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Published: March 12th 2007
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Stairway to Heaven
Kathy takes a pause on the many, many steps we climbed several times a day. Another few months have passed and it was time again for another vacation, but this was to be our first “non vacation”. No museums, temples or walking tours; just relaxing and not thinking about a thing. Our natural choice for this was Thailand, and to make sure we weren’t tempted to play tourist we headed south to the small islands. We planned on 9 days on Koh Samui and 4 days on Koh Tao. Once there, we quickly realized we had it backwards. As much as we disliked Samui, we loved Tao. So laid back and quiet, with much fewer crowds; and no one yelling at us to buy a suit. This is a place we could have stayed several weeks.
Our plane left Kuwait to Dubai, then onto Bangkok. We were quite surprised with the new Bangkok airport; surprised for the better. Hearing bad things about it, we did expect the worst but found it in good shape and easy to navigate. Our flight to Koh Samui was on a smaller prop plane with Bangkok Airways; a very nice airline with an even nicer waiting area.
Koh Samui:
Arriving into Koh Samui around 10pm and very tired, we
Mike & Boom
Main office at Seaview Villas in Koh Samui. Boom arranged all of our trips for us and always made us smile. appreciated the small “Fantasy Island” like airport. Clearing customs was a breeze and we were soon on our way to the Paradise Sea-view Villas, located in the Lamai Beach area. The villa we rented was nice, but more of a hike than we had anticipated. We have to say we were warned (multiple times through previous tenants on the internet and the owner). It had a great view of the ocean but that comes with a price and that price was a hike to get to our front door. The drive leading up is so steep it can only be negotiated on foot or by 4 wheel drive. On foot it is so steep you are climbing on the balls of your feet. Once you hit the top most parking level there is still over 100 steps to get to our door. Man, those steps wore us out!
We shared our patio terrace with 2 geckos; actually they are called Ko Kees. They stand out from your standard gecko, because they are the largest at over 8 inches long, with fat heads. We named them Bonnie and Clyde and they would show up each night just after sundown. Between
Dead Mans Curve
Koh Samui-Crazy hair pin turn up the narrow road to our villa. the geckos and the bats they do a great job at keeping the insects at bay. On either side of the patio were these huge boulders, adding to the tropical mountain feel. The downside was that they kept any breeze from reaching us; yes, that nice cool evening ocean breeze that everyone waits all day for. None for us.
As is routine for us, we found a local dentist office and scheduled a cleaning. Baan Luck Fun Dental Clinic was easy to spot due to the large tooth above the door. The place didn’t look like much from the outside, but inside it was clean, orderly and the receptionist and dentist were both very professional. This turned out to be one of the best cleanings we have ever had, not to mention the fact that it only cost us $20 US. www.baanluckfun.com
We spent our mornings on the patio, (Mike would fix us Iced Coffees) and then later would head into town for lunch and some shopping. This part of the Island consisted of one long strip of bars, restaurants and gift shops. We rented a pair of scooters to get around, as it was about a mile
Koh Samui Villa
Looking up at our villa from 3/4 of the way up the 100+ steps. into town. One evening we went to watch some Thai Kickboxing on ladies night, but most evenings we would spend sitting on the patio, watching Bonnie and Clyde chase down one meal after another. Of course they couldn’t eat them all, and Mike did end up with quite a few mosquito bites. He had read on the internet about how great the Monkey Balm was at putting a stop to the itch and reducing the swelling. We found some and yes, it does work like magic. He will now never travel without it. You can find it at any of the local pharmacies and it comes in small tin. Well, after a few days of this routine, we knew that we would be much happier on Koh Tao, so we decided to head there a day early.
Koh Tao:
It was a 2 hour catamaran ride to get there and cost about $12. Upon arriving, we instantly knew that this is the place we should have come from the beginning. TROPICAL PARADISE with capital letters! From the moment we stepped off the catamaran everything has been perfect. The hotel was there with their sign waiting for us. On check
Living Room
Our out-door living area on Koh Tao. in we discovered they had upgraded us to a better room. We had decided to stop pinching pennies and spring for a luxury level hotel, it’s called Charm Churree and we loved it. Our home is a bamboo terrace on the rocks with 3 platforms over the water during high tide. Our bedroom had a king-size bed in an enclosed hut with floor to ceiling windows on the 2 sides facing the water. The dressing room is another hut (open air but screened). The bathroom has 3 rooms, the first has the necessary fixtures (to include a urinal), then we have a warm water shower then further in there is an open air (outdoor) shower. Our living room is in the center of all this and completely open and every room has a great view of the water. We would spend hours sitting in our lounge area, watching the dive boats, ferries and water taxis come and go. When the tide is in (in the morning) we have water underneath us. This is all very open but thanks to some skillful bamboo screening, we have quite a bit of privacy. One evening we did have an instance of another guest
Koh Tao View
The view we could see from any room in our Villa on Koh Tao. wandering into our living room, looking for the restaurant.
The reason we came to Koh Tao was so I could get reintroduced to scuba again. I learned how to dive in Turkey 20 years ago then moved away from the ocean and never really had any good opportunities to go out again. Koh Tao is one of the best diving locations in Asia so I wasn’t going to pass it up. My first day on the island I signed up for a scuba refresher course with a small dive outfit called Planet Scuba. The next afternoon I was out on the boat chugging away to my first dive in 20 years. My instructor was Roz, an Aussie who I give 2 thumbs up to as an instructor. I was lucky in that there was only me and 2 other women (Americans) in our group and we were all doing the scuba review. Just like riding the bike, it all came back to me. We started doing our review in shallow water, then moved deeper as we went along. And I discovered why Thailand is such a great place for diving. Mike and I got a taste of it when
Bed Room-Koh Toa
The only completely inclosed room. And.. with A/C; Very nice at night! we snorkeled in Krabi our last time in Thailand and it just keeps getting better and better. Picture yourself swimming inside a salt water aquarium filled with colorful fish and coral and there you have it. A rainbow of colors where-ever you looked, with so many types of fish and coral. There were moments I expected to hear a soundtrack from a Disney movie and see the little mermaid and Nemo playing tag (it was that magical). Planet Scuba was one of the smaller dive operations on the island and their dive boat weren’t as fancy or new as the larger outfits but it was more relaxed and personable. I paid about $200 for my refresher, a night dive course and 2 days of dives.
From our villa it was just a 10 minute walk into the village of Mae Head. We found several great restaurants and coffee shops. It was small enough to not be crowded but at the same time have everything you need for comfort. And of course, lots of dive shops. We will definitely come back to this beautiful island and stay a couple of weeks. That’s a promise!
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Mick & Ruth Phillips
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You two are so funny> I think you are having the time of your lives.