Island Hopping
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2009
1
8
38
Trip End
Jul 01, 2010
Koh Samui, Surat Thani, Thailand
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The next day we decided to rent a car and go and see the whole island. It was a crappy jeep
that struggled up the hills but the air-con worked so we were happy. We circled the island, first visiting 'Big Buddha' – a giant golden Buddha overlooking the ocean that apparently brings good luck to all! The legend goes that if you rub off some of its gold onto paper then transfer the rub to an area on your body, your wish connected to that area will come true, for example, rubbing your pocket will bring you luck with money! We then drove to the local water fall and created our own little trek over huge boulders and rocks towards the water, but were soon warned by a local about snakes so took a sharp turn around and headed in the other direction! An interesting feature of the journey was our stop-off at an amazingly massive Tesco, yes, a proper Tesco, that dwarfs the ones back in the UK....and on a little island in the middle of nowhere! This is where we made our first large purchase of the holiday, deciding that with a laptop we wouldn't just be buying a computer, but we'd be buying time! Also giving us the opportunity to see and speak to our families through skype.....Priceless you could say. After dinner at the sunset point of the island, but unfortunately with no spectacular sunset due to the clouds coming in at the last minute, we went back to our air-conditioned room to play on the laptop for the evening (crazy party animals that we are). We soon loaded the computer with all the essentials and spent the evening talking to our families and transferring photos.
The next morning we looked out of the window to our once sunny paradise and saw clouds, a perfect excuse to be extremely lazy and hang about the hotel communal living space, catching up with the western world of X-Factor over breakfast and lunch, every so often popping out to wonder around the shops and book our next journey to Koh Phangan for the following day. Our original plan was to try and extend our visa by a few days for the Full Moon party, but we decided the Half Moon party was a good alternative. In the evening we ventured along the Chaweng strip, hunting for the prettiest restaurant. After being accosted by the glitzy lady boys we found the destination for the evening, a place that served good Thai food and had interesting Thai dance performances running throughout the night. We felt that this chilled last day on Koh Samui before hitting the party island of Koh Phangan was a wise move in preparation for the up coming events and also gave us time to reflect on our time travelling. The first three weeks have gone so quickly but having done so much saying our goodbyes at Heathrow feels like a lifetime ago now. We have no regrets, having tried to do everything that has come our way and enjoyed every minute of it.
Koh Phangan immediately won us over – the Sunrise and Sunset beach of Hat Rin were the prettiest we have come across so far. Our hotel, 'Drop In Club', wasn't what we had in mind, being a little walk away from the beach and pool looking like it'd had better days, but we thought it was only for the night and would not be spending all that much time in it so it would do the job. Once checked in, we kept our family appointments on Skype then headed down to the main beach (Sunrise) for a late lunch before making our way to Sunset beach for our first beautiful sunset over the sea. After I kept Holly waiting, in attemp to get the perfect photo over the water, we made our way back to the hotel to prepare for the night ahead. I will try not to delve too much in to the evening's events (as I don't know who is reading....mum). We started off with cocktails and an evening meal at a Mexican restaurant, then swiftly moved on to buckets and were soon on our way into the middle of the jungle for the 'Half Moon Party'. We met Rob and Ruth, brother and sister, who are travelling the world together and spent much of the evening with them and having to hunt Ruth down for Rob on several occasions. When we walked in we were instantly surrounded by fluorescent displays of body paint and had to get involved. The set-up was unbelievable – a massive dance platform lit up from every angle with bars on different levels, all placed in the magical jungle scene. It was quite spectacular, especially with the fire shows and blasting music. We met all sorts of characters during the evening and had a great night out... The party in the jungle turned out to be an amazing and unforgettable experience. The evening ended with us returning to the hotel about 6am, randomly jumping into the pool and deciding to finish off a great night by running down to Sunrise Beach to see the sun rise.
It was the morning after the night before and we managed to drag ourselves out of bed in time to check out of our mediocre hotel, then walk down to the beach to grab a bungalow on the sea front and enjoy our last day on Koh Phangan on the beach. We were surprisingly active: we exchanged books at the local book store, had breakfast by the beach and jumped on a jet ski for a 20 minutes burst of adrenaline. We took it in turns to drive, trying to scare the other who held on for dear life. After this, however, we flopped on to our beach towels by the pool and relaxed for the rest of the day, taking in those dangerous rays from the ever-blasting sun. As the sun went down we decided that one night of madness was plenty for these two party animals, settling instead for a night in front of the TV with good DVD, making us feel right at home.
The next day and we were on the move again, off to Koh Tao (Turtle Island) to see what the next leg of the adventure had in store for us.....The next blog will reveal all about the world under the sea, keep tuned!
Comments
If you are looking for more information about Koh Samui, or a perfect holiday villa on this tropical island, there is plenty to choose of exceptional beachfront-, seaview-, garden-, or resort villas. Have a good time & sunny greetings.
Oh, sorry, here the info: www.samui-villas.biz