The First Ko Stop

After a week in Bangkok, it’s time to head down south and cool off on the tropical islands that await us. Thirteen-hour train ride, two-hour bus ride, and two-hour boat ride later, we make it to Ko Samui, the largest island in the Gulf of Thailand.



To get an idea of the train ride, imagine a 1st class German train silently speeding through the Bavarian Alps on a perfectly engineered gradient track…now replace 1st class with 3rd, a smooth track with one from when Thailand was Siam, Alps with rice paddies and you’re halfway there!

Just kidding...it was a pretty awesome ride :-)


Off the boat with fellow backpackers, we’re greeted by the usual hawkers pushing brochures in our face and taxi rides to the nearest beach, but decide to hop on a sawngtaew instead. Sawngtaew ride: picture a pickup truck with a high-raised roof where luggage is thrown atop, and inside the back of the truck are two long wooden benches where 12 of us squeeze in for a rickety 45-minute ride to our beach on the eastern side of the island; two more people were hanging off the back holding onto rails water-ski style, and two others on the roof, laying across our backpacks. Seat belts, air bags…I think not.

We arrive safely, and soon find ourselves at the ubiquitous food vendor.

Satiated on deep-fried crabsticks, we wander along the beach in search of a bungalow and settle on something very basic - it’s 25 meters from the beach, so who cares!


Beach at last…I am home and not going anywhere!


Paul with his ladyboy cocktail :-)


Behind is a mini hot-air balloon type of cylindrical thing that is lit on the beach and slowly flies up into the air, lighting the night away, before it goes out once it reaches a low-oxygen altitude.



Morning delight!