22/10/11
0530 and we're up again as the flight to Koh Samui leaves at 0745. Deposit returned we find a taxi and get a price, cheaper than the ride here so it's a go! The freeways in this direction are almost deserted and after watching a fiery red sunrise we arrive at the airport 25 minutes later, using a much more direct route than the arrival yesterday, which was obviously just an attempt to rack the meter up!
Again it's another lightning fast checkin with Thai Airlines and it's off to find breakfast. The weather in Samui is not to brilliant at the moment, but the next 2 days should be a lot better, but to be honest we don't care as it's relax and water sports time!
Becky's luck with plane passengers continues and the bloke sat on her left has a cold, he's now run out of room on his handkerchief, so he's blowing his nose in his hands and wiping it on his trousers, time to move seats me thinks!
Whooooooa, due to a heavy storm in Samui the first landing attempt was aborted. Bex, on the other hand managed to keep up her record of sleeping through aborted landings, she is now 2 for 2 in the last 3 years.
I'm standing in the airport arrivals, which is just a straw and bamboo covered hut. Outside the rain is so hard you can barely see 10 feet in front of you, but at least it is still warm. In a way the rain may be a blessing as we've now been on the road for a month and both starting to flag a little and could probably do with a day, or what's left of it doing very little.
The journey from the airport only took 20 mins, which considering we had to drop off other people on the way, may give you some idea of the size of Samui. It is 31 km to drive around the island and it has 3 main beaches, around which the hotels and shops have sprung up in disorganised lumps! We had booked ourselves into the Akwa, which as we found out is at the quieter end of town (thank you), and the hotel itself has a Manga comic book type theme ( I'd seen it while searching for hotels and thought it would be a laugh). Our room wasn't ready so we went for a walk through the town and to try and find the beach using the map we had been given. We passed exchange place after exchange, tailors ( or the Thai version of) and about five 7/11's all crammed into a mile and a bit, this is the quiet end? But eventually we found a crossroads and a sign saying beach!
The sun decided to come out and the muggy humidity was replaced by burning sand and blinding light and by the time we had walked out at the end we were a tad warm and ready for a drink, so back to the hotel it was.
So far every room we have stayed in, even the real budget ones has had a super kingsize bed, this is not a complaint, just an observation, because in the UK your price would no doubt double for a room like this! It had a walk in shower, fridge and TV, on which you could watch snow gently falling across the screen ( apparently the island causes interference, funny how this is missing on the bar TV) and a selection of knock off DVDs to watch, all of which were free as long as you put them back!
We settled down to plan the next couple of days, the weather was not looking to great, so we maybe a bit limited but Bex had seen a day out at Angthong National park, which is a protected island reserve and apparently the emerald lake, which is at it's centre was the inspiration for the book, The Beach ( the film was made on Ko Phi Phi, which we will visit later) our only choices were when to go. Because of the weather we decided to hire a jeep and drive around the island to see the sights on day one and risk the weather for day 2 and book the island trip, so with all that sorted we set about the hard task of relaxing and doing very little for the afternoon. I continued uploading the previous few days worth of pictures and Bex was busy writing her journal and before we knew it, it was 1900 and time for some food.
We had seen somewhere on our walk called the loft, the menu had passed the inspection by Bex and we were in. She deliberately ordered a meal that had no mention seafood at all and I ordered my normal Thai rice with chicken, and pretty soon both meals arrived with Becky's, as normal, being twice the size of mine and full of prawns, a quick swop and everyone was happy, except maybe the prawns!
On the way back to the hotel we came across a stall selling throwing knives, stars, knuckle-dusters, tazers, extendable batons and imitation firearms to name but a small selection, you have to love the relaxed laws in this country!
23/10/11
I woke up to an almighty thunderstorm going on outside, the time was 7am! I don't think I've slept past this time so far on this holiday, so I look across to see if the crashing and booming had woken Bex...... Fat chance!
