We arrived last night in the evening – late enough that it was dark outside and we couldn’t see the actual beach and ocean front. We could only see the lights of all the resorts that lined the beach with their restaurants and lawn chairs all set up on the sand.

The room... nice bedding.. um

You can buy fireworks and set them off in the sand over the water.

A balloon - they light a little fire and let it go. It floats off into space. Cheweng Beach was super annoying because they bother you to buy one every 2 minutes. I was also concerned about where these fireballs were landing and the garbage it leaves in the ocean or around the land. Anything to make a dollar.

Luckily we both woke up around 8am and made our way to the scooter rental place. The idea was to navigate the island ourselves and explore the islands without having to taxi or mini bus it over. The scooter for the day cost only 3 euros !!

The first place we stopped for breakfast was Lamai Beach. My book said that it was the 2^nd most popular beach next to Chaweng (where we are currently staying). It was a hot morning and upon arrival we immediately looked for some shaded area to set up our little area. Not much to be found. The sand was heavy and wet and very grainy. It’s not that I’m spoiled by beaches, I just had the idea of a nicer area since the book and many people talk about Ko Samui well.

Even though Lamai beach was nicer for the fact that there weren’t many people hounding us to buy things, we ate breakfast, took a swim and carried on.

First stop was to see the Grandfather and Grandmother Rock formations that resemble male and female genitalia. eep

There actually isn’t much to do on the island except explore waterfalls and swim on the beaches… which is exactly what we did in the end.

We explored 2 waterfalls that were inland, nothing too spectacular but still a wonderful natural beauty to see. We could hear the monkey show but decided not to attend. We also saw all the elephants that they use to do the elephant trekking. I sure hope they treat those guys well.. nothing close to a natural habitat obviously – I actually feel bad for riding on one but I suppose the experience was interesting. I wanted to see the culture.

Tomorrow we will move on to Ko Phan Gan. Honestly I think the day was wasted here, which is a shame, but better to know.

Now if only we could find a place with free wi fi connection L I’m on holiday but I still like to check in with home as often as possible.

We will try to meet up with Giuliana and Stacey tomorrow since they suggested going to their place called Sunrise Resort on Hat Rin Nok (sunrise beach).

Ko Samui

It took just about an entire day to travel from Phi Phi to Ko Samui. Whether we took a plane or a bus, the travel time would equal out to be the same but of course the plane would cost a lot more. We went for the bus option.

The deal was about 10$ for the ferry ride, the air conditioned bus and then the ferry ride again from the mainland to Samui.

As it turned out, the bus wasn’t feeling very cold….. we sat for more than 2 hours on a bus that was completely full with no air conditioner or open windows! The air coming out of the vents was just the fan. Oh man. Everyone was sweating and moaning and hating it! When we reached the pit stop area we waited more than an hour for a new bus to arrive and take us for the last 45 mins of the trip.

The ferry was an additional 1.5 hours to Samui and we paid the $4 each for the ride across the island to Chaweng Beach, the most developed part of the island. We were planning to rent scooters and navigate ourselves around so it didn’t really matter which beach we stayed on.

Luckily since we hadn’t booked accommodations, some of the people on the mini bus ride suggested Relax Resort which offered cheap rooms, middle of the road rooms, and proper bungalows. We opted for the middle of the road – about 800 baht – 16 euros, still under budget for what we had planned. A curious room, but clean and totally workable.

We had dinner on the beach since all the hotels and restaurants set up tables and lawn chairs for about 3 km. It was pretty amazing actually.

A long day traveling, tired again, but hopefully worth it for a good trip here.

Tomorrow, scooter trip to the inland waterfalls and remote beaches.