Koh Samui was great! We're back in Bangkok now, staying at Teay's place for a day before heading back to Uttaradit. Our resort didn't have internet access, so I never got around to doing updates while we were there, but I'll catch up now.Wednesday the 1st was the last day to compile grades and wrap everything up. Then on Thursday in the morning I caught the train to Bangkok, and got situated that night and Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, I went to a Thai culture course, which will be one of the new requirements going in for a teaching license here (assuming things don't change).
The material on the first day was mainly stuff that I've picked up from living here for a year and a half anyway -- how to wai (bow) correctly, cultural taboos (for example, pointing with feet), etc. The second day was very good, though. I've had people show me the Thai alphabet before (44 consonants, 21 vowels, and 5 tones), but I've always thought that it was pretty much beyond me. But the Thai teacher at the culture course organized the letters into similar sounding groups, and linked them to English letters (when possible). Howard and I decided that since we had some foundation of Thai vocabulary to link the sounds to (Howard moreso than me), plus the teacher's good presentation method, that it all sort of clicked together much better than it ever has before. It was probably more difficult to link it all together for John and Jennifer having only been here about half a year, but I bet we all got some good out of it.
After the course finished on Sunday, Teay and I caught a night train to Surat Thani which got there at about 8AM on Monday. We had been looking at some resorts on the web for Koh Samui, but we hadn't managed to book anything yet. At the train station in Surat Thani, there were some bus packages that could shuttle you to the ferry, cross to Samui, and then get you to your resort. We booked with one of those and checked out several resort pamphlets they had available, plus cross-checking prices with Teay's Samui connections and got booked at Amity Resort on Lamai beach for 3 nights in an air conditioned bungalow for 700 baht a night (about $21).
The ferry was nice -- slow but sure as Teay says -- and gave us a good chance to check out the views. Surat Thani and Koh Samui and the other islands are all pretty stunning; mountains with tropical forests dropping down to rocky or sandy beaches all over the place. The ferry took a bit under 2 hours to get to the island, and then we got a van to take us to our resort on Lamai beach.
The Amity Resort grounds were quite nice -- right next to/on the beach and well organized, with an excellent view from the beach. Our bungalow was nice also. Pretty simple (fairly small, and no TV or refrigerator), but clean and comfortable, and about 30 seconds walk time from the beach -- quite a steal for $21! By dumb luck we ended up having pretty much perfect timing -- got to the resort just at check-in time, got settled in, and walked the beach and checked out the area to figure out where to eat supper etc.For day 2, we rented a motorbike from the resort and Teay zipped us around the island. There is a 60km ring road that hits most of the beaches, or an 80km on that follows the shore the whole way. We took the 60km one and figured out where things were (about a 3 hour drive) and then walked around Lamai beach again.
On day 3, we took the motorbike back to some of the sightseeing spots on the island. First was Nam Muang waterfall, with 2 locations. The lower falls were easy to get to -- the top falls involved a pretty major hike. There are elephant riding treks that go up to that one, but we opted to go for cheap and walk it ourselves. Ended up being about a 2 hour hike, but the falls and the view up there were worth the effort!
Next on the day's agenda was a butterfly garden. We came at low tourism season, which made everything cheaper, but it was also low season for the butterflies. Still had some flitting around, but not thick with them like I've seen at some other places. The grounds were quite nice and had good views also.
Third was stopping at Hin Ta and Hin Yai, the Grandfather and Grandmother stones. These rocks are a popular stop for photos, because they are said to resemble certain parts of the male and female anatomy.
Last stop for day 3 was a Swiss restaurant I had seen while we were driving around, specializing in fondue. It was a bit different from fondue that I've had elsewhere, but quite good. It was meat fondue, but instead of oil it was cooked in an electric water sukiyaki pot with veggies. After cooking the meat, there were about 10 different dips/sauces to put on the meat, including some Thai-style spicy ones. Teay and I shared a course of fondue (which probably would have filled us by itself) plus a pizza.
On day 4, we went North from Lamai beach, and saw the beaches and areas that are skipped by the smaller ring road on the island. I got thoroughly lost (not difficult to accomplish for me) and Teay got turned around also, but we managed to find our way to Big Buddha beach and visit the temple and namesake Big Buddha statue. Also did some shopping at Big C (a combination grocery store / general store / mall) in Chawaeng beach (the busiest tourist beach) to fill our refrigerator -- we decided to switch up to a 1000 baht ($30) bungalow with fridge and TV for the last couple days so we could laze around the resort.
We checked in the motorcycle for day 5 and lazed around the resort and Lamai beach area, including "inspecting" the swimming pools at some of the ritzier resorts (3000+ baht a night plus). I'd say there are 4 varieties of resorts on Samui; on the beach or off, and with or without a pool. Off beach with no pool places might be as low as 300-400 baht a night. On the beach with no pool (like our place at Amity) runs about 700-1500 baht, and off beach with pool is similar. Beach plus pool means expensive (relatively) -- 3000+ baht. I figure we did quite well with our no-pool beach resort combined with a few walks over to the adjacent resorts with pools! :)
For day 6, we booked a snorkeling/sightseeing boat trip to several different islands. A van picked us up in the morning and shuttled us to the pier to get aboard a big high-speed catamaran. The catamaran could hold a bunch of people -- I'll guess 300. There were 4 different destinations. First stop was Koh Pangyan, about 1/3 the size of Samui. Some of the riders got off there -- there are resorts and places to stay there also. Next was Koh Tao, smaller yet, but still with resorts.
From there, we disembarked and got onto a smaller snorkeling boat. It took us to a snorkeling spot off of Koh Tao. The water wasn't quite as clear as in Grand Cayman, but pretty close. Good fish viewing, mostly small stuff like Sargeant Majors (which were actually tame enough that they would come and bite you if you sat still in the water), and some nice brilliant blue schools of small fish. Most exceptional were the "Christmas Tree" tubeworms -- lots of colors and sizes, and huge quantities of them, more than I've ever seen in one place before.
After snorkeling, the boat took us to Koh Nangyuan, a very small island. It is basically a pier and a large sandbar between 2 mountain/hills popping out of the ocean. We had lunch there and a few hours to look around, climb up to the top of the larger mountain, and swim in the ocean next to the sandbar. Pretty nice spot! From there the catamaran shuttled us back to Samui.
Day 7 was our final day, we checked out at about 7:30 and got a van back to the pier and took the slow ferry back to Surat Thani. The train was all booked up, so we got a bus back to Bangkok, which got us here this morning at about 4AM. Teay has a few things to do tomorrow and then we'll head back to Uttaradit on Wednesday.
I guess that is all I know for now. We took a lot of photos on the trip, you can see the full gallery HERE!