After breakfast we decide today will be the driving day and walk down to hire a jeep, the weather had also started to clear up and I was weighing up the options of hard top or soft top, but in the end went for the hard top when I was told the soft top had no roof at all, not even canvass. Outside I proudly looked at our steed, a Suzuki SJ413 in silver no less. Now I've had a jeep and driven a few through work and other things, but nothing prepared me for this freaky little thing. Real wheel drive, not a problem but on the first bend I quickly discovered there was no power steering and it had the turning circle of the QE II. It also had no ABS so it was back to stomping on the peddle until something happened, it was a very busy ride with no guts to go with it, but it was cheap!
Another thing Thailand seems to share with Vietnam is a lack of maps, and when there is one they don't seem to bother naming streets or roads, so this makes navigation a little tricky! We had driven uphill for 20mins trying to locate one of the waterfalls and had ended up driving down a dead end, what this did do however was give us a great view of the south coast and allow us time to change as the sun had come out and the sky was a light blue. We also changed the route and headed for the coast, not as easy as it might seem. As I mentioned earlier, buildings had sprung up on the beachfronts and this meant public beaches were very few and very hard to find! I had taken a left down a unmarked road as I guessed the sea was in that direction and after a few miles we found Sunset Beach which apart from another couple was completely deserted, probably due to the complete lack of signs!
We stayed here for a half an hour, cooling off in the sea and just kicking back, before deciding to move on again. That was the only beach we found, all the others were either well hidden or already taken up by a hotel or the four seasons resort, which seemed to take up half the island!
It took us a little over four hours to drive around the island as a lot of the north and north east was much like our part, one long road with shops and bars either side, but by now the weather had brightened up and it was hot and sunny. We spent the last few hours of the afternoon on the beach near the hotel and it was only dampened by the rain starting again around 1600, which, luckily for me woke me up from a nice sandy slumber.
That evening we settled down at a beach front restaurant for a thai meal and watched the storms far out to sea, normally a light show like this would cost hundreds but the storm system passing through was providing it for the cost of a pad Thai. That evening we also booked the Angthong Trip, taking a bit of a risk with the weather, but what the hell.
24/10/11
Early breakfast of pancakes and syrup (I almost pointed out that it's honey, but kept my mouth shut!) and the sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky. This was going to be a good day!
After a twenty minute drive by minibus we were at the dock ready to board the speedboat, already smiling as it looked like most of the throng was going on trips elsewhere. We managed to board first and got to the front of the boat where we hoped the views and the breeze would be fantastic, unfortunately was short lived as a group Japanese tourists invaded the bow, 11 of them in total and more inside. Apparently these are the ones we had been waiting for and why we were delayed leaving, they squeezed themselves into the space available, so much so the captain came out and asked us if we wanted to sit inside, I replied politely with a no, although if they didn't shut up I could see the numbers reducing!
They didn't shut up! And we were getting pushed about so they could take pictures of each other, by then I'd had enough so I became the man with the boney elbows. We were pushed no more!
After 40 mins we moored up in a small cove for the snorkelling. I was concerned as there was already 3 other boats here and the water was full of orange life jackets, it just looked a mess!
I'm glad we brought our own snorkels as the ones handed out by the crew were just tubes with masks, I was also glad when he said you didn't have to wear a life jacket, how are you supposed to dive with that on? The Japanese were pratting about with jackets and masks, blocking the only way off the boat, grrrrrrrrrr so I jumped off where I could, closely followed by Bex and we swam off in the opposite direction to everybody else!
The water was warm and very clear with plenty of rainbow fish and zebra fish swimming around and very slowly the boats that arrived before us started to disappear leaving more and more of the ocean for us. I was also quite glad that one boat went because, despite the warnings about coral and nature reserve, some of that boat were picking bits up and standing on the shallow parts, how much for a spear gun?
I must be coming across like some victor meldrew grumpy old man. I'm not really, but when it comes to things like this, if your told not to do something why do it? If your not here to enjoy nature, why are you here? It's been here longer than you, it will be here after you go, so leave it alone! Rant over!
