Koh Samui, Thailand: Part 1

Koh Samui, Thailand has been such a relaxing break from all the hustle and bustle! We took a short one hour flight from Bangkok and then a half hour shuttle ride from the airport to our resort on the North tip of the island. We had to wait an hour for our room to be ready, so they drove us in a golf cart to the restaurant and pool area that overlooked the beach. We were blown away by the view! All the rooms at the resort are separate private bungalows with a few different options for sizes. We only booked one night online before we arrived with the intention of negotiating a lower price for the rest of the days we’d be staying and maybe try to upgrade if possible. The place was almost fully booked, but the receptionist gave us a 10% discount so we ended up getting our room for only $32 a night. How sweet is that? If you’re looking for a beach getaway, here is where you’ll get a great bang for your buck!

Once we were able to check in we dropped off our stuff and then walked across the street to have lunch. We noticed that there were shoes at the door and the owners were inside barefoot. This is when we realized that it’s customary in Thailand to take off your shoes whenever you go inside anywhere. Still a habit we’re trying to form while we’re here. Hard to remember to take off your flip flops when you’re just thankful to be indoors with air conditioning or a functioning fan. Man, it’s hot and humid this time of year here…but absolutely beautiful and so so different than anywhere we’ve ever been. The owners had a basket of toys so Tyson ran straight for it. His way to make friends with someone is to throw a ball or any other toy at someone and let them fetch it. If it’s down some stairs, even better. In a pool or puddle of water, perfect. About 99% of the time his trick works and the person will start playing with him. If not, he’ll just point and grunt at them until they play with him anyway. Good to see him losing his shyness and opening up to meeting all these great people. Once he found his favorite toy in the basket, we had a nice authentic Thai meal and then headed back to our room to put our swimsuits on.

Its’ been sunny and in the 90’s the whole time we’ve been in Thailand up to this point so we like to wait to go to the pool until the afternoon when it’s shaded over. Someone left a baby floatie in the pool so Tyson was having a blast floating around in the water while kicking and splashing. They have a kiddy area in this pool with shallower water for small children. Marshall used to be a lifeguard and swim instructor and was teaching Tyson how to monkey crawl on the side of the pool and kick his legs in the water. The water was just shallow enough that when Tyson stood up his chin was just barely touching the water. He loved discovering that he could walk in water and enjoyed walking from Dada to the side of the pool and back again.

The next two days we wanted to take it easy and just relax at the resort. We spent a lot of time at the pool and also went swimming in the ocean. The water is really calm and bathwater warm. Tyson also loves playing with a rake and shovel in the sand. At least he’s gotten past the point of eating the sand, lol. There is a little swing and a see-saw on the beach that Tyson is obsessed with too. As soon as he gets on one, he wants to go to the other and just continues going back and for the between the swing and see-saw until he sees a dog or something else that distracts him. For whatever reason he has come to love playing with straws. Every time we have a straw in our drink he points at it and says “saw”. He doesn’t stop saying it until we give him a straw. At least it’s a free toy and we can find one just about anywhere. Occasionally he’ll grab a spoon from our plate. When he’s done banging it on the table he’ll run off from the table and find the best place to throw it. Needless to say, there’s at least one at the bottom of their pool now.

There is a resort next door to ours so we walked over there to check out their restaurant. We had a great Thai lunch there. The best part is that their happy hour is 1pm to 4pm and our hotel’s is 4pm to 6pm so we can get happy hour prices all afternoon. Sweet! That hotel also has a playground that Tyson really enjoyed. When we were at happy hour one night we ran into a couple from England that had just come from many of the counties we are about to go to so we got a lot of great tips from them. It’s always fun running into other world travelers and exchanging stories. In fact, we’re probably only in Koh Samui because of Silvia and Andreas, the Austrian couple we met in Tuscany and hung out with in Vienna. Thanks for the suggestion guys, we love it!

