Koh Samui, an island with the population of 55,000 on the east coast of Thailand, is one of the most popular tourist destinations of the country (Blah blah blah…). I know you can just find an online tour guide or a review about a vacation in Thailand, especially due to the fact that Thailand is a well-known tourist destination. So instead of pouring out objective information or trying to make Samui sound more attractive than it really is, I’ll stick to sharing with you my personal experience. This means no add-ons and no polishing up, just a naked story.

The flight from Bangkok to Samui took less than an hour, but our plane ended up circling around the island for an extra half an hour because it couldn’t land due to rainy weather. There was this one point when the plane was about less than 10 m. above the airport runway but the pilot spontaneously took off again, saying that he couldn’t land safely. I admit I was pretty scared because the plane ride was bumpy and thoughts of ‘Final Destination’ were driving my imagination pretty far. But obviously the plane eventually landed (otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this), so I didn’t get off the plane in an ‘ideal’ mood. The cute petit airport seemed welcoming though. They have a huge aquarium in their washroom (it thrilled many tourists) and the airport staff wore very bright coloured clothes (this includes men in hot pink) and most of the airport is outdoor under a wooden roof.

Samui Airport Entrance

Samui Airport Lounge

By the time my parents rent a car and started driving, it was getting dark. Because we weren’t familiar with Samui we got lost driving around in the same area trying to find the hotel we booked. Mum’s galaxy tab wasn’t working at its best as a GPS navigator. So there we were having a little Jumanji ride in the dark circling around the island mostly made up of tropical rainforest. We eventually found the hotel though, which is located pretty much in between the forest and the beach. Ever had the feeling of relief because you were rescued from some sort of nightmare (such as the one in which you were going to get lost and have to spend the night in a thick tropical rainforest in which you don’t know the way out)? Yea, I felt exactly that, because the hotel looks like this…

Part of the hotel

So the hotel room was very nice. Although the rain didn’t stop for 2 days straight but staying inside wasn’t too bad. I ended up watching 2 movies and a talk show by a Thai comedian. And I didn’t really want to go outside and swim after all (you’ll find out why soon when you read on…). We still went out for lunch though. The fresh seafood was delicious, although the restaurant was outdoor under a gigantic tent and it was raining pretty hard. My parents are a fan of seafood so they ordered about 5 whole crabs, a large fish, and a load of shrimps. Most Thai seafood are served fully cooked though, and they’re either served in soup, curry, or simply steamed (provided with some sort of hot sauce).

Me: I think we really are contributing to species extinction.
My parents: What can we do? They’re already killed anyway… might as well enjoy it.

The sky finally cleared up the next day so we went for a drive around the island. It was this time when I realized how small the island really is. It took us less than an hour to circle around the whole island (and this was with traffic). But regardless of the island size we were skilled enough to get lost again, this time trying to find the restaurant a local person recommended. That failed. We ended up eating fried rice on the beach.

Koh Samui

After eating seafood and fried rice and getting lost a couple of times, the next day (which was fortunately sunny again), we woke up early to pack for our flight back to Bangkok. So here’s the (not so) good part (as I said before that I didn’t really want to go down and swim), dad insisted on me swimming at least once because it was ‘the whole point’ of going to the beach. So I didn’t have much choice but to put on my swimsuit and walk SLOWLY down from our room to the swimming pool. I covered myself with a bathrobe and tried to keep it on for as long as I can. So instead of going into the pool, I awkwardly laid there on the pool chair hoping not to be noticed by my dad although I knew I will be, given that there were like… 4 pool chairs around.

Dad came down to the pool a few minutes later and sat next to me. He flicked through his German magazine reading about politics in the US while I sat there fiddling with my iphone hoping for him not to say anything related to or persuading me to take off the bathrobe which seemed to be the only thing keeping me safe and secure at the time. But my hope was shattered within the next few seconds…

“So why don’t you go into the pool? You’ve been sitting here for a while already.”

Here it comes.

“No dad, I’m fine with just sitting here… I’m trying to get a tan” I fiddled with my iphone (pretending to be busy).

But the ‘getting a tan’ idea didn’t last. Eventually I had to go into the pool. And there I was, standing there like a naked plucked chicken. I reluctantly and slowly took off my bathrobe, and before I could prepare myself-

“Fai! What’s that thing on your back?” His voice somehow reminded me of a loud burglar alarm, ringing at an uninvited something which just appeared in the house.

*No, I did NOT (want to) hear anything…*

“Fai, did you get a tattoo??? What is it?!”

The full body swimsuit idea didn’t work. And I looked back and saw that the tattoo concealer which I spent $30 on was smudged all over the back of the white bathrobe. So there it was, hanging there on my shoulder proudly exposed to the world, including the eyes of a conservative Asian father whose BIRTHDAY happened to be on that very day……….

You know what happened after.

Samui was great :) I recommend you going there. Just don’t ruin your father’s birthday.

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Sources:

http://www.samuiairportonline.com/

http://www.shasahotels.com/default-en.html

http://www.axolotlvillage.com/samuimap.html

http://www.seafoodcruise.com/

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