My First Island Trip: Ko Samet

To continue with the more exciting part of last weekend after English camp.....now I really feel like I am in Thailand.

As I left off with my last post, Wattana dropped Eric, Anna, and I off at the bus station to send us on our way to paradise. We had one 1 hour bus ride and then a 2 hour (or so) bus ride which both went smoothly. The second bus dropped us off at the dock to take a boat to Ko Samet (Sidenote: Ko means island and Ao means beach). There is a ferry that is very cheap to take over, but it stops running at 4 and we probably didn't get there until 9, so we decided to take the plunge and pay for the speedboat. Unfortunately we got overcharged/cheated, but we will now know for the future. It is tricky here because in really touristy places they will definitely take advantage of you, but in places like Suphan sometimes they will say something (like a shirt) costs 250 baht and then only charge you 220. So we have just learned to be prepared for when we go to touristy places.

The speedboat only took 10-15 minutes and I was pretty wowed as we approached Ko Samet. It was dark, so I wasn't taking in the beauty, but the crazy party scene that we were quickly approaching. There were fire twirling performances, clubs with dancing, and bar after bar along the beach. We didn't make any reservations, so we got dropped off with these two British guys at the cheapest area of the beach to stay. We checked into our hotel and ventured out to see what was going on. I definitely wasn't in the mood to dance my pants off, but actually had a really fun time walking a long the beach and hanging out at various restaurants/bars. We sat at one at the end of the beach where fewer people had made it to where the waiters were really funny, twirled some fire specially for us, and Anna got hit on by creepy fat men from the Netherlands.

Breakfast on the beach

The next morning we had breakfast practically in the water (high tide was very extreme especially since it was a few days after the full moon) and hung out on the beach and swam. After an hour or so of relaxing, we thought it would be fun to explore a bit and find a little less crazy beach to stay the night on. So, we were off on "Eric's Jungle Trek." I have been on many of these types of adventures before so luckily I was somewhat prepared for what unfolded in the next couple hours.

Eric's Jungle Trek begins

The west side of Ko Samet is lined with beaches, which are separated by some rocks or a little bit of "forest" at times. There was a trail that went through the trees and other times we walked a long the beach or through the different resorts and hotels. We decided that we would walk until we found a cool place to stay Sunday night so we could put our stuff down and keep going. It seemed like each beach or bay we got to was cooler and cooler so it was very difficult to decide to stop to check into a hotel, so we didn't. Nor did we really stop for food (besides Eric getting a coconut, which I was later very jealous of). We did stop for beach swinging/hammocking, swimming, picture taking, etc.

I had read about some really cool beaches at the very south of the island that sounded affordable, so we were motivated to keep going. The beaches in the south definitely got more spread out and we were tiring out a bit (Anna and I were both carrying backpacks and purses, so this was a learning experience to pack less). After walking along rocks for a while without seeing a beach, we finally rounded the corner to see an awesome beach in a gorgeous bay. We celebrated and started thinking about what we would eat when we got there. We were walking through some trees as we got closer and practically stepped on a sleeping security guard. He instantly got on his radio and he explained (mostly in Thai) that it was a private beach and we couldn't go. He led us around the back of the resort where we got some glimpses of how the rich a famous must vacation. I just looked up the resort and here is its website. It costs around 20,000 baht which is almost my entire month's salary (about 700 US dollar a night). Oops!

I took this photo saying "This will be in the blog when I say we finally made it to our beach." I was wrong.

He left us at the road, which we begrudgedly kept trekking down (and when I say down, I mean up, up, and up). I have a tendency to be able to laugh about ridiculous situations very quickly after they happen and often during, which I am sure is annoying for others when the ridiculous isn't over. Case in point, I'm laughing as I look at the uphill road we have to walk up and bust out my camera. Anna: "I swear Bridget if you take a picture of me right now, I am going to kill you." I disobeyed and am still alive (sorry Anna!). It turns out the beach that the resort was on sounds a lot like another beach on the north tip, which was the one that had affordable places to stay.

"Bridget, I'm going to kill you."

We saw a sign for the beach at the south tip of the island, which I had read was a good example of more traditional lifestyle on the island. Unfortunately traditional does not mean hotels for you to stay in and the only place to stay was another out of our league resort. The women gave us a pitty look when they told us the price (which is actually less than $100 US dollars, but too much for our Thai salary) and suggested we go to the beach we originally stayed at to find something affordable. We took advantage of their chairs and ate a popsicle before turning around and walking back.

There was a truck shuttle, but we thought it would be too expensive. Fortunately they weren't busy and gave us a ride halfway up the island to a beach we thought was cool the first time around. It was a very fast, bumpy, steep uphill/downhill ride, but it was a great time, beat walking, and we were dropped off right on the beach. The first hotel gave us a price and when we said it was too much and started walking, they dropped down 1/3 of the price--deal! We put down our stuff and walked to this really cool restaurant with the seating areas along a pier that we had eyed 3 hours earlier. It was amazing--great view, great atmosphere, good food. We hung out for almost two hours before going for a late afternoon swim and testing out  my waterproof camera. The beach we stayed out, Ao Thian, had some really cool restaurants and bars, plenty of places for massages, and seemed a like a good balance of fun and family oriented. There were also a few groups of Thai people there and even less foreigners, which I liked. We had a great night hanging out, playing poker using pieces from the top of a bottle for chips, and going for a late night swim.

Practicing our water tricks

Our restaurant on the water

We had an American breakfast in the morning, which wasn't very good, but my watermelon smoothie made up for it. Then we layed out and swam a bit before walking back to where the speedboat dropped us off so we could start the journey home. Walking basically the entire west side of the island was actually really fun, incredibly beautiful, and a great way to see more than the average Ko Samet tourist. Ko Samet is one of the closest islands to Bangkok and supposedly doesn't compare with the beaches down south, but I felt like I was in paradise the entire time. I can't wait to see the ones in the south! But first, Eric and I are going camping in the mountains in Kanchanaburi this weekend, so I can start fulfilling my desire to get outdoors and away from the cities!

Amazing watermelon smoothie (and me and Anna)