Spotted on Samui

As always our trip starts with an insane journey.. and I'm undecided whether you can avoid it if you have money or not??




It's a really long story that involves a 1 hour late pickup, 3 shuttle vans, 1 bus, 1 ferry, 2 frustrating Europeans and 11.5 hours when it was posted as 5 .. but hey, let's get onto the Island instead.

Samui is fantastic - another true Paradise.. once you get away from the rubbish tourist beach of Chaweng you can find many fantastic places to hang out, sunbathe, and plenty of great hotels with fantastic local dining.

We based ourselves at a beach called Cheong Mon. After 2 meetings with the hotel owner (they really love to play the businessman here) we got a great low season rate and a fantastic swimming pool.. metres from the beach. . I don't know why - but when you get a swimming pool it can seem more attractive than the sea. We flipped between them - some days hanging by the pool and some hanging under the umbrellas and swimming in the calm waters.

The pool which is sign written in case you forget where you are.

The beach front, metres from the pool.

I hired a jetski while we were here. What a buzz these wee toys are. The day was pretty rough and I got pretty hammered out there. The funny thing was, they said they'd wave a flag when they wanted me to come in. I must have missed it as they sent a jetski out to come and get me to come in. Desh said the guy on the beach was waving the flag at me for ages.. and sometimes it looked as though I was heading in, but then would bank a turn and burn back out.

Side Story - I must have a case of beach brain - as on one evening we were walking to dinner and while a girl was talking to me from a bar (they always try to hawk business) I walked square into a metal lamppost which rang out a dull noise upon impact. I suffer from loss of pride, internal bruising on my arm (luckily not the head) and lack of respect from Desh who immediately asked what I was on.. oh man.. embarrassing.

We rented a scooter and rode a 100kms around the Island which was an awesome way to see what Samui had to offer. A few beaches down there is a giant Buddha - called .. the big Buddha.. surprising title huh? It is on Big Buddha beach. It strangely resembles a theme park - but that is the Thai way to glam important stuff up.

Here is the big Buddha - can you see me under it?- I love scale like this - Their religion shows you how small you are compared to GOD.. whoever/whatever that is;

Another statue at the 'park' - imagine having all those arms ;)

While we had the scooter we found a fantastic beachfront called fishing village. It is mainly a strip of very elegant restaurants. While we ate, they had a fire poi entertain us, as well as a Thai cover band playing 70s hits - it rocked our boat.

Look closely at this next one - it is a beach resort/restaurant. All of those giant rocks with flowing waterfalls in the background are all fakes - with the naked eye it looks like a resort for the Flintstones - we really dug it.

A bit of bathing

Desh took this shot of a lonely flag on the beach - I love the isolation.