06.13.08: We spent one last, fast night in Chiang Mai and went to the airport for Ko Samui the next morning, Friday the 13th. Our plane was delayed again for about 2 hours. At least, Bangkok Airways let passengers hang out in their VIP lounge, offering drinks and snacks. It also had wifi, which was perfect since we hadn’t booked anywhere to stay yet. The 2+ hour ride seemed a bit long as Kailani was getting grouchy but wouldn’t take a nap. But finally, after stopping her from playing with the attendant call button, one came up and gave her a puzzle for 4-8 year olds to play with. I guess she was pressing it for a reason… ;-) To my surprise, she somewhat figured out how to put the puzzle back together.
The island of Ko Samui is where I spend the majority of time at when I came to Thailand last time, around 10 years ago. As we landed, I could see from the air how much more built-up it had become. As we deplaned, I noticed that one other gal and I were the only Asian passengers. That’s the most Westerners I’ve been around since landing in Asia a month and a half ago! I expected mostly tourists in this beach-resort atmosphere, just like in Boracay. But there, the majority of tourists were Filipino, not Western. I couldn’t recognize anything from our taxi ride to Bo Phut beach, a.k.a. Fisherman’s Village, where we were staying. Finally, after settling into our room and going onto the beach, I realized that this was the same beach I stayed at on my previous trip. I actually only spent one night here, frankly because it was a little TOO quiet for me since I was traveling alone. Before, there were only a couple fishing boats, local kids playing on the beach and a couple Chinese chophouses. Now, there were modern yachts and boats in the water, and development all along the beach. The chophouses were now converted into modern restaurants, mostly cooking Western food. That was kind of a disappointment to see. Personally, I don’t see why you would travel all the way to Thailand to eat predominantly Western food when there’s Thai. I think I could eat Thai food every day. So that night, Sean and I enjoyed a romantic sunset beachside dinner, sitting on large cushions with table low to the ground, at this modern Thai restaurant called Starfish, with nice décor and red walls, all without having to get a babysitter. Kai had fallen asleep and was lying on a cushion next to us as we ate. It was pretty nice, but we could have just as well eaten at a divey little shop or street stall. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any. Poor Kai got all bit up from mosquito bites laying there. We put long pants on her. But still, they got the bottom part of her legs and tagged her a couple times on the face and arms. Since then, we’ve been more diligent about covering ourselves with spray.
Kailani found a great playmate who was also staying at the Eden Bungalows, 4 year old Elizabeth from Kent, UK. Elizabeth shared her floaty toys with Kai and the two played together in the pool a good half of our first day. We also enjoyed chatting with John and Theresa, Elizabeth’s parents, and John’s mom from New Zealand. We were also going to rent a scooter later in the day, but Kai played so much in the pool, she took a long nap. When she woke, it was raining sheets. After the rain, it was dinner time. For some reason, you really didn’t see anybody eating at any of these upscale places. Since that’s all we could really find, it’s a wonder where all these people you see on the streets are eating at. But, there was one place that we saw some people eating at, a supposed “California” style BBQ restaurant, The Shack, that played blues music. The bacon-wrapped asparagus, mango salmon and Sean’s rib/chicken combo were all good. But like everything else here, I could feel our wallet getting lighter.
