koh samui - 1/2

before i left thailand for my recent business trip i spent four wonderful days on koh samui, an island in the gulf of siam about 350 miles south of bangkok. getting to koh samui is easy- you either take a quick hour's flight or do a 12-hour overnight train/boat combo. we flew.

the koh samui airport was built by the same folks that own bangkok airways. by some sort of cosmic coincidence, the only airline that flies to koh samui is bangkok airways so choices are limited. but the airline was efficient, staff were friendly, and we somehow arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule.

we exited the plane and piled with our hand-luggage into little electric carts that reminded me of the ones at the singapore night safari.

the carts took us to the terminal, actually a group of small huts decorated in a sort of fantasy island way, though minus herve villechaize ('look boss, zee plane!').

i had booked a hotel called chaweng cove through a travel agent in bangkok. having made the reservations only a few days earlier i felt lucky to get a room at all- the first half-dozen hotels the agent called were all full and we found just one room at chaweng cove. as we waited for our hotel pickup we saw a few couples struggle to find a room, so i was happy to have booked in advance.

time passed and i began to suspect that our hotel pick-up wasn't going to show. i called the hotel who didn't know anything about a hotel pick-up, so opted to take a van to chaweng instead for 100 baht.

we arrived at chaweng cove only to find that our room wouldn't be ready for another hour and a half, so we decided to explore the beach road for a while. one internet shop, tailor, clothes shop, restaurant, hotel and beerbar blended into another as we walked along. getting hot and sweaty we spotted an oasis in the distance- starbucks! a couple of frappucinos later and we were feeling human again, though quite tired after having woken up at 5am.

we took a songtaew (pickup truck) back to chaweng cove and got the room key, showing ourselves to the bungalow. by that time the midday sun was in full blast and i couldn't wait to take a quick shower and nap in the cool a/c. i opened the door and was shocked by the state of the room- a single dim bulb lit the room, the walls were made from some sort of woven reed with holes around pipes of the a/c unit which was blowing luke warm air. there were no electrical outlets aside from what was powering the fridge and small tv and no telephone for me to check my email with. the room looked absolutely nothing like the online photos- even the standard room on that page looks amazing next to what we had, what i can only assume to be an 'ultra sub-standard' bungalow for 2000 baht a night.

too tired to complain i cranked the a/c to full and collapsed on the bed only to wake up an hour later soaked in sweat. my body had triggered it's 'you are about to suffer from heatstroke' warning and woken me up. the a/c was moaning and groaning but little cool air was coming out of the thing- in fact it was hotter than before. i opened the fridge and stuck my head inside for relief.

headed back to the lobby and asked for someone to please take a look at the a/c. sure enough, a lanky service person showed up a few minutes later and took a good hard look at the a/c unit, confirmed it was turned on, then left. that apparently would be the extent of his effort as when i marched back to the lobby i was told that it is summer in thailand and in thailand summer is hot. at that point i lost my cool (what little there was left to lose) and switched to thai, telling her that i know it's summer but the a/c is obviously broken and the only breeze is coming through the holes in the wall.

marched back to the bungalow and decided that we had to get the hell out of that place. we opened up one of the ubiquitous free samui maps and started calling (nicer-looking) hotels one by one. finally we found a room at the amari for 7000 baht a night and i pounced on it, trying not to think too much about the cost.

i happily informed the lobby nazi that i was leaving and she told me i'd have to pay for a night's accommodation, despite having sweltered in the room for only 2 hours. some frantic calls to my travel agent in bangkok only sealed the refund she'd give me for the other nights, but nothing for the first night. fine, i told the lobby nazi, i'd pay for the first night's accommodation but i'd keep the key! she didn't like that one bit but really couldn't say much except that check-out was 11am the next morning.

we piled into a meter-taxi (no meter- 100 baht) and headed over to the amari palm reef resort. after the chaweng cove the amari was p-a-r-a-d-i-s-e!!!! the staff smiled, the service was efficient, we got a *gasp* welcome drink, and our room has functioning air conditioning. what more could we possibly need?

the next couple of days were spent in total relaxation mode- no agenda, no worries, nowhere to go. perfect!

we wandered down beach road in the evenings to look around, buy some bits and pieces, and grab some food. the length of chaweng beach is completely developed with hotels and looks a complete mess from beach road. there's a constant drone of motorcycles and honking and the sidewalks are about as good as in bangkok- not so good.

fortunately, the various hotels have managed to keep a level of restraint in their development so that from the water it doesn't appear to be so built up from the beach.

the north end of chaweng beach is quite shallow, meaning even when the tide is up it's possible to walk out quite far in the clear water. this photo is looking back on the amari hotel- as you can see, even with all of the hotels near the beach it wasn't very crowded. oddly enough, the pool was buzzing with activity but there were very few hotel guests on the beach.

when the tide was low it was possible to walk out very far, though the heat of the sun can be a bit much in the afternoon.

the only thing that really turned me off about the beach was the amount of vendors walking around selling things. it was as bad as jomtien beach near pattaya- every 30 seconds someone would walk past selling things, trying to get eye contact. and once every few minutes a vendor would call, 'hello sir...hello...hello...hello...hello!' until i looked up. it made reading a book very difficult as i was constantly losing my place and re-reading the same sections over and over.

a german woman sitting near us was passing her time talking with the vendors and occationally buying trinkets. this brought a flood of vendors to her- you can see 5 vendors swarming around her in this photo. unfortunately, this meant that we too were constantly hit with offers to buy sarongs, shorts, sunglasses, and ice cream. perhaps that's why so many guests were around the pool!

in the evenings we went out for dinner around the town, though with all of the good restaurants nearby we didn't have to walk very far. the amari's excellent italian restaurant prego was good enough that we ate there twice- i particularly recommend the gorgonzola gnocchi.

there were a few bizarre eating spots in chaweng, including the belgian seafood restaurant 'captain kirk' that had absolutely no connection to star trek as confirmed by the greeting girls out from. 'sataar tarek? mai ruujak!'

at night pickup trucks constantly cruised around with loadspeakers advertising discos and muay thai kickboxing fights (with disco music). click on the pic above or here to see a short video of one such truck (1.6mb).