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Published: August 7th 2007
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As you might have noticed from my latest blog entries I had become increasingly short tempered in North Vietnam, so the beach holiday couldn't have come at a better time. I hadn't slept more than one night in the same bed for two weeks, and just wanted to have a break from packing, unpacking and moving constantly on. So I flew from Hanoi back to Thailand, to Koh Samui, where I was about to meet my friends Liz and Andrea.
Everyone who has ever been to a tropical holiday destination knows the feeling when stepping out from the plane. The hot and humid air hits you immediately. I felt so happy, it's amazing how a bit of warm weather can make one so cheerful, even if the time in the cooler climate had been matter of just a few days. The additional fun thing on arriving at Koh Samui's airport was the outdoors terminal. I've never been to such a relaxed airport before - even the luggage convey belt was outside.
I came to Samui a day earlier than the others and had booked a hut from a place called Jungle Club. It looked wonderfully quiet, located high on
Jungle Club
When I finally made it there! the hills above the town. I had declined the hotel's offer to pick me up from the airport considering the price quite high. The only problem was that I hadn't realise that no other vehicle than a jeep can get to the place. A minivan driver promised to take me to the crossing of the big road and apparently I had a 15 minute walk from there. No problem, I thought, I had just walked for hours uphill in Fansipan so a quarter of an hour can't be too bad.
It was nearly 11pm when we left the airport and I was quite anxious to get to bed. Of course everything went wrong... First of all the driver took me to a wrong place, miles too far away. When I realised that it wasn't the right hotel, he admitted that he didn't know where my place was. After he had made some phone calls we drove back, and after some more searching found the unlit road to Jungle Club where he dumped me. I had guessed that it would be dark and had a torch ready. I walked and walked and walked, and the backpack felt heavier and heavier.
It was pitch black, apart from the lightnings that frequently lit the sky. I was praying for rain not to start; I assume they are fairly heavy in these regions. First there were a few houses and signs to the Jungle Club, but soon they all stopped. It was rather scary, being alone in the middle of nowhere, and not seeing anything. When I had walked some half an hour and still couldn't see even the lights of the resort I decided that I must have gone wrong somewhere. So I turned and walked down. Hesitantly I went and knock the doors of the houses (these were residential buildings, not hotels) and from the third one someone opened the door. I asked for a way and he said yes, Jungle Club is on the top of hill, I just should have continued further.
So I started all over again, this time I decided to leave my backpack behind. After a while the same man, who have opened the door came with the car he had borrowed from his friend and said he would take me up. The road was in an extremely bad condition and the car was
just a normal five seater. We got to the same point where I had been earlier (without harming car, thank goodness) and then the man started to hesitate... Perhaps Jungle Club wasn't on this mountain after all.
Going back down we noticed that there was a telephone number in one of the Jungle Club signs! And actually, if you looked very carefully, there was a road off from the one I had been wandering back and forth. How much easier it would have been if I had seen this in the first place. I called the hotel and was picked up in ten minutes.
Luckily Jungle Club was a lovely place and I was welcomed warmly when I finally arrived around 1am. The only problem was the mosquitoes - I had forgotten what a nuisance they can be in Thailand. They have much less of those tiny beasts in Vietnam. I had an outdoors shower in my hut and as soon as I had finished at least a million of them attacked me. I was covered with the bites. Luckily I have the best antihistaminic cream that stops itching quite quickly and I was able to sleep, after
View from the top
This is the island we stopped at the snorkeling trip. spraying the whole hut with the mosquito repellent.
I slept around the clock and spent the whole day by the pool reading a book. In addition to me there were only two other guests, a Swedish couple. In the afternoon we played a bit of petanque, then it was time to head down to the centre of Samui to meet Andrea and Liz. How wonderful to see some old friends for a change! Not to mention that they were staying in the nicest hotel in the Chaweng Beach and let me move in their room for free. Oh, that feeling of luxury: big towels, spacious shower, air condition, minibar... You name it.
We stayed three more nights on Ko Samui. What can I tell about the beach holiday: it is lazy sunbathing and lovely dinners on the beach. Observing fellow holidaymakers. Eating ice-cream and corn on the cob. The only disappointing thing was that swimming in the sea was impossible at this time of the year because the water was so low. Other than that, Samui is one of the touristiest destinations of the Thai islands, having number of Starbucks', McDonalds' and Boots'. I was pleased to move
forward to more peaceful Koh Tao.
It was lovely. We were staying in the best place of our beach again, this time it was more like a hut but extremely nice one - a bit different than those I'm used to stay.
The highlight of the holiday was a snorkeling trip we did around the island. The boat took us to four different bays and one island where we could stop and swim. It was so very beautiful and water clear and green. Once there was an opportunity I swam as much as I could.
I enjoyed Koh Tao so much that when Liz and Andrea needed to leave I decided to stay behind for a few days. I just couldn't face getting back to the ‘hard travelling’ after such a relaxing time. The next leg of my journey would be a 17 hour trip to Malaysia and I wasn't looking forward to it at all.
As an excuse to myself I told that I hadn’t seen all of the island yet, wanted do some reading and catch up with my emails (and the blog). So I did all that, as well as some running on
the beach in the sunset and morning walks along the beautiful little paths in the southern end of the island. I also got a bit crazy with massages. First I had a foot one and as I really enjoyed it I had a Thai massage by the same lady on the following day - the best one of the whole trip.
Eventually I couldn't postpone the trip to Malaysia anymore. First I needed to take a night boat to mainland Thailand. The boat was wooden, quite old-looking and not very big. The wind was heavy. I was so scared, firstly about shipwreck and secondly of becoming sea sick. So I took three seasickness pills. (They are many years old so I thought the effect of one might not be quite enough.) That made me so drowsy that I fell asleep before the boat had even left the pier.
The rest of the journey by bus was a bit more painful, just because it was so long (from 6.30am to 5pm local time) and I became really dehydrated and got a blinding headache. However, I met a Finnish couple on the bus and it was quite nice to speak
Finnish for a change. I just realised that I only speak Finnish about once a week when I call my Mum. That’s much more seldom than when I was in London.
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Claire
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Malaysia here you come!
Sounds like the trip to Ko Samui to meet your friends was just what you needed after all your running around the place. Where are you going in Malaysia? I've done Langkawi, Penang, Ipoh, KL and Johor Bahru - if you need any tips ;-) x x x