The next day, we got a scooter and drove around the island. After almost getting run over by others who rented a car and tried to drive through narrow streets like the one where we were staying on, we decided against that. So, Sean drove our little pink scooter, with our “biker babe” Kai on his back in the carrier, and me behind the two of them. Of course, three people riding on a scooter, one being a two year old, would be unheard of in The States. But this was quite the norm here, not that it made it any less dangerous. Sometimes, you would see up to four people on one scooter and some kids smaller than Kai. Some even had a small seat for baby attached to the bike right in front of the regular seat. Sean was a good, careful driver and at the very least we all had helmets. Our first stop was right down the street, to see the Big Buddha. There, we already got a flat tire. And of course, it was at our expense to get it fixed. I’m sure the guy that rented us the bike just filled the flat tire up with more air right before he gave it to us. But, the cost of rental and repair was still less than getting a taxi. Next, we headed to Chaweng Beach, which is where I spent most of my time the last trip here. I knew there would be more development than 10 years ago, but there was way more than what I could have imagined, complete with Starbucks and a 24 hour Burger King. Of course, the road is now paved. I was surprised to even recognize a couple places still standing from 10 years ago, tucked behind all the development around. We stopped for some breakfast and Kailani instantly fell asleep. We have never seen her fall asleep like that in the morning. The only thing we can figure out is that it’s from the movement of the scooter and/or she went into complete overload with the excitement of the bike ride and the wind in her face. After eating, we ran into a family from Denmark that we met while in Chiang Mai - Rune, Tina and their two little girls. Small world! After a brief chat, we walked down to the white sand beach with crystal clear shallow water protected by an outside reef. It was beautiful, but way more crowded than our beach. Sean was a bit miffed by the staff at our bungalows upon check-in and I thought it was a bit pricey for what you got. So, we were also hoping to find somewhere else to stay at. But in the end, we ended-up deciding that we liked where we were at, especially because Kailani had such a nice play buddy there. Still, we decided to check out the Amari hotel, which was where I considered staying at, but the last minute internet rates were still a bit steep unlike in Chiang Mai and Ang Khang. By the time we found it, we were hot and Sean was ready for a beer. I ordered one and tried out one of their lounge chairs on the sand. Next thing I knew, Sean and Kailani left the beach and jumped in their pool. Their kid’s pool was the perfect depth for Kailani to practice her swimming, not too deep but not too shallow. She had a blast. So for the rest of the afternoon, we made ourselves at home on their lounge chairs, using their towels, in their pool and using their toilets, all for the price of a couple beers and lunch for Kai, rather than the cost of a room. Still, the food was not cheap. But, at least we compensated by buying lunch there, instead of completely freeloading and eating lunch from one of the makeshift BBQ guys that roam up and down the beach! From Chaweng, we hopped back on the bike to see the rest of the island. But by then, Kai was falling asleep again. So, we headed back to our bungalow for the rest of the day. That evening, we had another session in the pool before dinner. There we met Strick, who’s from…of all places….San Jose and works for Google in Mt. View. For dinner, we tried another upscale Thai place, Samui Spice. It was less than stellar but food was OK. But for the price, I much preferred Starfish.
Day 3, we took the scooter for a ride to the side of the island that we didn’t see the day before. Kai started to fall asleep again, so we took our first pit stop for lunch at a more “local” looking place near one of the ferry piers where I got some epic roasted duck curry. I still have yet to have bad Thai food since coming here! Then, we stopped at the bottom of a trail where you can hike 2 km up to some waterfalls. As we stopped, I realized that I did this hike last time, but didn’t know where I was going and only hiked 90% of the trail, stopping JUST below the waterfalls. It was nice to break new ground and actually SEE them this time! By the time you get all the way up there, you’re dripping wet with sweat. So, we stripped and cooled off in the water for a bit before going down and continuing around the rest of the island. Sean wanted to find this temple that had a mummified monk, complete with sunglasses and a cigarette hanging from his mouth. But unfortunately, we never found it. After stopping briefly for some supplies at the grocery store, we finally made it all the way around the island back to our bungalows. I believe it takes around 55 km to go all the way around. So, it’s not like it’s a big island. But, you also don’t go that fast on a scooter either. As we entered our village, the traffic had stopped. A local girl had wiped out on her scooter. She appeared alright as she was able to get up and walk. But, that was enough for Sean to see. He promptly returned our bike after that. We finally looked a little harder and found a reasonably-priced divey Thai place for a light dinner of spring rolls and noodles that night. Yea!
