Koh Samui

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After almost a week on the Andaman coast, we were ready to head to the Gulf of Thailand. In the morning, we said farewell to Krabi and endured another long bus ride. The buses in Thailand are never smooth sailing, and after many unnecessary stops, and a 5 hours boat ride from Surat Thani, we arrived at Koh Samui. It is amazing the to see the distinct change in travellers between the west coast and the east coast. Suddenly, the buses and boats were filled with other young travellers lugging around huge backpacks and even some carrying guitars (La vie boheme!) We arrived at our bungalow, which was right on the beach; however, it was between Hat Lamai and Hat Chaweng, which are the busier beaches.

During the day, we headed off on another day trip. This time, we took a one-and-a-half hour boat ride from Koh Samui to Anthong National Park. In the pristine waters, we kayaked along small islands and went under the overhangs of the cliffs. Since it was low tide, we were able to go into small caves on the side of the islands and reached skylights in the middle of the caves. After circling the island, we hiked to the middle of the it to a aquamarine lake. Even at the edge of the lake, it was hard to belief we were actually there! To get to the lake, we had to climb extremely steep stairs and go through small gaps in the rocks. Ah, how you appreciate being young when you see middle-aged people doing the same thing that you do. After another buffet lunch (woot!), we were back on the water in kayaks. It's hard not to love the outdoors when it is this beautiful. We also did a bit of snorkeling, but compared to Krabi, we didn't see all that much and it was quite disappointing.

Since it was our last night on Koh Samui, we decided to go out in style! We got dressed up (which on the island, means just putting on some dresses) and decided to trek it to Hat Chaweng. We were told that it was only 5 km, and so we figured we could walk it under an hour. Never trust anyone when they tell you the distance to somewhere. The road was hilly and windy, and parts of it didn't have street lamps. Unfortunately, we were too poor (seriously, between the three of us we only had 75 Bahts) to take a taxi, so we just continued to walk. After forty minutes, we figured we must be almost there; how wrong we were. We reached a view point and and looked out, and realized the only lit up place along the coast looked a good 8 km away. There was no point of turning back now, so we just trudged on. TWO HOURS later, we arrived at a sign that said Hat Chaweng. Maybe we didn't walk down far enough, but it is the most disappointing place. There were barely any restaurants, and we ended up at a cafe that served western food at outrageous prices. We chowed down 60 baht fried eggs and toast before taking a taxi back to our resort. That was a walk no one wanted to repeat. Lesson of the day: in Thailand, time and distance is a whole other concept.

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