Ko Samui (Thailand)

It was only a short 1 hour boat trip to Ko Samui where we found it very similar to Ko Phangan - except the roads were in better condition and the island was almost double the size. In a similar scenario we were on a smaller, isolated beach (which we prefered) and it was only a short walk to the second most popular beach (Lamai). We walked to "Lamai Centre" a few nights as they had a nice night market with very nice (and cheap!) food once we were brave enough to try them! :)... (still wasnt brave enough to try the grasshoppers, silkworms or earthworms!)

Hired a scooter for one of the days and toured the island, but only made it 3/4 round before we ran out of light.


An "interesting" jetty on the north side of the island.


Trecked up a 2km(+) rough trail up one of the mountains to check out some nice waterfalls that were almost deserted since it wasnt easily accessable. We were a bit dubious when trying to find foot holdings... especially when the only people we met coming back the other way was a rescue team with a stretcher'ed person who had fallen somewhere along the track! :o0


A community of seaside houses Renee took a photo of. About 6-7 families in this "set of units". Corrugated iron and wooden pier structure holding them up when over the water.


This was the "floating lotus" temple. (because of the lotus leaf style pad it was built on) It had the big Ganeisha(?) statue next to it. (Goddess of hitch hiking. ...just kidding :D )



Exploring and relaxating on the Island was nice. Much nicer than the 12 hour boat/bus combination back to Bangkok! (which involved being dumped several times by the side of the road in the middle of no-where with a bunch of other back packers and being told... "just wait". (up to 3 hours later!)

In Bangkok we got back our passports from the travel agent... and I gently raised the point that what they charged us was well over twice the price of what we could have got it for just rocking up and organising it as we went. They seemed a little shocked that we could work it out ourselves.... and were probably hoping to fob us off. When explained we didnt even have hot water on Ko-phangan they shifted some of the blame to the resort that we were meant to stay at. After 45ish minutes of gentle negotiation and insistance they offered us about 10% of the cost returned. I managed to get a little more back in the end (about 15% maybe >( ), but it wasnt worth stressing too much, so we confirmed the bus to Cambodia was 7am the next morning and left.