Satani Bat Bi: Ko Samet

I'm tardy on reporting, but our first Thailand beach trip - to Koh Samet! - was back in early December.  Husband and I were both back from China and ready for a relaxing weekend.   Koh Samet is fairly close to Bangkok, but deceptively so.  We took the Bangkok Skytain (BTS) to Ekkamai station, and caught a bus from the Ekkamai bus stop to Ban Phe (about 3.5 hours, 160 THB one-way/$5.30 USD).  The bus was decent - had air-con and they gave us a bottle of water and snacks on board.  We had plenty of room to stretch out, but it was just such a long trip.  It felt like we were taking the winding backroads from Seattle to Portland, instead of taking Interstate-5.

We got in to Ban Phe on a Friday evening, and checked in to our guest house, about a 10 minute walk from the bus station.  Ban Phe is really the staging ground for Koh Samet, since you need to take a 40 minute ferry from Ban Phe (the mainland) to Ko Samet (the island).  However we had arrived too late at night to catch the last ferry, so we stayed over that night and hoped to catch a ferry the next day.  While wandering around Ban Phe, we stumbled upon a cool music festival, ate some sweet rice cooked in a bamboo pole, and looked at beautiful wooden Thai furniture.

The next day we caught a boat to Ko Samet from the Ban Phe pier for 100 baht per person ($3.30 USD) for the 40 minute ferry ride.  There are also high-speed boats that make the trip in 10 minutes, but run around 2000 baht ($65 USD) per boat.   I guess if you have 10 people in the boat it's not bad (only $6).  Our ferry chugged its way across the passage.  A couple of drawbacks from the ferry: there aren't really set departure times.  The boat waits until it's full before departing.  So if you found a seat in the sun, you may be sitting in the sun for an hour until the boat leaves, even though it was 'supposed' to leave much earlier.  The ferries also serve to bring food and goods to the island, so you may also be delayed by the unloading/loading process on either end.  On our way back from Ko Samet, all the drinks, fruits, and even a refrigerator were unloaded before trash and two motorcycles were loaded on board.  Also, the ferry only goes from Ban Phe to one pier on the north side of the island.  Virtually all the accommodations are on the south and east side of the island, so you still need to find taxis or walk to your final destination.  The high-speed boats whip around the island and drop you off exactly where your hotel is.  I really don't see one method as better than the other - just depends if you're in a rush or not I guess.

Some beautiful Thai boats:

This is a close-up of the bow of a boat - all Thai boats (and taxis and buses, etc.) have this sort of colored scarves and decoration to bring good luck and protection for the journey.

A similar ferry to ours:

Fishing/ferry boats:

Once we arrived at the pier, there is a racket-like collection of pickup truck taxis.  They are all a lovely shade of green, and have benches on either side of the bed of the pickup truck.  Depending on how far you want to go down the island, your fare is 20-100 baht.  We weren't going too far, so it was only 20 baht a piece.  After we were dropped off at our hotel and realized how close it was, we only walked from then on - it was probably a 10-12 minute walk from the pier on the north side, and a 3 minute walk to the beach on the south side.

Taxis passing in the street:

Sidenote - I totally loved these motorcycles with sidecarts - reminded me of the Aristocats:

We had a long weekend in Ko Samet, and spent it relaxing on the beach, reading books, snorkeling in the bays, and one day we rented an ATV.  We asked around at a few shops for the going price of an ATV for the day, and found that 800 baht for a day was considered fair.  The vast majority of the island population and hotel crowd live in the northeast corner of the island, but it actually stretches quite far down to the south.  After riding the ATV for probably 45 minutes, we still had not reached the southernmost tip of the island, but ventured down to a resort with a beach and spent a few hours exploring their bay.

 A stop and view to the west of the island on the trip:

This bay had a great tide pool area to mosey around, and in addition to clams on ALL the rocks, there were crabs of all size scurrying around, fish flittering about, water bugs skimming the water, and this strange clicking sound.  It happened every 30 or 45 seconds, and I could not for the life of me figure out what it was.  A crab clacking its claws above water?  A fish jumping out of the water then splashing back in?  The clams opening and closing their shells?  I became obsessed with finding out what this sound was.  I STARED at the pools, waiting to catch the noise in action. What is happening?  Argh it drove me crazy!  I'm almost positive it was the clams opening and slamming their shells shut, trying to see if the tidewater had come back in and if it was safe for them to again filter for food.  But I'm sad to say that after almost an hour out there (and the impending feeling of sunstroke) I just could not figure it out.  I kept thinking I needed someone like this guy Ryan from my high school, who went on to catalog animal species and behaviors all over the world, to just pop up and tell me in a matter-of-fact way what was happening.  Ahh well, another natural mystery.

The other side of mystery-sound bay:

We drove back to our hotel area and spent the night watching fire throwers perform and twirl - amazing.  A nice getaway trip indeed.