02/06/12 - A day in Samui

Rock formations Thailand style - shame there were a few dicks around...

Chaweng beach - refreshment stop #1

Al - your resort needs some work!

We ventured out onto the streets after a sumptuous breakfast (Tony had regained his appetite, fortunately, so the moaning had reduced to normal levels…), and hit the more traditional island transport rather than just hopping on a taxi. This involved waiting on the street until a ute style tuk-tuk beeped on its way past, indicating it had seats spare. Fortunately the wait wasn’t too long, but it didn’t quite take us as far as intended (always tell the driver exactly where you want to be dropped). Not letting this phase us, we decided to explore Chaweng beach straight away, which was a hub of tourist activity, hence every other minute you were saying no to a massage, sarong, and numerous other weird and wonderful Thai offerings…

Local fishermen at work

A bit further down Chaweng beach...

It was actually a bloody long beach, so our short walk didn’t quite happen – had to stop off on a couple of occasions for some liquid refreshments! Once we reached the other end, it was back onto the road for another tuk-tuk journey headed to the famous rock formations Hin-Ta & Hin-Yai. Slightly different to those we’d been used to in Australia!

Six Senses resort

Another Thai island, another Big Buddha

Following an extended period of haggling with taxi drivers, we arrived at a reasonable price and headed to Six-Senses resort for a pre-dinner drink. Didn’t realise that a 30 second stop at the Big Buddha  meant a significant increase in cost, especially when we were only told that when the journey was finished…

Key Learnings:

Dinner at Bo Phut

1. Taxi drivers on Koh Samui don’t know much English (limited to journey costs) until you disagree on how much you are going to pay them, when an array of more colourful language goes on display!