The trip from Hat Yai to the island of Ko Samui took about 6 hours in total, firstly by by bus and and then by ferry from the mainland port of Surat Thani. Having skimmed through our lonely planet guide we agreed that the beach of Hat Chaweng sounded like a good place to be based. Arrived at Na Thon pier (Ko Samui west coast) way after dark and had to start haggling with the cab drivers for transport to the opposite coast which was at least 40minutes away. In our short stay in this part of the world we've come to realize that prices for 'westerners' are almost always double if not triple what you can get away with, so battering well is a neccessity. The intial quote was 600Baht but after 7 of us westerners ganged up on the driver the fare was whittled down to 150 Baht each. Arrived safely in Chaweng late in the evening and booked into a bungalow on the beach. You pay a premium for aircon in your room so decided to try one with a simple fan - what a mistake! The bungalows are pretty simple but the humidity is something else! On the beach in Chaweng we've finally managed to find a set of beach bats so our days in Samui have been filled by an hour or so of bats, swimming in the sea, lying in the sun and finding a market for some cheap grub..... It's a really hard life!
Up the road from our bungalow we stumbled on restuarant with a massive banner advertising South Africa's own Supersport tv channel, the menu had boerewors rolls on it so we just couldn't resist investigating further. The owner Mike is a 45 year old Saffa who been in Thailand for eight years and after a quick introduction we'd been invited to join him for 'prawn night'. Our timely meeting coincided with mike's suppliers providing him with a surplus of gigantic prawns that he had no idea what to do with but show off his skills on the braai - all we had to do is pay for our beers all night. The festivities ended in the early hours next morning with all the guests watching the Jungle Book on the big screen, this, after another night of attempting to booze like 19 year olds - the beermonkey's visit the next morning confirmed that Kimmy I not the machine she used to be and I'm simply getting too old for 15 beers in a night!Cabs in between villiages on these islands are expensive so Kimmy has
agreed to give the vesper thing another go. After a few days on the
back of the bike my angel has become a little more comfortable with my
driving. For 150baht/day (3 quid!) it's definately the best way to get
around the islands and see more than just the beaches and main drags geared purely for tourists and also adds to a sense of freedom as we whizz along the hilly roads with no helmets!
Hat Lamai and Bo Phut were 2 more villiages we stayed in and we even
managed a 3 hour hike to one of the many waterfalls on the island. Our
guide on this hike was free! We named him Rufus, a random dog that for
some reason saw it neccessary to show us all the way down the mountain
back to where we'd parked the vesper. True story, at first we thought
he belonged to the Chinese group who we sprinted past on our way up
but, on the return legg this mangy mut seemed to be guiding us all the
way down as he intermitantly stopped in front of us and waited for us
to catch up every time we seemed to be 'lagging behind'!
Next stop, Koh Pha-Ngan island, home to the Full Moon party.
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