Koh Samet

Meg and I had our first out-of-Bangkok excursion this weekend past as we ventured to the island resort of Koh Samet (the spelling of which seems to vary).  It started with a 3 hour bus trip from Bangkok to the small town of Ban Phe, from which we took a 30 minute ferry to the island.  We'd made a reservation with one of the resorts but, after talking to some other tourists, learned it would be cheaper to just go to the island and walk around to the various resorts until we found accomodations.  Besides, at least then we'd be able to see what kind of conditions we'd be living in - Meg was not too fond of the idea of a bug-ridden room.

However, in our haste to find accomodations before they were all taken, we decided on the first place we saw.  It was directly across from the local bar where music was blaring through our paperthin walls until 2am. And even though there only seemed to be a couple of flies, Meg was determined not to risk letting any insect close to her. Check out our attire in the 20 degree weather....



Anyway, the next morning we found a much nicer place to stay.  It overlooked the beach and we setup immediately outside on the beach.  Meg spent the majority of her time soaking up the sun while catching up on some reading.  I spent hours snorkling - giving Meg a good scare when I decided to disappear for 30 minutes to explore another beach without thinking to inform her first (my bad, my bad).  Unfortunately, I ended up burning and suffered nasty sunstroke just in time for the long trip back to Bangkok - let's just say it wasn't a pleasent 4 hrs.

Ok, now that I've made it sounds like our trip was horrible, I'd like to assure everyone that is was a great time.  Once we got settled into our new place, we were able to enjoy the fantastic weather and beautiful scenery.  We dined at a number of amazing restaurants with traditional Thai seating that overlooked the ocean.  The pictures don't do it justice but you can find more here anyway.