Bo Phut (July 25)

It turned out that the hostel I had reserved in Bo Phut was not very nice, and also the location was not good (somewhat isolated and far from the beach), so after spending one night there, I decided to find a new place to stay for my last two nights on Ko Samui. I started walking down the road, and found a nice restaurant serving breakfast by the beach, so I stopped there to eat and use their wifi. The breakfast was very large and tasty, consisting of two poached eggs with toast, an enormous bowl of fresh fruits, yogurt, and granola, orange juice, and coffee. Then I caught a taxi into the main part of Bo Phut and walked around searching for a new hotel. I found a hotel called L’Hacienda, run by a French/Thai couple, which seemed like the perfect place to stay. They offered to drive me back to the hostel to pick up my bags, so I wouldn’t have to pay for a taxi, which was nice. The hotel is quite small, maybe 8-10 rooms, and my room has a balcony overlooking the ocean! Also, there is a swimming pool on the roof with a wonderful panoramic view of the beach and ocean to one side, and the town and jungle/coconut covered hills on the other side. I was very happy that I had switched to this new hotel. 

My room at L'Hacienda

View from my balcony! The island in the distance is Ko Phangan.

Rooftop pool, a great place to swim and enjoy the view

Elephants guarding the pool

By this time, I was getting hungry for lunch, so I walked down the main street in Bo Phut and bought a coconut smoothie from a roadside stand. The lady took a large knife and chopped it open, Chaiyaphum-style, and used the entire contents of the coconut for my smoothie. It was delicious! Bo Phut is also touristy, but in a much nicer way than Lamai was. It seems like Bo Phut is dominated by French tourists, and people often talk to me on the street in French. I think that visiting Ko Samui is a bit more like visiting Hawaii than visiting Thailand, because there are so many foreigners here. The main thing is enjoying the beach and the beautiful islands and views, rather than experiencing Thai culture. I am certainly enjoying my week here at the beach, but if I go to the beach in Thailand again sometime, I think I would choose a location further off the Western tourist track so it would feel more like I am in Thailand.

After lunch, I went down to the beach and read for a while and went for a swim. The views from Bo Phut beach are very stunning, because you can see Ko Phangan (the second biggest island in this region), and a variety of smaller islands off in the distance. When I got back to the hotel, I went for another swim in the hotel pool and enjoyed the view.

Then I went out to find dinner. I found a mango and coconut sticky rice stand, so I bought some of that for dessert. Mango and sticky rice is relatively expensive here right now, because mangos are out of season in Thailand (apparently June is the time to come if you want to eat mangos). As a result, the seller told me that they have to import mangos from Vietnam at Cambodia and this time of year, which increases the price. I didn’t know that the climate in Vietnam and Cambodia was so different from Thailand, but maybe they get their rainy season at a slightly different time? Anyway, this guy was very careful about making his mango and sticky rice, so he cut open about three mangos to find the perfect one. Actually, I think that I ended up with around 1.5 mangos in my dessert, and the mangos here are big! There must be a rule here limiting the roadside stands, because it seems like the only stands around sell desserts, smoothies, and fruit. While I certainly wouldn’t mind living on this, I figured it was better to eat something else for dinner, so I got an overpriced Indian meal at a touristy restaurant.