Koh Samui - Complete Relaxation

We had a fairly stressful 9 hour journey from NST to Koh Samui which consisted (briefly) of a long walk to the bus station (still not used to the heat, the sweat was pouring off both of us by the time we'd trudged all the way), a bus ride to Surat Thani, an annoying wait of over an hour for our connecting bus, coach ride to the ferry terminal, ferry crossing to the island and finally a taxi ride to our final destination. That evening, we vowed that we would fly back to Bangkok rather than endure an even longer journey by bus in a few days time.

A Fishing Boat

We stayed at The Bill Resort on Lamai Beach in a small, authentic bungalow set quite a long way back from the beach, surrounded by fairly dense vegetation. We were kept awake at night by the loud humming of the crickets and frog chorus. Then in the mornings we were awakened by the cockerals which strutted around the bungalows. We also shared our hut with more than a couple of small lizards.

Andrea at the waterfall

After two nights, we decided to move a few hundred yards down the road to the neighbouring Paradise Bungalows, where for the same price we managed to get a bungalow right on the beach with a fantastic view right across the sea.

Lamai Beach is one of the busier areas on the island, but being off season it was still reasonably quiet. The main high street was accessed by a pleasant 10 minute stroll across the pretty beach and there was a wide selection of good quality resturants, bars and shops to choose from.

Typically, after cooling off from the day's sunbathing, our pre-dinner routine comprised a few Maehkongs and coke on our verandah overlooking the sparkling sea as the sun began to set and the fishing boats started their journey out to sea. Both Dan and I enjoyed the fact that there were a lot of Western restaurants around and I'm ashamed to say that during the four days that we stayed at Lamai, more often than not we took advantage of the opportunity to dine out on cooked breakfasts, burgers and pasta!

Hinta - Grandfather Rock

Apart from soaking up the sunshine as we sunbathed on the rocks dotted aroud the beach, we also did a bit of exploring around the island. Hinta Hinyai was an interesting tourist attraction consisting of a couple of 'interesting' rock formations - the 'Grandmother' and 'Grandfather' rocks (I'll let Dan's pictures tell the story), and the Hua Muang waterfall was a good place to cool off away from the beach.

We both thoroughly enjoyed Koh Samui and were sorry to have to leave after our four night stay which seemed to go really quickly.

Having arrived at Koh Samui airport at around 11am, we were whisked straight through the various pre-boarding stations, but just had time to notice that it resembled more of a five star holiday resort than an airport. All the main areas consisted of pretty thatched roof buildings with beautifully landscaped gardens surrounding them. We were both amazed (and delighted) to take off no more than twenty minutes later!

Hinyai - Grandmother Rock

Andrea and Dan