Day 4 was another “rest” day. We had another long morning session in the pool with Elizabeth. Kailani had such a great time playing with Elizabeth that she actually started to fall asleep in the pool while in the floaty. Guess it was time for a nap. Then, while Kai had her afternoon nap, Sean and I got busy planning out the next couple weeks. We needed to book our next stop to Ko Tao, but couldn’t do that until we decided whether we wanted to go to Kuala Lumpur, and if so, how much time we wanted to dedicate to see the rest of Malaysia. There is a Malay island near the Thai border that sounded very nice; especially because it’s in the Andaman Sea which I hear is beautiful in its own right. But, it would take some backtracking to get to, flying down to Kuala Lumpur, and then going back up by land. Unfortunately, we read that crossing the Thai border into Malaysia by land is quite unsafe. Our other option was to skip Malaysia and go directly to Singapore for a few days, and then spend the rest of our time in Indonesia/Bali before meeting Caitlin and “Tutu” (Caitlin’s grandmother) in Sydney. It was a toss up because I’d love to see Malaysia, but spending a good portion of time in Indo/Bali without having to move around so much sounded really nice too. During our research, I started reading about Phuket. My impression was that it would be too developed for my taste, even more than Ko Samui. Our friends from Denmark also commented that they cancelled their trip over there because the weather was not so great. But, depending on where we chose to go, we could have ended up there en route. As it turns out, there is one beach there that actually gets surf AND if there’s weather, the waves get better. It’s also situated in the Andaman Sea and you could fly there directly from Ko Samui. SOLD!!!! So in the end, we booked a boat ride and bungalow for a couple days in Ko Tao, one more night in Ko Samui, and then a flight to Phuket before heading to Singapore. (That’s unless we change our minds again…)
That night, we packed and then found another great place to eat. It was not too expensive or upscale, but more pleasant than a dive. It was called the Happy Elephant. I kept passing it up because it looked like all the other places. But, I think it’s been around for a while. There’s one part that you can see from the street that looks like a new addition (hence overlooking it) and a whole other side that looks like it’s older. They had a couple guys playing live music, little kittens wondering around looking for table scraps and a couple rocking wooden elephants that they put right next to our table for Kai to play on. They did a really nice whole steamed fish that you get to pick, simply seasoned with soy sauce and green onions, just like we make. But, they do theirs wrapped in a foil pouch on the BBQ. We had it with some sautéed veggies in oyster sauce and steamed rice. It was just like how we cook – YUM!
One last observation is how many farang families we saw walking around with nice strollers here. Personally, I didn’t think twice about not taking a stroller to a third world country like Thailand. But, I suppose my impression was that the roads were unpaved, and now they are. Still, they aren’t very smooth, there are no sidewalks and there can be many puddles after torrential rainfalls.
The island of Ko Samui is where I spend the majority of time at when I came to Thailand last time, around 10 years ago. As we landed, I could see from the air how much more built-up it had become. As we deplaned, I noticed that one other gal and I were the only Asian passengers. That’s the most Westerners I’ve been around since landing in Asia a month and a half ago! I expected mostly tourists in this beach-resort atmosphere, just like in Boracay. But there, the majority of tourists were Filipino, not Western. I couldn’t recognize anything from our taxi ride to Bo Phut beach, a.k.a. Fisherman’s Village, where we were staying. Finally, after settling into our room and going onto the beach, I realized that this was the same beach I stayed at on my previous trip. I actually only spent one night here, frankly because it was a little TOO quiet for me since I was traveling alone. Before, there were only a couple fishing boats, local kids playing on the beach and a couple Chinese chophouses. Now, there were modern yachts and boats in the water, and development all along the beach. The chophouses were now converted into modern restaurants, mostly cooking Western food. That was kind of a disappointment to see. Personally, I don’t see why you would travel all the way to Thailand to eat predominantly Western food when there’s Thai. I think I could eat Thai food every day. So that night, Sean and I enjoyed a romantic sunset beachside dinner, sitting on large cushions with table low to the ground, at this modern Thai restaurant called Starfish, with nice décor and red walls, all without having to get a babysitter. Kai had fallen asleep and was lying on a cushion next to us as we ate. It was pretty nice, but we could have just as well eaten at a divey little shop or street stall. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any. Poor Kai got all bit up from mosquito bites laying there. We put long pants on her. But still, they got the bottom part of her legs and tagged her a couple times on the face and arms. Since then, we’ve been more diligent about covering ourselves with spray.
