Koh Samed

In a 6 week span I had been to Koh Samed twice, once for a day with mom and for a two day trip with my co-workers Dana and Kerry. On my first trip to Samed I wanted to take mom to a Thai beach and since I only had two days off I thought Samed, which was 2 hours away, would be a great idea. We woke up super early Tuesday morning and headed to Victory monument to catch a 7 am van to Rayong, the city where we would catch a boat to the island. It took a good 15 -30 minutes till we left Victory Monument because we had to wait until the van was full to leave. The van ride was quite uneventful it took us about 2.5 to 3 hours to get to Rayong. When we got there the van took us to a van stop that tried to sell us speed boat rides and hotel rooms. They wouldn't take us to the pier because they wanted us to buy more. We told them we wanted the slow boat and the lady charged us too much but we were stuck and didn't know what else to do. They did take us to the pier after we bought the slow boat ticket, we were then put on a fishing boat with all the locals. It was quite an experience, the ride to the island took about 30 minutes and the water was a bit choppy. I did start getting queasy but I powered through. When we got to the island we hopped on a green song tau to our hotel, Samed Pavilion. When you first arrive on Samed you land on a long pier that opens into a square full of parked green song tau with two 7-11s across from one another. You then travel on a proper road to the entrance of a national park, Samed is a national park so you must pay to enter. After you enter the national park there are no more paved roads. Thankfully our hotel was not too far from the gate. The road was incredibly bumpy, we were bouncing in and out of our seats, smacking our backs against the rails of the song tau, and getting whip lash every few seconds. After our intense journey we made it to our beautiful hotel and immediately went out to the beach to tan and play in the water.

After all was said and done we got to the beach around 1 o'clock, we went for lunch on the beach and then spent the rest of the afternoon tanning. Thankfully our hotel let us take two towels a piece so that we could put on towel on the sand and the other was used to dry off. It was so heavenly to just lay out and be near the ocean. For a person who has never been a fan of sand I always seem to be re energized when I am near the ocean. We spent as much time as possible at the beach and we left when the sun disappeared behind the trees. A funny event that did happen on the beach was that there are numerous dogs that live on the beaches in Samed. Surprisingly these dogs are pretty healthy and clean as well as playful. So as I am tanning and sleeping something tries to pull my hair and pull out my hair band. I literally jump into the air and scream, I then realize that one of the dogs had come up and tried to yank it out. What a way to wake up. Mom kind of chuckled but really didn't seem to care so when it happened to her not even 30 minutes later I had a good laugh. On the way back to the hotel we decided to have a drink at a neighboring resort. You are at the beach you should have a refreshing alcoholic beverage to make your time at the beach complete. We also had a Banana Fosters as we sipped Margaritas on the beach. Once we got back to our hotel it began to rain extremely hard. We were hoping that it would slow down so we could go out to dinner on the beach. It eventually stopped raining and we were able to go to a local restaurant for bbq on the beach. There are only 3 main restaurants on the beach. The one we had lunch at earlier in the day did not have beach eating because the sand was too wet to put out the mats and tables on the sand. The restaurant we had drinks and dessert at earlier looked quite busy and looked like there was some kind of event going on so we decided to walk down to the beach to see where else there was to eat. We found a restaurant that had low tables on platforms right next to the ocean and we decided to have dinner here. It had bbq or a full menu we decided to have bbq.

We went up to the seafood bar which is a wall of boxes filled with ice and the seafood is placed upon it. There is someone always there fanning away flies. It is so interesting the way they store food here is Thailand. We decided to have bbq large shrimp and beef shish kabobs. We then went to sit out under the stars and enjoy the night drinking beer and enjoying bbq. As we were finishing up dinner some teenage boys were walking around with what looked like a hula hoop and sticks, they were the fire dancers. They did a quick show as we finished up dinner. They were pretty good and extremely brave. I could never do what they were doing, it had to have taken a lot of practice and a lot of burns to get as good as they were. After the fire show and dinner mom and I headed back to the hotel to relax the night away. The next morning mom and I got up early to go for a walk on the beach and then we would come back to the hotel to have some breakfast. When we got out to the beach we first went to our right and explored the beaches to our right. We climbed over rocks and up hills to get to some of the other beaches as well as passed what looked like a statue to pay homage to the sea.

