Thailand Trail Koh Samui. Sunshine with a sting in the tail

 

Ko (Koh) Samui is a popular holiday island in the south west of the Gulf of Thailand. It is Thailand's second largest island after Phuket. In 2018 it hosted 2.7 million visitors. People come from all over the world, but when we were there apart from Europeans we mainly encountered North Americans and Australians. The local population is about 70,000. We booked a beachside bungalow at Escape Beach Resort which was a bit outside Mae Nam. Our journey there was somewhat convoluted. 

Firstly we had a 40 minute taxi ride to Don Mueang airport followed by 1.5 hour flight to Surat Thani. Next was a coach trip of about 90 minutes to the ferry terminal and after another hours wait we finally boarded the boat. Note who's doing the heavy lifting!

Pulling away from the mainland and you can see the impressive limestone crags that are a draw for climbers from all over the world. The most famous climbing is to be had at the Railay district near to Krabi. 

A zoom in to our landing port on Ko Samui. The crossing took a couple of hours. My online booking included the airport to ferry transfer, the crossing itself and the onward transfer to the resort. I was pretty impressed by their efficiency considering the booking was made 3 months previously from the other side of the world. 

This is the the final link in the chain. As you can see it is a rather smart customised minibus into which half a dozen of us travelled to our homes for the next week. You will see our transport is right hand drive for the Thais,  like the Japanese drive on the left side. This is a hangover of British influence in the C19.

Others weren't so lucky and got what was somewhat reminiscent of an upmarket jeepney and nearly equally crowded. 

Welcome to the Escape Beach Resort on our first evening. Every resort likes to be able to boast a sunset beach and our private beach could certainly do this. I love the photograph. It looks like the guy on the beach has superpowers to explode mountains. It's all in the timing really. The beach had a small tidal range of about 3 metres but combine this with steeply inclined  sand so the water level never seemed to change much. Just behind the people you can see the end wall of our swimming pool. The wall is to stop seawater splashing in with a strong wind and particularly high tide. The side opposite us is "infinity" and seems to merge into the sea. 

Here is that infinity effect. The trees surrounding the pool are Indian Almonds. Whereas they provide excellent shade, they also have large nuts which randomly fall from the trees and crash to the ground, or your head if you are unlucky. As they are about half the size of a coconut, they could do some damage. 

Talking of coconuts, before tourism they were the mainstay of the island's economy. In celebration of this, the island has opened a coconut museum.  I have discussed single subject museums before. Loyal readers may recall the Reykjavik Penis museum or perhaps the Keswick Pencil museum and don't forget the Tokyo Pot Noodle museum. So I propose the elevate the Ko Samui Coconut museum to join my list of the world's most interesting (?) single subject museums. 

Every good tropical beach bungalow needs its Harry. Meet ours. 

Now for a little look at our accommodation. As well as Harry, we have a seating area with settee, table and outdoor lighting. 

A wee peek into the main room.  A large bed with seating area and table straight across. To the right is the, kitchen or rather the fridge and kettle. Beyond this is the toilet and shower room. To the left is a long desk with telly, which we never turned on. 

Our accommodation was very self-contained. It had a restaurant and a small shop. With the beach, pool and sunbeds, there was really no reason to leave the resort, except who wants to eat in the same restaurant for a week and the shop was small, poorly stocked and expensive. Moreover we wanted to see something of the island. Taxis seemed to operate a cartel and were very expensive so we decided to do what a lot of tourists do and hire a small motorbike. These come with lots of health warnings in the guide books. Although very cheap, they are not insured, most people don't bother with the crash helmets and the attrition rate through accidents is very high. The traffic is pretty horrendous and doesn't seem to abide by any of the rules of the road. Add to all that all these bikes buzzing around the place and you have the perfect storm for a disaster. It won't happen to us, of course. 

  

Here we are ready to go.Note helmets, on and secure. 

One of the places that we visited on the bike was the so called Fishermen's Village. Up until a few years ago this was a nice beach with a rather scruffy road down to it and another road running parallel to the shore. Now it's been gentrified, a number of smart bars  and restaurants opened and some upmarket fashion shops added to the usual tourist catchpennies. As you can see it markets itself quite well and is (supposedly) traffic free.

Whilst exploring inland I encountered this area. Bull fighting is still a spectator sport in Spain and we experienced cock fighting in the Philippines. I imagine the shortage of bears has put a stop to bear baiting but there's still plenty of pugnacious dogs for people to amuse themselves with. Buffalo fighting is new to me. Apparently the competition takes place twice a year in this particular stadium, but is advertised mainly by word of mouth. The main reason for the event is, of course, gambling and huge amounts of money can change hands. Gambling is illegal in Thailand (as is buffalo fighting). Serious injury rarely happens because the fight is over when one beast turns its back on the other. The cost to attend is £2.50, but women get in free. Is there some sort of double standard at work here?

One of the attractions of Ko Samui is that rain showers only tend to last an hour or so, even in the rainy season. When they come however, they come with a vengeance. This was the view across the bay. 

Remember that motorbike? Well this is the eponymous sting in the tail. On our last day we decided to go further into the centre of the island. There's a precipitous mountain which rises to 2,500 ft with a feature waterfall to visit. I drive us up the the concrete road through the tropical jungle. There is a deep storm drain either side of the 1 in 3 road which bends sharply to the left............need I go on?

Getting the bike off us was the first problem, then getting the bike out of the drain. The helmets certainly prevented serious head injuries. Our upper torsos had definitely sustained damage as had Helen's knee and right hand. Fortunately a local guy came up the road and offered to help. He adjusted and checked the bike, then tested it. The naughty bike appeared to be OK.  So, somewhat chastened and definitely very tentatively we drove back to the resort. It turned out that I had sustained three fractured ribs and Helen bruised hers along with the knee and hand problems. Bruised or broken, the pain is about the same. 

We endured the return journey to Bangkok and spent a day by the pool girding up our loins for the long flight home. Doing this and trying to handle the luggage proved very challenging and without the generous help of the Railway staff across London might well have been impossible. Lastly a mention of Catherine who met us at Spalding and saw us safely home. 

I always like to finish on a sunset, so here it is.