Kailani found a great playmate who was also staying at the Eden Bungalows, 4 year old Elizabeth from Kent, UK. Elizabeth shared her floaty toys with Kai and the two played together in the pool a good half of our first day. We also enjoyed chatting with John and Theresa, Elizabeth’s parents, and John’s mom from New Zealand. We were also going to rent a scooter later in the day, but Kai played so much in the pool, she took a long nap. When she woke, it was raining sheets. After the rain, it was dinner time. For some reason, you really didn’t see anybody eating at any of these upscale places. Since that’s all we could really find, it’s a wonder where all these people you see on the streets are eating at. But, there was one place that we saw some people eating at, a supposed “California” style BBQ restaurant, The Shack, that played blues music. The bacon-wrapped asparagus, mango salmon and Sean’s rib/chicken combo were all good. But like everything else here, I could feel our wallet getting lighter.
The next day, we got a scooter and drove around the island. After almost getting run over by others who rented a car and tried to drive through narrow streets like the one where we were staying on, we decided against that. So, Sean drove our little pink scooter, with our “biker babe” Kai on his back in the carrier, and me behind the two of them. Of course, three people riding on a scooter, one being a two year old, would be unheard of in The States. But this was quite the norm here, not that it made it any less dangerous. Sometimes, you would see up to four people on one scooter and some kids smaller than Kai. Some even had a small seat for baby attached to the bike right in front of the regular seat. Sean was a good, careful driver and at the very least we all had helmets. Our first stop was right down the street, to see the Big Buddha. There, we already got a flat tire. And of course, it was at our expense to get it fixed. I’m sure the guy that rented us the bike just filled the flat tire up with more air right before he gave it to us. But, the cost of rental and repair was still less than getting a taxi. Next, we headed to Chaweng Beach, which is where I spent most of my time the last trip here. I knew there would be more development than 10 years ago, but there was way more than what I could have imagined, complete with Starbucks and a 24 hour Burger King. Of course, the road is now paved. I was surprised to even recognize a couple places still standing from 10 years ago, tucked behind all the development around. We stopped for some breakfast and Kailani instantly fell asleep. We have never seen her fall asleep like that in the morning. The only thing we can figure out is that it’s from the movement of the scooter and/or she went into complete overload with the excitement of the bike ride and the wind in her face. After eating, we ran into a family from Denmark that we met while in Chiang Mai - Rune, Tina and their two little girls. Small world! After a brief chat, we walked down to the white sand beach with crystal clear shallow water protected by an outside reef. It was beautiful, but way more crowded than our beach. Sean was a bit miffed by the staff at our bungalows upon check-in and I thought it was a bit pricey for what you got. So, we were also hoping to find somewhere else to stay at. But in the end, we ended-up deciding that we liked where we were at, especially because Kailani had such a nice play buddy there. Still, we decided to check out the Amari hotel, which was where I considered staying at, but the last minute internet rates were still a bit steep unlike in Chiang Mai and Ang Khang. By the time we found it, we were hot and Sean was ready for a beer. I ordered one and tried out one of their lounge chairs on the sand. Next thing I knew, Sean and Kailani left the beach and jumped in their pool. Their kid’s pool was the perfect depth for Kailani to practice her swimming, not too deep but not too shallow. She had a blast. So for the rest of the afternoon, we made ourselves at home on their lounge chairs, using their towels, in their pool and using their toilets, all for the price of a couple beers and lunch for Kai, rather than the cost of a room. Still, the food was not cheap. But, at least we compensated by buying lunch there, instead of completely freeloading and eating lunch from one of the makeshift BBQ guys that roam up and down the beach! From Chaweng, we hopped back on the bike to see the rest of the island. But by then, Kai was falling asleep again. So, we headed back to our bungalow for the rest of the day. That evening, we had another session in the pool before dinner. There we met Strick, who’s from…of all places….San Jose and works for Google in Mt. View. For dinner, we tried another upscale Thai place, Samui Spice. It was less than stellar but food was OK. But for the price, I much preferred Starfish.