It looked like a mermaid and Buddha sitting on the beach. It was such a quiet morning, first because it was early but second because it was a bit overcast so not too many people ventured out yet. Every once in a while we would pass the occasional runner. Once we reached the end of that end of the beach we turned back to see what turning left at our resort would bring up. We had to first go through a neighboring resort to get to the smaller beach on the other side. This beach maybe had one or two resorts and I thought the beach was not as good as ours. So we made a good choice. We walked to the other end of the beach which lead to an entrance to a path into the hills/jungle. We walked the rocky path to the top of the hill and viewed the beaches near our resort. Even though it was an overcast day the beaches here were still beautiful. We continued our journey through the jungle and came out overlooking another much smaller beach. This beach was much more remote with maybe one resort in the area. We decided not to climb down the rocks because once we walked to the end of the beach there wasn't anywhere else to go. We headed back to the hotel to have breakfast which was a nice mix of Thai and Western food. It was all buffet style so we could have as much as we wanted. After breakfast we packed up and relaxed before heading to the pier to get back to Bangkok. The ride back to the mainland was much smoother than the ride to the island. On the boat we meet this Danish couple that were heading to Koh Chang, but would make their way to up to Bangkok to spend a few days. The wife asked for advice on things to visit and do in Bangkok, especially shopping. I gave her advice on all the best shopping places and good places to get jewelry. She thanked me profusely and couldn't wait to go shopping. Once on shore we called the van and were picked up within 5 minutes but as we went to the other pier to pick up another group of passengers we hit a snag. I guess this group of Thai tourists decided to wander off and would not pick up their phone. So we had to sit in the van while we waited for them to finish up whatever they were doing. It was really frustrating because in any other country the van would have just left, but the driver didn't want to leave so we waited. About 15 minutes later they show up and we finally get on the road. I swear every time I go back to Bangkok it takes longer than it did to get to my original destination. We were constantly stopping to pick up or drop off people. And once we got into Bangkok we were stuck in the infamous Bangkok traffic. Once we got close to any BTS stop mom and I jumped out of the van because I couldn't stand being in traffic any longer. We were home by 4 pm and thoroughly exhausted.

Bar where we had drinks and dessert.

On my trip to Samed with Dana and Kerry, I had a little bit more time to spend on the island. All three of us wanted to get away from Bangkok and relax.  We meet on Monday agreeing to meet at Ekkami at 10 am, a little bit later than usual, but we all wanted to be relaxed when we got to the island. We made it just in time to catch the bus to Samed. Once we were settled on the bus we spent the time talking about what we planned to do and of course talked about work. It took about 2.5 to 3 hours to get to the pier. This pier was different to the one I went to with mom. Once at the pier we exchanged our vouchers for tickets to the boat and made our way out to the end of the pier to get on the boat. What really sucked was that since it is slow season we had to wait until we had 20 people before we could get on the boat. Unfortunately we only had 16 people and every time a new group would start walking up we would get hopeful and then they would get on a speed boat. It felt like we waited forever till the boat was finally full enough to take us to the island. Since we had no idea where we were staying we decided to go to the same hotel I went with mom and see what kind of deal we could get. Also with going there I knew that there were other resorts nearby so if we needed to go somewhere else we could. The hotel was pretty empty so we were hopeful we could get a good rate, but as we went to the front desk they quoted us an extremely high rate and we decided to go elsewhere. We went back to the main road and saw this little hole in the wall of a place that was charging next to nothing for a night. It wasn't too great but it would do. We weren't going to spend too much time in the room anyway. It wasn't on the beach but it was short walk down to the beach. I am pretty sure we were the only guests and the one thing I will remember about this place was the mosquitoes were horrible. Once we put our stuff down we headed to the beach immediately.

First place we stopped for food.