After 40 mins or so the others got tired and got back on the boat, I saw this as an opportunity and after a quick drink, jumped back in again and enjoyed almost total freedom. After swimming under the boat, I just floated for awhile with my hands out, suddenly the zebra fish were all around me, nibbling at my fingers. It's amazing what happens when you just wait!
I was the last one back on the boat and I squeezed my boney elbows back into the space I had left an hour beforehand ( I swear they had multiplied in the last hour!) up came the anchor and we were speeding over to the main island and the emerald lake.
Again we were the last boat there, but this was ok as most people had already done the walk around or, looking at the size of some of them had not even bothered to climb the very steep steps to start with. At the top I could see the whole lake and it was amazing! The colour was jade and the sun was shining directly on it, making it look like the most inviting pool of water in the world, no wonder it inspired The Beach.
As usual it was spoilt by some idiot deciding he wanted to swim in it, but fortunately our boat captain was on the spot and fined him 1000 baht, although I would have been happier drowning him!
After a while back on the beach waiting for the slower people to finish the steps we got back on the boat, and we were on our way to the lunch stop, which was another beach in the middle of the reserve. En route the pilot put the screws down and had a little play with some turns which got the Japanese all going "whooooo" in unison, I swear they learn to do that at school! Then off came one of their baseball caps, so a fast u- turn to go pick it up had them almost at orgasim, oh to be easily pleased.
The lunch beach was quite crowded when we arrived, but as usual they all arrive and leave at different times, so it soon emptied leaving a 1/4 mile Stretch of clean sand all to us. While the others ate we swam in the the clear blue sea and just kicked back, taking pictures and enjoying the peace and quiet, which after 30 mins, was shattered by the others on the boat!
Our next stop was another a beach where we were to pick up some kayaks and go for a paddle, funny enough we were the first off the boat and into a kayak. We were then told to wait for everyone else, but by now the rest of the boat had got annoyed with the Japanese and those of us that had done it before just set off in the direction we were told to go, leaving the Japanese on the beach being taught how to put on a life jacket! again! The sea was almost pancake flat as we made our way around the headland and the sun was shining, apart from some dolphins or whales popping up you really couldn't ask for more, Unfortunately the silence was broken every now and then as another couple overturned the kayak, no prizes for guessing who they were! After an hour or so we beached on a tiny stretch of sand and I set out to find some climbing, but the rocks were like razor blades and I could only get 10 or so feet before I had to drop back into the water, still, some is better than none.
It wasn't long before the others started to join us, so I went out for a swim and saw a possible cave to navigate through, so almost as quickly I swam back in and told Bex what I had seen,Two minutes later we were steering towards the cave.
We could just see the exit before we entered, so we knew it wasn't that long or deep, looking at the rocks on my right so we took it slow as I really didn't want to get stuck.
The cave exit was back out to sea, but under a massive overhang which went on for 50 meters or so, it was a challenge back paddling away from the rocks but the pictures more than made up for it. After floating around on our own for a while we decided to head back to the boat, against the current! We passed the stragglers, who were still trying to go in a straight line towards the first beach and the captain, who had also given up trying to heard them in one direction and was now turning around to join us heading back to his boat and some sanity.
We beached the kayaks next the boat and went onboard to take some pictures, one by one the others came back and spread out, taking photos and relaxing, but there was still time for one more entertaining moment when a kayak decided to ignore all the other kayaks beached in a row, and beach on the other side of the boat. The captain lost the plot, ran down the beach and pushed it back out to sea telling the two on board to go the otherside. The two Japanese girls on board looked dead on their feet and one of them, not liking the extra 10 meters to paddle, jumped out leaving her friend screaming.
The ride back to port was bumpy and not surprisingly there was a lot more room at the front, which we enjoyed and the wind and salt water hit our faces, now this was a proper speed boat now!
