Koh Samui ... not really for me....

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After catching the 'drug runner' multi engined speedboat back to the mainland from Koh Tarutao we wandered in the heat of the day to find the bus station to get back to hat yai (the bus itself was quite something – neon upholstery, pink and green panelling and a TV playing Thai pop music videos, which all seemed to centre around a love triangle, the whole journey!), then tuk-tuked to the pier to cacth the night ferry to Koh Samui...night ferries are the best way to travel between the islands in my humble opinion as they're cheaper than the day ones and you get a bed for the night … saving you the cost of a hostel! The crossing was calm and peaceful and we managed to grab a few hours sleep.

Once we'd docked we ignored all the touts and tuk tuks and walked for 20 mins in the direction of what looked to be town before jumping on a sangthaew (pick up truck with benches in the back) to Hat Mae Nam, which Lonely Planet had said was one of the more bo-ho, chilled areas. Mae nam was lovely, with little back streets alleys, street vendors and lots of rustic charm and we found a cool beachfront hostel for minimum moolah. We spent the day relaxing and the evening wandering the town, where we met a friendly french canadian in a wine bar and chatted and ate escargot for a few hours … lovely and entirely unexpected!

We decided to hire a scooter to explore the island and moved about from place to place. Scootering with backpacks was a novelty … arrived everywhere with a sweat patch covering my entire back and very sore tummy muscles due to trying to constantly having to counter balance the weight pulling me backwards! Scooter is by far the cheapest way to see the island and it enabled us to find bargain accomodation too – the New Huts on hat Lamai are well worth a visit, clean, basic and cheap and built right on the beach – optimium views, relative comfort and easy on the pocket!

Koh samui had its highlights and lowlights for us...Mae Nam was lovely and still retained some of its traditional feel, but Chaweng was awful. I could have been in any number of tacky 18-30 holiday destinations … the streets were lined with shops selling tat, cafes with Western names offering English breakfasts, burgers and fish and chips, bars with big screens projecting UK sport and soaps and the place was swarming with sunburnt chavs from the UK, US and Austrailia bragging about their sexual conquests in the strip bars the night before. I don't mean to sound like a snob, but I didn't go to Thailand to experience the same stuff I could have in the UK! Needless to say we only stayed there for 1 night, and that was to coincide with a big Muay Thai contest, which was very entertaining if a little mismatched … couldn't help but feel that the matches had been orchestrated deliberately to cater to the tourists, every foreign competitor fought a smaller and seemingly less experienced Thai and won, much to the joy of the cheering, mainly foreign, crowd.

Despite the chavviness of Chaweng, Koh Samui definitely has its highlights. We took the scooter out to the hills and did a trek up to a gorgeous waterfall where we bathed in the pools and swung around on rope swings whilst spotting lizards and exotic birds. The Big Buddha temple was gaudy, bright and baking hot; gold sculptures and mirrored mosaic glittered under the azure sky. Wat Plai Laem temple just up the road seemed to derive from both Buddhist and Hindu religions, boasting collossal multi coloured figures of Buddha; both as a big guy and a 18 armed version that locals we met seemed unable to identify; and what looked like Ganesh and Vishnu … bizarre but bold and somehow beautiful! The sheer size of the structures was impressive and countless hours must have gone into constructing them. Renting the scooter was the best decision we made … it allowed us to really explore off the beaten track (and we literally did a few times, finding our selves in back gardens and dead ends in the woods!) and see all we wanted to in a short time.

It's true that Koh Samui is no longer the backpackers idyll it may have been 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago, but there's still plenty worth seeing and staying for...and if you want England but hotter, with some exotic creatures (of the reptilian and avian kind and of the female kind) then Chaweng's the place for you .. if not head for Mae Nam or Bo Phut.

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