Chill out on Ko Samui

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Mixed feelings as to whether Qatar Airways deserves its five stars for outstanding service as an airline for a couple of reasons. Our flight to Ko Samui meant we had three connecting flights for our 21 hour journey here. The first leg was Manchester to Doha which went well with no hiccups. Food was good but mixed thoughts about it, with Steak and Mushroom pie, mash and vegetables served which rivalled any UK restaurant meal. Tracey opted for the curry, which was slightly disappointing as the rice was gritty (undercooked) and the curry a tad too hot to be served as a general curry. It perhaps should have been advertised as 'Hot, Vindaloo curry'. For an airline serving several hundred passengers, it perhaps is a poor choice to offer such a spicy option. On a plus side, the drinks trolley was round every hour during the 7 hour flight and whilst being entertained with Qatar's vast choice of movies, t.v. Programmes and audio selection, it seemed an endless flurry of activity from the cabin crew serving drinks. A second meal was served, but because the evening was wearing on, I forgot which meal we got served!

We had a connecting flight to make at Doha airport and we only had around two hours before we were heading off to Bangkok, a journey of around 6 and a half hours flying over India. This is the leg of the journey where things were starting to break down with Qatar's 'Five star service'. Firstly, and totally conflicting with what we experienced with our first flight, the drinks trolley didn't appear until about 2 hours into the flight. On top of this, the entertainment system broke down on two occasions thus resulting in you either missing your movie or having it interrupted halfway through. Because their entertainment system is of a relatively high standard, the large touch-screen t.v.'s in each seat-back means you can fast-forward to the part you were up to prior to it being lost because of the breakdown.
For the rest of the flight, we rarely saw drinks being offered which again, conflicts with their standard of service offered just hours before. One more thing with Qatar Airways, beware of the excess baggage charge...its £38 per Kilo over your allotted 20 kg in economy.

We eventually arrived on the island of Ko Samui some hours later once our short flight from Bangkok airport touched down. We had read that Ko Samui airport was the most picturesque in the world....and its easy to see why. The luggage carousel has a small garden in the centre of it, and the rest of the airport is under buildings that have thatched roofing and all very open, i.e no windows or doors. The transfer from the aircraft into the terminal building was by a small electric van that resembled an electric milk float once seen in the UK.
We were soon at our hotel, The Amari Palm Reef at the top end of Chaweng beach and can only describe it as 'stunning' with excellent service. A true 4 * hotel for sure with toiletries replaced as and when you need them. Nothing is too much trouble for any of the staff here and they're more than happy to make reservations for you at any restaurant on the island. Handy when you don't speak Thai, although to be fair all shop workers and restaurant staff speak a good level of English to get by with. Anyway, we took Phil and Eileen's advice and have booked a table at The Big John seafood restaurant for Friday night which is on the other side of the island, about a 40 minute car journey away from where we are staying. We were offered free transfers to and from our hotel by this restaurant but we declined as we'll be making the best use of the car we are renting, which should be a Toyota Hilux for around £20 a day incl all necessary insurances etc. This was booked through Argus car hire and should the worst happen, the most we would pay of we smashed the car up would be a £60 excess which makes you wonder how other companies get away with charging you an excess of several thousand pounds should the worst happen.

As we say, the hotel is nothing short of beautiful, although a couple of things let it down. Firstly, if you have your own laptop with you wifi is available but at a cost of around 690 Baht for a 24 hour period. This works out at about £14 which is extortionate. Also to make an International telephone call back to the UK means a charge of 115 Baht per minute, about £2.20 so bear this in mind if you're staying here before you call home. About 400 meters towards the centre of Chaweng is an air conditioned Internet cafe which charges 1 Baht per minute and they also serve cold drinks. We popped in last night, used two of their P.C's for half an hour and had a Coke each and it cost us less than £4. Note though, that they charge the same price even if you bring your own laptop with you as do other Internet cafes around the resort. Later last night we headed to a beachside restaurant for our evening meal and had a candlelit meal literally on the beach as we had done on the island of Langkawi two years previously. I can't remember the name of the place but when you access the beach from the hotel, turn right and walk about 200 yards. There are red tablecloths on the tables if this helps you find the place we mean! Food is very good here and very reasonably priced with a meal for two with beers costing less than £15. Highly recommend shrimps in batter with tartare sauce. For about £3 you get a dozen very large shrimps with a side of tartare sauce and a side of chilli dipping sauce too. Beers are about 60 Baht each compared with about 200 Baht at our hotel.

