Saturday 1 October 2011

Exploration of the Island….




Well you certainly get to know the roads quick on a scooter here in down town Samui!  We spent the whole of yesterday touring the Island.  We went around the whole of Ko Samui on the scooter in the sun; tops off (Dan not me!) and got ourselves a good wee base tan in the process.  We headed off West through Laem Sor and on through Throng Krut, a little Thai fishing village, devoid of tourists  - class, and then on through Pang Ka Bay, up through Tong Yang and stopped off at Nathon, the ferry pier.  We had breakfast, well if you call chicken fried rice breakfast (Dan had to have the full English – heathen!) then we headed off up around the coast towards Bang Por and Mae Nam ending up in Bophut where the Big Buddha is located.  Very touristy but well worth the visit.  We climbed the millions of steps up to the Buddha and took the obligatory photos.  Mind you, the view from there was magnificent, you could see all the islands, including Ko Phangan and Ko Tao almost.  One thing of note is that everywhere you go, even shops, you are required to take your shoes off outside.  Not a problem but when 100 steps are like walking on hot coals, you don’t hang about. 

Whilst we were at the Big Buddha, we happened upon a Fish Spa – you can guess what’s coming next.  I persuaded Dan to have a go and for someone who most definitely does NOT like his feet being touched, I was surprised when he agreed.  Oh my god – it was weird.  I couldn’t stop laughing for about the first five minutes – it was the strangest feeling but after the initial tickling stopped, it was really quite therapeutic!  The photos are hilarious.  Will post up on FB later. 

We headed off after that around the East side of Samui going through Tong Song Bay, Choeng Mon and ended up in Chaweng Bay, the main tourist area.  There are so many wee places to stop off and get a drink and something to eat and from the outside look like little shacks but when you get inside, the view over the sea is breathtaking!

The scooter was holding up well until we hit rush hour in Chaweng on our way home – it was like driving in London, except on two wheels!  There were scooters whizzing by us three and four up, people sat side-saddle, on phones, smoking, eating pizza, babies and kids wedged inbetween parents.  Totally mental!  Anyhow’s being stuck behind pickups and the like was no fun so Dan decides a little overtake would be in order – no problem ordinarily until on said overtake, wedged between other scooters and two large 4x4s, we got a puncture!!!!!  Bloody hell, the back wheel was weaving all over the place to shouts of “WTF” from me on the back!  We managed to get safely over to the side of the road to inspect the damage and decided a beer would be the only way to decide what to do – we were 15kms from home!  Dan was thinking about how to get this fixed and I was thinking – Excellent, blog fodder!!! As luck would have it, just a short walk up the road, there was a bike repair shop – mind you we were unsure whether we could afford the emergency tube repair - £3.80!!!! 

Not wanting our luck to come a cropper again in the same day, we headed home – eventless thankfully!   You may think that we are living the life of riley here but the laundry stills needs picking up (£1 for a bag full all washed and ironed) and the dishes washing in the villa!  Oh excuse me on that one, the lady upstairs had been in and done everything for us while we were out!).

Dinner was very low key, soup, sweet and sour chicken and a couple of beers at a little local Thai restaurant at the end of our road - but even for £4.00 Dan won't be dining there again - a lone cockroach and some mites in the sugar did some serious damage to the wee place's reputation!  The scooter will be in retirement for a day or two as I have managed to ruck my back up on it – bloody agony but nothing a day or two on the beach won’t sort!

Take care. M&D x

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