We were starving so we went to the first restaurant we came across. After eating we walked down the beach to another restaurant/ bar to have drinks and dessert. We sat on mats on the sand with triangle shaped pillows to support our backs. It was just so relaxing sitting by the ocean having the waves come in. We really didn't do too much we wanted to get up early to spend the entire day tanning. We woke up relatively early and went in search of breakfast. We went to the place we had drinks at the previous night for a traditional western breakfast. The breakfast was ok, every once in a while you just crave western food. The service at this place was awful, the servers acted like we were an inconvenience and were whispering under their breath. Thankfully Dana, who is much better at Thai then Kerry or I, heard them and spoke back to them in Thai stating that she had heard and understood them. While we were having breakfast we were watching these ladies giving Thai massages under this tree and we all really wanted one but we would only do it if all three of us could have it done at the same time. Once we finished breakfast we went down to see the women and as we arrived they had enough space to give us all a massage at the same time. Dana and Kerry had Thai massages while I just had a back and shoulder massage. Ever since I have arrived in Asia my upper back between my shoulder blades at the base of my neck has been killing me. I have done any and everything to have the pain stop. I told my lady to use a lot of strength on my back and boy did she listen. I was nearly in tears as I was face down in my pillow. It was exactly what I wanted I thought that maybe she could workout the kinks. This was the second massage I had gotten in 2 weeks and it was heavenly, but painful. My massage ended earlier than the other so I waited for the others to finish before I put my stuff down. Unfortunately the strong massage did not fix the pain in my back. I wish I could find the cure. Everyone keeps telling me to get massages, but how many am I going to have to do to get rid of this pain? I have found that the pain diminishes when I do yoga, but when I do yoga especially the transition from up dog to downward facing dog the pain seems to make itself known. Maybe doing yoga more regularly will strengthen my back or maybe this is where my stress has decided to reside. My back doesn't seem to hurt when I am on holiday, but after being at work in my heels for an hour or two it is killing me.
Once all of us we done with the massage we went to grab lounge chairs on the beach and get our tan on. I absolutely love tanning I feel healthier when I have a tan, I feel like I am thinner when I have dark tanned skin. Being in Thailand almost 7 months I have yet to buy a beach towel so I had to use my sarong as one which wasn't too bad but when it got wet it got really wet and for such a thin piece of fabric is seemed to take forever to dry. As we laid on the beach we were constantly pestered by sales people, some were selling gorgeous sheets, which were way too expensive, and others were selling beautiful sarongs. By mid afternoon Dana saw a sarong she really liked and called the man over as he was trying to sell more sarongs Kerry saw one she liked too, so they both negotiated a deal. Dana got a white sarong with beautiful pink hibiscus flowers on it while Kerry got a bluish green sarong with elephants. I loved the color of Dana's sarong and the elephants of Kerry's sarong but I didn't give it a second thought until the man walked by an hour later holding a gorgeous pink sarong with elephants and a gem design. I swear the man read my mind and he knew exactly what I wanted, I ended up buying it. As the sun began to set we started to get cold  and decided to head back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. I didn't bring too much in the way of make-up and clothes. I really wanted to be free of most things so that my body could rejuvenate and anyways I wasn't going to be hit on by anybody, any white male only wants Thai women so there really is no need to be pretty here. We decided to eat at the platform restaurant I had dinner at the last time I was in Samed. We had a great table with pretty good service. We were having a grand time and since we were pretty much the only table in the restaurant the servers were having a bit of fun with us.

We were constantly ordering drinks and just relaxing on the beach. At one point Dana went to the restroom and both Kerry and I felt bad that no one had given her a farewell gift from Wall Street Siam so we decided to buy her a lantern to wish away the bad. She was really surprised and happy to have a lantern. We sent up the lantern and she made her wish. We stayed at the restaurant for a couple more rounds of drinks and once the fire dancers had performed we moved on to the dance club next door. We got another round of drinks and decided to dance for a bit. After an hour or so of dancing we decided to head back tot he room. We wanted to catch an early-ish boat and bus so not to get to Bangkok too terribly late. The next morning we got up reasonably early and we wanted to grab some breakfast before we checked out. As I went outside to grab my shoes I noticed one of my shoes was completely soaked and the laces were cut off. I had no idea what had happened I assume that one of the dogs or cats had grabbed my shoe during the night and took it off somewhere.

 My guess is that the workers found the shoe and brought it back to the room since we were the only guests. I was a bit sad because I really liked those shoes, but I knew I had another pair at home that were pretty much done for so I would switch out the laces. After that little hiccup we went to the place we were at the night before. The food wasn't as good as the place we had breakfast at the day before. I had ordered french toast and garlic roast potatoes, the french toast came out reasonably fast but it reminded me of the french toast sticks you get from Burger King. It was good that the french toast had come out this way because I did not have any utensils and after asking numerous times for some I had yet to receive any. Eventually the potatoes came out or what we thought were my potatoes came out. They looked more like mashed potatoes but I dealt with it. Since I still had no utensils I had to eat the mashed potatoes with my fingers, I manged to do this by rolling up the potatoes and popping them into my mouth. A little while later my roasted potatoes came out. It seems that the mashed potatoes were Dana's hash browns. It was all very confusing and a bit disappointing. We just hurried up, finished our breakfast, and went back to the room to pack and check out. Unfortunately our timing was a bit off so we just missed the boat and had to practically wait an hour for the next boat. We pretty much just sat around on the pier shooting the breeze and reading. We were happy to make it to the main land in time to catch the bus to Bangkok, I don't know if we could have waited another hour for transportation. We made it to Ekkami in about 3 hours and we were happy that it was still early enough so we could relax before heading back to work the next day. It was so great having a girls' weekend, I haven't had one of those in ages.