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3rd December
Khao Sok > Koh Samui
KIM: After breakfast, we joined Nid and her silent husband/friend in a lovely 'soccer-mom' car to Surat Thani. Much more comfortable than the public bus for what turned out to be actually quite a far way! Nid dropped us at the Raja ferry company office, where we soon discovered we couldn't book a ferry ticket and could only book through Samui Tours. Now, Samui Tours is recommended in our travel guide, and advised against in Maik and Kristin's (our German friends from the lake tour) … but in a bit of predicament, we were in a tuk tuk and on our way to Samui Tour office where we bought our bus and boat ticket to Koh Samui. Of course, the next bus was only leaving in an hour and a half, so we sat down to some Pad Thai and our books. Now, Raja ferry travels from Don Sak - a good 68km's away from Surat Thani!! So first a painfully long bus ride to the ferry terminal, all the while convincing ourselves we were going to miss the boat. Ok, so we didn't… onto the ferry and we realized there is quite a difference from the Lomprayah (Koh Tao ferry) and this one. Yergggh… not meaning to be a snob, but it was really pretty gross and went even slower than the long bus ride. Achingly slowly we watched the island of Koh Samui (the largest in the Gulf of Thailand) increase in size until two hours after departure, we finally docked. But no, not at Na Thon the normal ferry pier, but rather a further 9km down the coast. Thankfully, trusty travelfish.org had come in handy at one night accommodation in Maenam had already been booked and confirmed. However, arriving at Thong Yang pier in the dark (as it was now past 6pm) and discovering the only way to get around was the insanely inflated priced taxi. Negotiations followed and we taxi'd to Na Thon, where we switched to a Songthaew and made our way north.
Thrilled with our decision to head here today.. you see tomorrow we're checking into the lush, swanky and special Zazen Boutique Resort and Spa for Mark's birthday and our early anniversary treat. This is one of the resorts we looked at for our honeymoon, and so I wasn't passing the opportunity to work it into our trip for a three night special treat.
First though, Maenam Cheers Bungalows. I can't recommend this place enough! We are in a cute bungalow about 5 metres from the ocean. Our front door opens onto a wooden verandah, that steps down onto the sand. And the price - it's a bargain 500B. This is possibly one of the nicest places we've stayed purely for the location. We can hear the waves crashing.. Ok, so the sheet and duvet (actually just a really large towel to share) aren't the best... but its hot and did I mention we have the beach sand under our toes as we step off our porch? Awesome!
A walk along the beach led us to Moonhut Bungalows and Restaurant where we had dinner, played pool and drank Singha beers all night!
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