Ko Samui (July 21)

Got up early and headed back to the skytrain station with my luggage. I rode the skytrain one stop and then transferred to the airport rail link, which is also elevated, so it offered a nice view of new Bangkok on the way out to the airport. At the airport, I enjoyed a latte in the food court while I waited for my flight. It seemed like most of the people on the flight were European. The flight from Bangkok to Ko Samui in southern Thailand took about one hour, and there was a nice view of some islands as we landed. I had decided to stay in Lamai, which is the second biggest town on the island, and is on the southern end. I caught a taxi and checked into the hotel. The towels were folded into elephants on my bed, which was cute!

Towel elephants

Then I headed out to explore. I passed some massage shops, so I decided to get a 1 hour Thai massage which was quite relaxing. Then I walked down the beach towards Lamai town. On Sundays, they have a big “Walking Street,” where much of the downtown is closed to traffic and lots of streetside stalls are set up. There were a lot of stalls making various kinds of foods, some fruit stands, and a bunch of stands selling t-shirts and souvenirs. I picked up some fresh fruit and some pad thai and mango sticky rice for dinner. However, I think I had become a bit spoiled by the quality and number of fruit stands in a Chaiyaphum market, this one seemed a bit lacking in that regard.

Actually, it was a bit of a reverse culture shock getting to Ko Samui. There are so many foreign tourists here! During my three weeks in Chaiyaphum province, I had only run into another foreigner once. I wasn’t used to seeing farang in a Thai market! (farang = western foreigner in Thai, if I heard that in Chaiyaphum, I knew people were talking about me :)) I think that the French, Germans, and British are the largest groups of tourists here, followed by Scandinavians and Australians. I have not heard many American accents, although I did see a couple other American passports getting on the plane.