On our fourth day in Koh Samui, we decided to take a 20 minute ferry over to Koh Phangan which is the island right next to Koh Samui. We had no plans once we got over there so we just started walking around. We went straight to the tourist office and asked what they recommended we do for about two hours before the next ferry came to take us back. He said the shops didn’t open for another hour or so and just gave us a look like we were crazy for not having a tour planned or something. The joys of non-planned travel. As we were leaving we noticed there was a table set up with waters, bananas, and coffee. There were a bunch of people sitting around this area and we figured it was a free offering from the tourist office so we grabbed a few bananas from the road and strolled off to find random streets. Tyson LOVES ‘nanas’!

The stores actually started opening early which gave us a lot to do as we walked around. We ran into a local street market that had lots of fruit and meat, including dried fish hanging up with their guts turned inside out. Yum! They had CDs hanging by fishing wire that spun around above the meat to keep the flies off. What a great use of CDs that have gone out of style (I think I may have seen Hanson and Spice Girls). HAHA! We stopped at a random store and bought Tyson a new sippy cup since his fell off when we were riding the elephants in Bangkok (The thing literally broke within a few hours. 60 cents well spent).

We then headed toward the beach, but it was low tide so we weren’t able to go swimming. We started walking back toward the pier and found a little bakery to stop at. It was getting hotter out, so we decided to hang out in there for a while cooling off in the AC. I ordered a banana bread and we got some cold coffee drinks while Tyson napped in the stroller. After an hour or so we walked to the pier to wait for our ferry. The ferry was about 15 minutes late and when we stood in line to give him the tickets he said ‘No, no…you need ticket. Go to end of pier’. Apparently we only had a return receipt and needed to check in before boarding. Marshall ran down the pier and got our tickets just in time.

We were first in line to get on the ferry, but this was the ferry’s last stop before the end of the line. It had already picked up people from Koh Toa and we expected to have last pick of seats. Luckily, we basically got the last two seats on the inside of the boat and were across the aisle from each other. Tyson loved going back and forth between Mama and Dada and was the entertainment for the ride for everyone sitting around us. By the time we got back we were exhausted so we just had the restaurant deliver lunch to our room so we could all unwind. We spent the rest of the day playing with Tyson and watching learning videos on YouTube. He absolutely loves HooplaKidz and bounces around on the bed for his favorite songs.

Our last day at this resort was when we experienced the typical weather for monsoon season. The morning was cloudy but still very warm so we swam with Tyson in the pool and then took him down to the beach for more swimming. The water in the ocean is actually warmer than the water in the pool. Once we got all washed off and changed back into clothes we went for a stroll to find a place that does foot scrubs. After almost three months of walking around on all different types of terrain my feet were flippin’ nasty and in desperate need of a little TLC. Every other shop was a massage parlor that did foot scrubs so I just chose the one that looked the best. I was able to negotiate my 40 minute foot scrub for only $8. Score! I didn’t know what to expect, but I was pleasantry surprised. They washed my feet with cold water and then put me up face down on a massage table. The lady scrubbed my feet most of the time and then at the very end she gave me a little teaser of a Thai massage in hopes that I come back to get one. She did some crazy techniques on me and popped all sorts of things on my body that I didn’t even realize popped. It was a little bizarre and I’m not too sure I want to see what else they have in store with the Thai massage so I paid for the foot scrub and peaced out.

That night we walked over to the bar for happy hour and right as we sat down the sky turned dark grey and just started down pouring. The staff put up plastic shields around the bar but the seats we were sitting in (only ones available) were near a crack in the plastic and so we were still getting soaked. Luckily a few ladies left shortly after so we jacked their seats. We were starving but the bar wasn’t a table for Tyson to eat at so we ordered food and had them deliver it to the room. One of the waiters was nice enough to drive us in the pouring rain back to our room while we waited for dinner to arrive.

We wanted to stay longer at this resort but they were fully booked so tomorrow we will be going to another hotel on another part of the island. Our flight out of Koh Samui is already upon us. Our return tickets to Bangkok are for the day after tomorrow, but we are really enjoying our time here. We’re starting to do some mental math and decide what to do next. Exciting times!

Next stop: Still deciding…was supposed to be Siem Reap, Cambodia, but we just don’t feel like it’s time to leave Thailand quite yet.