Relaxation at Koh Samui

Thai temple

I have been to Thailand a couple of times before, and I must say it has become quite a favourite country of mine. Most of it because of the variety of options it offers. Culture, shopping, beaches, water activities, nature, relaxation, luxury.. You could be looking for any of these ways to have a vacation, and you can find it all in Thailand!

Relaxation

On this vacation, we wanted to relax, and so decided to spend a couple of days on the island of Koh Samui. And as always, we were not disappointed! We were in Koh Samui for about 4 days and had an amazing time. To be frank, we did not do much, and our plans for diving also got spoilt because of communication issues, but still it felt that we had an activity filled vacation as well as relaxed completely.

Koh Samui is quite a small island, almost roundish in shape and about 20-25 kms across. The popular tourist areas of the island are all around the coast, while the interiors apparently has mountains and forests. The terrain throughout, even next to the islands is hilly with dense green forests everywhere. The whole feel of the island is very tropical, dense green vegetation all around, plus lots of mosquitos (and loud toad noises) at night.

Chaweng

The popular beaches on the island are Chaweng and Lamai, both located near each other, on the east coast of the island. Both these areas are pretty commercialised along the main streets, which run parallel to the beaches. Other than these, there are beaches all along the coast which are slowly getting populated, but for now don't have as much of shops and noise there yet. Also, even though partially commercialised, the overall atmosphere on the island is still pretty relaxed which makes it very easy to unwind.

Lamai at night

Both the Lamai and Chaweng beaches are quite similar - long stretches of white sand, with restaurants on the beach and multiple water activities available. Other than that, the parallel streets offer many shops to browse through, and massage shops to get different treatments everyday. Honestly, as I said we did not do much, just walked around, ate, got massages daily, swam and ate some more!

Chaweng

On a Sunday, we also walked into the local Thai market near Lamai beach. It was a street full of vendors selling all kinds of foods - meats, crepes, insects etc.. The interesting thing though was how cheap it all was! All the restaurants which seemed very cheap compared to London rates, now seemed like a rip-off! Also made me realise how much our sense of prices has changed while staying in London.

Koh Nangyuan snorkelling

One of the days, we took a day trip to two islands, Koh Nangyuan and Koh Tao, for a snorkelling trip, and had a great time. The first thing we were impressed with was how their process worked very efficiently. People going on different trips are picked up from multiple locations, by different vans. All assemble at one location, and after check-in sorted into different ferries based on the colour of the ribbon on the hand. Each tour runs efficiently with lunch, food, equipment well taken care of. When you come back, again based on the drop off locations, everyone is assigned a van and dropped back to the correct location. Many small things were so very well co-ordinated throughout the trip, it was very impressive!!

Koh Nangyuan

Koh Nangyuan was a pretty island, small but self-contained. It had good beaches with sun-beds, corals for snorkelling just off the beach, a small trek up to the viewpoint, a restaurant on the island and lots of sun - all making for a fun-filled day! Both these islands are more famous for diving though, but that's for another time:).

One thing I really liked were the spirit houses (or little temples as they look like) that you could see outside all Thai homes and businesses. They are very small and colourful temples that are built outside every building. They look so cute and beautiful, caught my eye everywhere.

Thai spirit houses

There are a couple of other things to do on the island (which we did not), you can go to see the Thai boxing matches, or visit the touristy places like the Big Buddha temple or go diving to the island of Koh Tao and Koh Nangyuan. I would also suggest if you want to travel around the island, hiring a scooter is a very good option. Its comfortable, easy to park and good fun especially given the weather is so great. The mornings and evenings are pleasant with a cool breeze blowing most of the times. The afternoon does get sunny and hot and humid, but then thats what the sea is for:).

Renaissance

We stayed at the Renaissance hotel, between Lamai beach and Chaweng, which was a nice resort away from the noises of the main areas, and had a tropical hilly feel to it. Everyday, we would take their shuttle to one of the other two beaches and chill away the day. Other than that, we did not do much else. Food was tasty and spicy! People were helpful, though their English wasn't as good. Bargaining is key while shopping. Other than that, just sit back, relax and enjoy:)