To finish off our time in south east Asia we dedicated a solid week to sit in the sun on the tiny island of Koh Samet ( sometimes spelled Samed). It proved to be everything we hoped for with a couple of restaurants, a 7-eleven, a cheap room and a few very fine beaches to lounge on while improving our tans. We fell into an extremely relaxed schedule that included homemade breakfasts, then coffee down the street before eventually making our way to the beach by around 11:00. We’d lay sweating on the beach (the sun was HOT) as long as we could manage before going for a swim and returning to town for a late lunch of great Thai noodles from a little hole in the wall shop we found. After retreating to our air-conditioned room to rehydrate and reapply sunscreen we usually manage to make it back into the sun for a few more hours of sun before the call to happy hour to celebrate a hard day’s work (do we really have to come back??)
Yep.
We stumbled upon a model shoot on the beach. Go figure.
In between sessions of beach sitting we also met an incredibly kind local woman. Lex, a 22 year old from Chanthburi Thailand, who moves to Koh Samet each year during the high season to sell ‘pancakes’ (crepes) from her little cart. We gave her plenty of business (peanut butter & banana) and after a few days we became friends. A couple of times she insisted in taking some time off of work to show us her favorite beach, tour the “fish farm” or play some pool down on the beach. When not serving up crepes she knits gifts for her long term customers who return to the island each year. On our last day she gave Sue a purse she’d knitted over the last few days. Couldn’t have been nicer and her pancakes were dangerously delicious.
The rope tow out to the fish farm. More of attraction for the Thai-tourist from nearby Bangkok, we wouldn’t have ever know about it without Lex as our tour guide.
More of an outdoor aquarium than a fish farm as the fish aren’t actually sold or eaten, just displayed. There were some surprisingly large specimens for the rather small enclosures including a sea turtle and zebra sharks.
During our ritual breakfast of cornflakes, pineapple and yogurt the same dog would appear to scratch its behind on Sue’s chair. Every morning without fail, and only Sue’s chair.
Some of the large beachside resorts had nightly fire shows which were quite impressive.
The nightlife beach strip, each place tried to outdo the next with their lanterns.
After the blissful beach time we headed back to Bangkok to catch our flight out. If you watch the news you’ve probably heard about the crazy flooding hitting Thailand and threatening downtown Bangkok. At the time of writing this our area of downtown was still dry and with any luck we’ll be on the plane to Hong Kong before the worst of it arrives. However with floods predicted to hit most of the city and speculation that the water could stick around for weeks, the hotels and stores all over town are building sandbag barriers with some of the more serious shop owners building miniature cement walls to protect their storefronts.
Did Sue sit in the same chair every day or did she change it up and the dog would still scratch his behind on different chairs Sue sat in?
ReplyDeletelooks like paradise!