Koh Samui

Once we made it to Koh Samui things really started to look up. We got a local bus/taxi thing from Na Thong where the ferry arrives to Lamai on the other side of the island. This was only THB50 (NZ$2, 70p) and it was the same as the locals were paying (we were the only foreigners on the bus). This was the first time in Thailand where we didn't feel we were getting ripped off!
Once there we wandered up and down for 10 minutes before settling on a nice place that was basic and cheap (THB350/night - NZ$14, GBP5).
Once there we walked to the beach - which took all of 20 seconds. We went for a swim in the beautiful warm water and then cooled off with a beer and a pad thai on table and chairs on the sand. We really felt like we were on holiday now!
That night we went exploring around the small town of Lamai going to a few of the bars and exploring the night markets.
The next day was really lazy and we loved it, a bit of beach, swimming, exploring, eating, reading and more swimming. We really like it here.
The following day was more active; we hired scooters for THB180 each (NZ$7, GBP2.50!) and circumnavigated the whole island. Our navigation skills were not the best so it took us 3 hours to travel the first 10km, but it got better from there on in.
We went to see the other big resort, Chaweng, the Big Buddha and Na Thon, the capital of the island.
The highlight of the day was going to the waterfall at Na Muang (apart from Lianne falling off the rocks). We went for a swim under the waterfall and then the elephants came up the river to be washed by their keepers (there are elephant tours run from the same area). When we came to leave we jumped on our scooters but watched as the elephants were all paraded down the road back to where they are kept overnight. This looked amazing and we took plenty of photographs as they paraded by. We loved it until we realised that they were going down the same road that we were about to go down. We now had the enviable task of overtaking elephants on our scooters on a very narrow road.
If you ever have to do this yourself here are our top tips for elephant overtaking:
- Go slow, do not rev your engine
- Give them plenty of room as their huge trunks and tusks swing about a bit
- Do not make eye contact!
- Treat them as if you were overtaking a rider on horseback, but with much greater respect for their nose and teeth
Lianne said that she has never been so scared! It was so cool we hardly noticed overtaking the water buffalo 5 minutes later!
The next morning we packed up our stuff and headed of to Koh Pangan but with very fond memories of Koh Samui.