Koh Samet

A fishing boat right off the beach.

Two weekends ago, a group of teachers and I headed out to the nearby island of Koh Samet (“Koh” means island in Thai, so anywhere in Thailand that contains that word in the name is actually an island).  Koh Samet was an attractive travel option because it is not too far from Bangkok and features some amazing beaches, right on the Gulf of Thailand. 

We left straight from the school on Friday and took a taxi to the BTS station, where we then travelled to a stop near the Eastern bus terminal.  The bus was perfectly timed, and we got straight on for a three-ish hour trip to the ferry.  This bus trip was actually very pleasant, and we even got a free water bottle and snack!  (Our snack was kind of odd though, because it was a Danish-type pastry filled with bean paste that tasted like chocolate …  I avoided that part).  Instead of a ferry, the group hired a “speedboat” to take us on the fifteen-minute ride to the island.  The boat was huge to be considered a speedboat, and could hold up to twelve of us.  By the time we got to the island, I was exhausted.  We found our hotel room/bungalow, which was very cheap but pretty dingy.  Three of us shared a room, with only one rock-hard bed.  It was pretty tiny, but that was okay because we didn’t spend much time there anyway.  The worst part was that the toilet didn’t have a flushing mechanism; you had to fill a bucket with water and wash away your urine yourself.  I don’t mean to be gross, but it took us far too long to figure out how that worked.  Besides that, there were some geckos found crawling on the walls.  Overall though, you can’t complain when you only spend $6 a night each on accommodations.

Some mermaid statues on the beach.

Our bungalow (it looks much better from the outside).

Early Saturday morning, I joined a group of people and set out for Jep’s Bungalow Restaurant.  It was a worthwhile recommendation, and I ended up eating most of my meals there.  I gorged on North American food, after being on a Thai diet for two weeks.  I will also mention that they served the best mango smoothies that I have had.  Other than the food, I spent the entire day Saturday (and what time I had Sunday) relaxing on the beach and swimming in the ocean.  The ocean was a lot of fun because the waves were decently big.  At the end of the day, I was a bit sunburned (after I was careful to use SPF 50), but it was not that bad.  The group of Lertlah teachers and I headed to a nighttime fire spinning show held on the beach.  We sat at the very front of the stage, which we thought was fortunate until the tide came in and started to soak us.  The fire spinners were all relatively young boys, and pretty good at what they did.  Despite that, I felt like it was probably more dangerous than Canadian standards would allow, since we were seated fairly close to the bucket of gasoline or fire starter that the boys kept coming back to.  The neatest part of the show was when the fire spinners worked in some acrobatics, standing on each other’s shoulders. 

Jep's Bungalow Restaurant.

When we headed back the next day, our speedboat picked us up right on the beach where we were sunbathing.  I thought this was pretty good service until the motor went on the boat and we had to be picked up from another dock while it was being repaired.  Overall, it was a fun and relaxing trip.  Because it is so close and convenient to Bangkok, we may head back in the future. 

The beach.