My cousin and I decided to buy flights to Surat Thani instead of having anywhere in mind, she just wanted to extend her already dragged out holidays. Koh Samui is the closest island from the airport that we arrived.
Koh Samui was wonderful, 100 Thai Baht cocktails by the sea and watching kids running towards a bonfire.
Surat Thani airport hosts only a few airlines and the bus companies have the airline schedules all aligned and accommodated with their bus services, along with the ferry timings as well. Sort of a crucial factor that makes and breaks their hospitality. Both arriving and leaving the island takes up the whole day - the most practical way to reach the island would be arriving on Surat Thani airport and opt for the island transfer instead of transiting at Koh Samui international airport itself.
We took the advice of getting everything in a package from whatever the lady in bus was recommending. A very interesting take of persuasion and we did sign up for two tours that occupied our days, falling into the lady’s trap for offering us children’s pricing instead of the marked up prices on tour brochures, still thinking that our bargaining skills were actually top-notch.
Touring around the island would be quite inconvenient if we didn’t sign up for any of the day trip/tour packages that basically has everything to see on the island, unless there’s time for self-exploration with cheap scooters and well equipped mentality since none of us has a B class license for motorcycles. We could have done it if we were brave enough but we didn’t wanna die in a foreign country though, unless one of us has a license.
One thing that scared and impressed us was the punctuality of their tourism ethics, we were always paranoid since we forgo Thai SIM cards and had quite an uncanny experience with contacting our accommodation owner to unlock the door for us. The rides to wherever we signed up for were timely from the tours themselves.
Our accommodation was at Maenam beach, a calmer and quieter neighbourhood out of the other beaches along the island. When night falls we expected the place would be a little rowdy, much to our surprise, Maenam beach neighbourhood is by far my favourite evening beach. Stray dogs getting some night breeze, and kids having fun with their parents, spotting relatable Chinese restaurants while we explore Maenam in dusk.
The island dogs weren’t as scary as the cats, they are slightly homicidal but the dogs were over-affectionate. Probably the guard dogs of landed houses back home scare me to death all the time, they’d just bark out of the blue. I’ve been snapping pictures along my way whenever I see dogs, and most of them would be sleeping. Well I would be sleeping too if I were to be a dog.
The island was perfect though, regardless having a boiling temperature during the day - warm water, warm sun. A more welcoming island than Bali, really couthy and cuddly.
We rushed through to the touristy temples and attractions, including an inhumane elephant trekking :-( It wasn’t a fun ride at all, 10/10 not recommend and guilt tripping guaranteed. I still think about how weak I was to actually comply with that, I shouldn’t have done it. The island tour was nonetheless fruitful - our guide was sensible and super down-to-earth, which at one point every guide of the 4x4 car tour that we signed up for got into a cold water fight with our car’s tourists which include us and the few of China tourists.
The next tour was a trip to Angthong Marine Park, tons of cardio and a deadly hike for a trees-sand-sea view. I only wore my Teva sandals to this trip, which who would have expected for a rock climbing session in this laid-back island, and the possibilities of falling off the cliff to our deaths. The view was expectedly picturesque but all we discussed through and through was the ascending experience and our sore bodies after, nothing more than that. We expected a walking trail which we’re definitely no strangers to it, but it was a semi-proper hike then in came the rock climbing without any equipments. Crazy ass limestones and slanted trails with a stream of rope, assisting the climb. Plus a trip down memory lane for my cousin since she really likes kayaking.
Cha-yen and pad thai are practically my staple combination to happiness in Thailand, cliche at its finest. Washed down Thai iced tea from convenient stores are the best, though alcohol is exceptionally cheap in Thailand but I had more iced tea than water. An out of no where mobile restaurant along streets are obvious hidden gems - we had the best dishes with rice when we got lost in the midst of getting to a weekend vintage market in the evening. From noodles soup (plucking and soak our favourite Thai/cinnamon basil in the soup) to pork skewers of randomly picked food stalls, and a place that serves charcoal hot pot in claypot - and all the food places that we regretted not going for seconds.
We chanced upon the famous island pancake man and had a banana sugar pancake - which basically just caramelised banana slices sandwiched by two pieces of grilled roti canai (Indian flatbread). A pair of couple had 4 to themselves each and we were surprised and intrigued, questioning each other how good can this dessert be but it was honestly out of this world. We had some cheapass-ly made banana pancake and with fancy cinnamon sugar caramelised banana slices as well, but not as satisfying as the real pancake man!
We only brought convenient store snacks back home for the rest of the family, and there’s this imitation of Tokyo Banana but better and cheaper. It didn’t tasted like vanilla essence overdosed with crumbling spongecake, it was a decent good buy at a price point like that. We bought one for ourselves and while on our way back to rest, a guy on scooter got a whole bag of the cake. Plus cheap Lay chips.
We were a little traumatised by the fact that most of the island tourists (the white people) that just reached Koh Samui were temporary crippled - with crutches, and/or wrapped limbs. To think that we were that fearless two days back at the national marine park hiking, not sure did my cousin pray for me when we were trembling but it was such a baffling experience.
