As we had booked our flight from Bangkok to Kok Samui (50 mins. south) for 6am, we left our hotel in the early morning while many tourists were just returning to the hotel after an evening out on the town so to speak. The ride to the airport was much quicker. It was somewhat funny to see the entertainment on the plane included clips from Québec’s production “Just for Laugh”. We had seen similar clips on a bus in Cuba. Arriving in Ko(h) Samui, one of three “popular” islands in this area, we thought the airport was like Walt Disney World with their trolleys to bring passengers from the plane to the airport building. A mini-bus shuttle brought us to our target hotel (Queen Boutique Hotel). By 9am, we had checked into our room. Jenny was a bit disappointed that is was not on a beach front. She was hoping of doing yoga on a porch in front of the ocean. Oh well, next time may be! Of the three popular beach destinations in Koh Samui (Chaweng, Lamai, Bo Phat), we had chosen Chaweng as it was said to be offer the best beach. On our first visit to the beach, the cloud were dark and the waves were heavy. The beach flags were all waving red but we enjoyed a long walk on the beach. In the early afternoon, a heavy rain fell down as we were having lunch at an Italian restaurant. Chaweng feels very much like Playa del Carmen in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Back at the hotel, we started to look at the long range weather forecast. It was not looking good!
To our surprise, the sun was shinning the next day. After a nice breakfast at our hotel, we spent most of our day at the beach – relaxing and jumping waves. Koh Samui appears to be a very popular destination for Europeans..
On Christmas day, we’d planned to visit Ko Pha-Ngan island which was made famous of its full moon parties and its Sunrise and Sunset beaches. Unfortunately, the ferry scheduled did not offer us too many choices and we opted to spend the rest of the day at our own beach again. Jenny got herself a 45 mins facial massage (for $13) right in front of the beach. The competition among restaurants is pretty fierce.
Although the Chaweng beach was nice, the beaches in many Caribbean destinations are, in our view, as nice or even nicer that around here. The appeal is most likely the fact that the Thai people are so friendly. Koh Samui must have been a very nice backpacker destination ten or twenty years ago but now is has become a very touristy spot under the sun.