Day 3, we took the scooter for a ride to the side of the island that we didn’t see the day before. Kai started to fall asleep again, so we took our first pit stop for lunch at a more “local” looking place near one of the ferry piers where I got some epic roasted duck curry. I still have yet to have bad Thai food since coming here! Then, we stopped at the bottom of a trail where you can hike 2 km up to some waterfalls. As we stopped, I realized that I did this hike last time, but didn’t know where I was going and only hiked 90% of the trail, stopping JUST below the waterfalls. It was nice to break new ground and actually SEE them this time! By the time you get all the way up there, you’re dripping wet with sweat. So, we stripped and cooled off in the water for a bit before going down and continuing around the rest of the island. Sean wanted to find this temple that had a mummified monk, complete with sunglasses and a cigarette hanging from his mouth. But unfortunately, we never found it. After stopping briefly for some supplies at the grocery store, we finally made it all the way around the island back to our bungalows. I believe it takes around 55 km to go all the way around. So, it’s not like it’s a big island. But, you also don’t go that fast on a scooter either. As we entered our village, the traffic had stopped. A local girl had wiped out on her scooter. She appeared alright as she was able to get up and walk. But, that was enough for Sean to see. He promptly returned our bike after that. We finally looked a little harder and found a reasonably-priced divey Thai place for a light dinner of spring rolls and noodles that night. Yea!
Day 4 was another “rest” day. We had another long morning session in the pool with Elizabeth. Kailani had such a great time playing with Elizabeth that she actually started to fall asleep in the pool while in the floaty. Guess it was time for a nap. Then, while Kai had her afternoon nap, Sean and I got busy planning out the next couple weeks. We needed to book our next stop to Ko Tao, but couldn’t do that until we decided whether we wanted to go to Kuala Lumpur, and if so, how much time we wanted to dedicate to see the rest of Malaysia. There is a Malay island near the Thai border that sounded very nice; especially because it’s in the Andaman Sea which I hear is beautiful in its own right. But, it would take some backtracking to get to, flying down to Kuala Lumpur, and then going back up by land. Unfortunately, we read that crossing the Thai border into Malaysia by land is quite unsafe. Our other option was to skip Malaysia and go directly to Singapore for a few days, and then spend the rest of our time in Indonesia/Bali before meeting Caitlin and “Tutu” (Caitlin’s grandmother) in Sydney. It was a toss up because I’d love to see Malaysia, but spending a good portion of time in Indo/Bali without having to move around so much sounded really nice too. During our research, I started reading about Phuket. My impression was that it would be too developed for my taste, even more than Ko Samui. Our friends from Denmark also commented that they cancelled their trip over there because the weather was not so great. But, depending on where we chose to go, we could have ended up there en route. As it turns out, there is one beach there that actually gets surf AND if there’s weather, the waves get better. It’s also situated in the Andaman Sea and you could fly there directly from Ko Samui. SOLD!!!! So in the end, we booked a boat ride and bungalow for a couple days in Ko Tao, one more night in Ko Samui, and then a flight to Phuket before heading to Singapore. (That’s unless we change our minds again…)
That night, we packed and then found another great place to eat. It was not too expensive or upscale, but more pleasant than a dive. It was called the Happy Elephant. I kept passing it up because it looked like all the other places. But, I think it’s been around for a while. There’s one part that you can see from the street that looks like a new addition (hence overlooking it) and a whole other side that looks like it’s older. They had a couple guys playing live music, little kittens wondering around looking for table scraps and a couple rocking wooden elephants that they put right next to our table for Kai to play on. They did a really nice whole steamed fish that you get to pick, simply seasoned with soy sauce and green onions, just like we make. But, they do theirs wrapped in a foil pouch on the BBQ. We had it with some sautéed veggies in oyster sauce and steamed rice. It was just like how we cook – YUM!
One last observation is how many farang families we saw walking around with nice strollers here. Personally, I didn’t think twice about not taking a stroller to a third world country like Thailand. But, I suppose my impression was that the roads were unpaved, and now they are. Still, they aren’t very smooth, there are no sidewalks and there can be many puddles after torrential rainfalls.
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