main area called Chaweng). We had a very tasty authentic Thai dinner and ended
Lamai beach
The beach right outside of our resort up going to see a local cover band for the remainder of the evening.
Our next day was very lazy as it unfortunately rained most of the day, so we could not tour the island or do any other outdoor activities. However, it did clear up by the evening and we ended up going to dinner with our friends from Seattle and another couple from Chicago. It turned out to be probably the most exquisite dining experience of our trip to date. The restaurant is called Tree Tops and tables are actually suspended on platforms in branches of massive trees – an amazing sight! Additionally the restaurant has a salt specialist that comes and pairs up various salts (at least 8 kinds) with the course one has chosen.
Better weather started to set in on Tuesday so we decided to enjoy our resorts pool and do some reading and relaxing before taking a more intense trip to Central and Northern Thailand. A highlight of the day was a small ping-pong tournament we participated in, where Kostek played many games over a few hours with two Thai resort employees and was able to beat them every single time, except
View from the dock
A view of our resort from the dock one (very close games though). We went to sleep early to make sure we have plenty of rest before our next adventure – an all day trip to the
Mu Ko Ang Thong National Park.
Our Wednesday started at 7am in time for breakfast at our hotel and an 8am pick up for the national park trip. Surprisingly, in our van we met two people from Poland – father and son, Robert and Julian. It took us an hour on a motor speedboat to get to the national park by the trip was well worth it. This was probably the most beautiful beach in Thailand we have seen to date, and a movie The Beach was actually filmed on the island we docked at. It was a day full of very fun outdoor activities – kayaking, climbing through the jungle to see a cave and another hike to see the most beautiful inland Lagoon. We ended the tour of the national park with a relaxing 45 minutes of snorkeling. A trip full of sun and activities was exactly what we needed! We spent our evening in the main town of Chaweng and ate at a small local Thai restaurant that proved to be delicious.
Cave hike
On our way up to the cave Most of the early part of the day on Thursday we spent redoing our itinerary for the next 3 weeks and booking hotels, flights and trains. We have decided to skip Bangkok due to terrorism threats and go straight to central Thailand to be followed by two cities in northern Thailand – Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. We also did a lot of research related to the crossing from Thailand to Luang Prabang in Laos and booked our transportation / first hotel in Laos. After this productive morning, we decided to award ourselves with a massage, at a small beach hut next to our resort. It was an unbelievably good massage; especially that it only cost $15USD! We spent the afternoon lounging by the pool, reading books and enjoying the scenery.
On our last day, which is today, we have decided to go and play…football golf! The rules of the game are the same as golf but you use a football (soccer ball) and kick it into the holes – hours of fun! It turned out that nobody from Poland has played the game on this course yet, so I was able to get on the score board!
After the football golf we went to see the statue of the Big Buddha in the north of the island. Visible from several kilometers away and even from the air when arriving on or leaving the island, the 12 meter tall golden image stands proud. Tonight we are going to the Friday night market at the local fishing village and tomorrow we are off to Bangkok, where we will switch to a train that will take us to central Thailand.
Koh Samui and especially the Le Meridien have so far been the highlight of our trip!
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Kat Yarlett
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I'm packing my bags now!
Wow - the pictures are amazing!! You guys looks like you are having so much fun! It just started snowing in NYC today and Suzi i'm looking at your tan and golden glow and feeling much jealousy! Good to see that Kostek is putting Poland (and himself) on the board with each new sport he encounters....we'll have to see how he fairs with cricket and Aussie football! We miss you guys - it feels quiet here without you! My tickets are booked for Australia, remind me again whether you arrive on 21st or 22nd of March? Send me your itinerary when you get a chance so I pick you up at the airport at the right time! Lots of love, Kat xx