Earlier yesterday, we took Phil and Eileen's advice/recommendation on another thing to do whilst here on Ko Samui. They had recommended us to a tailor on the island should we want any clothes made up. Always wanting to go off personal recommendations for things, we had no hesitation in visiting 'Ann' at the tailors as they have been twice previous whilst on the island. We went off the directions they gave us and found it easily enough, although we didn't notice the actual name of the tailors shop. All we can say, is that it is at Choeng Mon Beach area next door to a 7 Eleven store on the opposite side of the road just down from the Imperial Boathouse resort hotel. Sure enough, Ann remembers Phil and Eileen and so we spent almost two hours choosing our tailor-made items. They're more expensive than they used to be from memory, but then again with Global prices for almost everything on the increase its little surprise we have had to pay more. Note......tailor-made clothing here in Thailand is of exceptional quality and still a fraction of the cost of what it would be to have made back in the UK.

Later on, we took a songthaew (open air taxi) down to a retail park type place for a spot of lunch at KFC and to browse around the large Tesco store, where prices are incredibly cheap..examples are mens t-shirt from £1 and womens bras from 60p each. Time was running out by now, and so headed off back to the hotel. We rent a car on Friday, and God be with us due to the crazyness of the standard of driving here, so we'll return back to the retail park to escape the mid-day sun and also for another nosey around Tesco and the Makro they have recently built out here. Sounds sad maybe, but the heat takes it out of you and its good to get somewhere with air-con and a stroll around indoors.
We'll try to give you all an update before we come home.

Just for fellow travellers.....we were trying to find the famous 'Tropical Murphy's' Irish pub and weren't having much luck as it is opposite Chaweng's McDonalds. Please note...there are two branches of Mcdonalds in Chaweng and happy to say the food is spot on with draught Singha at 110 Bt per pint and for Guiness lovers its 200 Bt per pint.

Graham and Tracey

Sunday 10th May 2009

Update...we're heading to Phuket on Thursday for a couple of days staying at the hotel we've stayed at before. Managed to get a great deal so it'll be nice to see how things are out there since the Tsunami...catch you all soon.

We had some laundry done by a beachside laundry place about 100 yards down the beach from the Amari Palm Reef hotel rather than pay extortionate hotel laundry prices today. They charged 40 Baht (80p) per kilo for it to be washed or 60 Baht (£1.20) if you wanted it washed and ironed. We opted for it to ironed, and sure enough it was ready within 24 hours. However, travellers beware, two of our clothing items came back with black stains on, which, fortunately for us, Tracey managed to sponge clean in our sink at the hotel. Other than that, it was about an eighth the price it would have been if we'd have had our hotel to do the laundry for us.

On the same road as the Tesco Lotus store and on the same side but just lower down is a 'Big C' shopping centre with a small shopping mall and a Big C supermarket where the prices compare with Tesco just up the road. As with Tesco, prices of clothes are very cheap and there is a very large selection to choose from for all ages, including men, with maybe around 70 different designs to choose from and prices start at about 49 Baht (£1).

In the same shopping centre as the Tesco Lotus place, there is a Swensens Ice Cream parlour where you can fabulous tasting ice-cream sundaes, but as the waitress brought us our 'complimentary' glass of water each, we noticed a lively cockroach running about where the water had just come from at a nearby cleaning area. We also saw one running around the floor at Dunkin' Donuts which is a shame because we have eaten there already a few times for an afternoon snack. Expect to pay about 160 Baht for 4 delicious donuts and a coffee each.

We have had the use of our rental car which we collected a few days ago from Thai Rent a car from the airport. We were due to return it back to the airport, but for no extra charge they are happy to come and collect it from our hotel which saves us the taxi fare dropping it off etc...we can well recommend them, so bear them in mind for your rental car. We rented a Toyota Hilux, which resembles a Pope-mobile, with only a couple of thousand kilometers on the clock and with plastic wrapping still on the back seats. It was a diesel model, and just to give you an idea, diesel is currently 25.5 Bahts per litre ( about 50p In Sterling) at time of writing this blog (May 2009). Petrol is slightly more expensive at about 30Bahts per litre.

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