Gone Since November: Koh Samui

Well, we last left you in Ao Nang, the beach town outside of Krabi, Thailand. We were heading from Ao Nang all the way to Koh Samui, and it did turn out to be a long day of travel!!

We left our hostel around 9am, looking to catch a local bus back into Krabi Town to take us to the airport. Remember: local bus means sitting on a bench in the back of a pick-up truck!! This pick-up happened to be full of travellers, so our back packs got to ride the hour or so drive on the top of the pick-up! We arrived at the Krabi bus station around 1030am, in perfect time to get a seat on the 11am bus from Krabi to Surat Thani, the town we would catch the ferry to Koh Samui. We were lucky to run into a few other travelers heading our direction, so we got to make the long journey with four other backpackers. Our bus had a few glitches, first of all was about 20 minutes late. Then we loaded the bus, they drove us around town really slowly and 30 mins later we arrived back at the bus station to get on another bus..... Since none of us know thai, we just switched buses and hoped the move was for the best! Our second bus was much nicer and actually really flashy--see the pictures below. It was about a three hour bus ride, getting us into Surat Thani town around 3pm. From here we got to play the pandemonium game that happens every time you get off a bus--lots and lots of people are waiting, asking you where you are going. It is so overwhelming!! Steve made a good point--when people come to you, likely they are ripping you off!! We often try to walk through this hoard of people trying to sell us tickets, taxis, other buses and look for what we actually need, this time being a bus to the ferry port, about 60km outside of town. We finally gave in and purchased tickets from a travel agent, and arrived in time to get on the 5pm ferry over to Koh Samui. The ferry was about 1.5hrs and was quite pleasant--we got a nice sunset on board, and ate thai cafeteria food for dinner! When we arrived on the island, we then had to make it over to the other side of the island to find a hotel, arriving around 730pm. Long day of travel, but we got a room at a very nice beach bungalow house (see pic!)

Our beach bungalow was located on a beautiful tranquil beach called Big Buddha beach. However, we decided to check out the local "hot spot" of Chaweng Beach, the spot on Samui that the backpackers claimed years ago. WOW was this place ever crowded!! The streets were packed full of American/Aussie run bars (one was called "Bondi Bar"....), hostels and restaurants serving American food. The beach was just as packed--it is a beautiful white sand beach that stretches about 6km along a bay, but the entire beach is FULL of resorts!! They are built right into the beach, leaving only a thin strip of sand. This is something we haven't yet seen in Thailand--usually the beach is left alone, with the buildings separated by a road. We did enjoy our afternoon here, but this was very very different than we had seen before.

That evening we met up with our new ferry friends. We had a delicious thai dinner and some drinks at the various local bars in the big buddha beach area. One funny thing--in Thailand, there are lots of dogs and cats, most of which appear to be stray. They walk the streets and are mostly very nice. We met a little friend at the bar we went to for drinks before dinner, and he followed us all night long!! He was a very nice dog, and he would just curl up under the table at the bar we were drinking at. He actually met us the following day, too--he came down to the ferry terminal for a Koh Samui send off!!!

The next morning we boarded another ferry to head off to the neighbouring island, Koh Phangan. This is the infamous party island in Thailand, home to the full moon parties. The ferry is a very uneventful 45mins and was quite nice. We are staying at a nice resort right on the beach. If it wasn't full of backpackers, you'd think you were at a Mexican resort! We have a beautiful pool overlooking the water, and a nice restaurant on the beach too. We've had our first few days of bad weather while in Thailand here in Koh Phangan, but we've managed to do some exploring of the little towns and had a nice walk down our beach today, before the down pour started!!

We will update you further on our Koh Phangan trip later in the week. Spoiler alert--we are heading to the half moon party tomorrow night. Hopefully they don't turn us away at the door cause we are too old!!!

Our flashy bus from Krabi to Surat Thani!!

Ang enjoying the porch on our beach bungalow.

Big Buddha Beach, the beach right outside our bungalow.

Chaweng Beach, party central on Koh Samui. It's a shame, too, cause this beach would be just beautiful if not overrun with restaurants and hotels. You can't really appreciate it, but other than a ring of sand around the outside, Koh Samui is quite hilly and full of jungle in the middle.