OFF TO THE ISLANDS: KOH SAMUI
- Abbie Smith
- Dec 7, 2017
- 3 min read
We were invited to go stay in Josh's friends holiday villa in Ko Chang (which was absolutley INSANE) at the end of November so we had a gap between our Visa running out for Vietnam and our trip to Ko Chang so we thought we would tackle the islands. We did Koh Samui > Koh Phangan > Koh Tao in 10 days.
We flew from Hoi An > Surat Thani via Bangkok for a morning ferry over to Koh Samui. It was much cheaper than a direct flight but does take a full day if you're short on time. [We booked our flights through Air Asia and unfortunately realised when we arrived at the airport - without checked baggage. Who knew 'connecting flights' also meant that we had to completely check out of Bangkok airport pick up our bags and check back in all again?! ... meaning we had to pay for baggage for two separate flights🤦🏼♀️. $110 down this is just number one of our #travelfail during the island trip] at least our shoes matches though - #couplegoals.
We stayed over in Surat Thani for one night at 'The Centrino Serviced Residence' for £13.50 - which had great wifi, comfy bed, an instagrammable backdrop in reception (see below) and was within walking distance to where the bus picked us up for our early morning ferry.
We arrived in Koh Samui and headed to our accommodation 'The Lodge Annex' (£10.99 a night inc breakfast). It's right on the beach front (the rooms are just across the lane) but this does mean the lodge restaurant is expensive (200-300 BHT/ £5ish per dish).
We walked just off the beachfront lane (out of Fishermans Village) and found more local places for 80-100 BHT (£2/3)
This was also the first place I tried a Banana Roti - and not the last. (Yes that’s PB and Nutella) If you know, you know. You will need a moped to get around Koh Samui (around 200/250 BHT a day - £4.50/5.50) and this is where we made #travelfail number 2. Crashing our moped.
So I'm quite a nervous passenger as it is. I've now took the tactic to play dead on the back of the bike as I tense up and make sudden movements, not ideal apparently. We were doing a u-turn in the road and as we turned I leaned back which caused josh to pull on the accelerator and we went directly into a parked car opposite. It was traumatic I'm not gunna lie we both flew off and grazed ourselves across the floor (I know have a narly scar) and our bike was bent in a few places. But if that wasn't the worst of it the car was owned by someone who worked at the police station OPPOSITE. I mean you couldn't make this shit up. After about 10 minutes of a Thai 'mechanic' quoting us £300 for the damage we apologised and Josh left me as ransom to head back to our hotel for the cash. In situations like this you have no choice unfortunately, we did hit the car. It didn't stop there though, as Josh drove off he got a puncture and had to push the bike 1000m up a hill to a mechanic. He had no money on him so they fixed it and then a mafia looking guy followed him back to our guesthouse to give payment. Then on his way back he ran out of fuel. Finally, an hour later after them thinking (and me) he had left me he returned and I was free to go. It was actually such a beautiful day before this happened. We headed out early and went to the big Buddha, went to some beaches, waterfalls and then after (yes I can't believe I got back on either) we went for a drink at a beach side setting.
We were just unfortunate, drive safe kids. That evening we went for dinner at a place called 'Treehouse Silent Beach' (you didn't have to be silent) where the sky looked absolutely beautiful. It's such a hidden gem, the food was cheap and the curries were delicious.
The next morning we had arranged our Ferry and transfer to Koh Phanagan through the same woman we rented a moped from. So we eagerly waited at 6am for our pick up hoping she hadn't took a look at our bike in the light (we took it back in pitch black dark LOL🤷🏼♀️).
Next blog -> Koh Phangan (featuring beaches, a must see food market and more #travelfails) Abbie JS 💖 xxx
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