Koh Samed

This story was posted under the categories: Big Asia Trip, Thailand

After we had regained some weight on Pattaya, Ine wanted to find a better place to catch our last days of suns. After a small competition with Koh Chang, we decided for Koh Samed, a tropical island about one hour from Pattaya. It’s also a National Park and thus would offer some nature hiking… we thought.

Our new “tourist” status – meaning that we’re no longer watching our budget – now allowed us to take a minibus and be zipped to and from the island on a speedboat. We were charged 200 Baht (4 EUR) each as entrance fee to the park, which is really a disgrace to the Thai National Parks. Koh Samed is indeed a nice tropical island, but it certainly is no national park. Resorts, bungalow parks and guesthouses line the beach, sunbathing is the prime activity by day, while partying is the occupation of choice at night. Let’s just say that our earplugs came in handy… All that partying meant that Ine found very little company on the beach at 7 o’clock except for monks doing their daily round.

But please don’t let us sound to negative, the island is nice, though a little overcrowded and offers a good chance to get away from the hassle from Bangkok. We spent 4 days, which is enough to see many 2-day visitors come and go. We fell like regulars by the time we left. Although a Danish couple beat us, by spending no less than 4 weeks on the island…

So we let ourselves go and did as every good tourist would do.