Taking on Samui Roads

The good point of having a car on Samui is that one will not be restricted in coverage , bounded by an invisible barrier limited by the range covered by "two-rows" (truck taxis) that one can hop on. And they ain't cheap just for hopping from Chaweng to Lamai or the surrounding areas. I had discovered this stretch of beach facing the sunset. Takhoe is the name of the restaurant and I remembered the food was great and cheap. In contrast to the farang filled stylish restaurants on Chaweng, I was dining among the locals sipping Hundred Pipers with the soda or Coke. We came a wee bit late and missed the setting sun, the waitress told us we should have come earlier when the beach was shimmering in warm tones of orange and red. Didn't want no sand flies to jab into my foot and lay its entire family in there, so for all I would suggest - bring your insect repellent.


Takhoe place is well known for its very weird food. Away from the realm of common seafood, we had jungle mushrooms of some sort accompanied by healthy brown rice which health freaks find it ok but for me felt like chewing on dried straws I feed to my rabbit. Dining on the white weathered plastic chairs sprawled on the sandy beach, the condiments included one of the tastiest Kapi (prawn paste in chill) specially baked on coconut husk which not everyone could stomach. Normally I don't take on these weird dishes guaranteed to cause unusual lingering breath for hours, but this Kapi was something extraordinary.



Coordinates 9°34'40.53"N, 99°56'34.10"E for your reference.



On my previous blogs, I had mentioned of dining up the mountains in a place called Paradise Park. Well again, Samui is not just about the sun, sea and beach. Driving inlands heading up the mountains guided by very poor maps, I had stumbled on The Mountain Grand View Restaurant & Swimming Pool. This restaurant, they tried their best to offer guest a dip in their infinity pool which has one of the best Samui's view, but I don't think anyone would want to dip in the neglected algae infested very green waters. Pool on Samui and what comes to mind is farangs heaps basking in the sun, but I guessed this place is a challenge to find and therefore the desolation.


No guest was there and we had the whole place to ourselves. It became not economically viable to maintain the pool water and so I suppose its purpose now is a giant bird bath, a frog breeding pond or a tourist trip over and fall into water trap. Other than that aside, enjoying a cup of coffee or cooling down that cocktail accompanied by the mountain breeze with an incredible view of the distant horizon makes the trip up worthwhile.


Just watch out for the land slide areas on the way up which ate up half of the road. We were told that the weather these late years had been extreme and Samui had been trying their best to cope with fighting nature.



Coordinates 9°28'42.60"N, 99°59'49.20"E for your reference.



Here's a restaurant that offers quite a feast, not too local and reasonably priced, the crowd is a mix of locals, farangs and mosquitoes . Offering the standard range of cholesterol laden tasty Thai seafood dishes is Sabienglae Restaurant. Its located in between Lamai and Chaweng not too difficult to find. Expect the place to be packed as it is quite well known. I was not too impressed by the dinner but I would rather not risk driving into the dark mountain roads in the night and have my hungry carcass discovered in a Vios at the bottom of a landslide scene. Coordinates 9°27'11.33"N, 100° 2'10.74"E for your reference.



As you cruise the coastal roads and ascend the hills of Samui, one does come across many little spots of pleasant settings so inviting for a chill-chill (Thai slang for chill out time). Appeal of all kinds from contemporary back to rustic rural and pure simple offers a choice too many for the curious soul of an explorer. Amongst that which I mentioned, food for the belly, we scaled the hundred steps up into the temple overlooking the airport, and shopped the weekend night market of Lamai.



And as we tire we had our cocktails by the fiery night beach nearby. Just driving, maneuvering corners and watch that endless horizon revealing up as we rolled on over the top of the hill is already an episode of endorphin in my warm bloodstream.

Full photo sets here under Samui Aug 2011.

Getting to Samui the Cheaper Way

Bangkok Airways monopolized the only airport in Samui, and with that, they shout the price they want and we have no choice, or do we? Well a short flight in Bangkok Airways to Samui from Suvanaphum cost THB 3,000 one way at least (and that's during the promotion period). Double that and double the passenger, it cost THB 12,000 at least for a round trip. Yes you buy the time and the convenience, but I did it all for less than THB 5,000. That, I took the alternative, going by Air Asia to Surat Thani, and a ferry across to the island paradise. All in all, six hours or so of adventure I see it to be, and it was definitely worth the savings.



Hunting for good cheap budget airlines promotion, one could end up with return tickets for two as cheap as THB 2,000, so with that I had a smile broader then Joker in Batman - The Dark Knight . Now, once at the airport in Surat, there are 2 ways to get across to Samui. I rented a Vios from Hertz, and enjoyed my one and half hours drive over to the ferry terminal at Donsak. Or, you could purchase the bus tickets inclusive of the sea crossing while on board Air Asia when the staffs announces it.


Getting to that speck of paradise in the Ao Thai Sea consist of an enjoyable drive across well paved roads covering a distance of about 100km, that which I took one and half hours. The critical point to note is that the last ferry leaves at 19:00 hrs. So if you arrive at Surat at 16:00 to rent a car, you could be skating on thin ice. The thing about the ferry service is that, you do not know how long a queue there will be till you get there. I bought my advance ferry tickets at Raja Ferry counter at the airport for about THB 500 and they could not guarantee my getting over to Samui on the same day. You have to expect the worst if you are going during the public holiday season, so plan your timing well. Coordinates for Raja Ferry Terminal at Donsak is 9°19'42.41"N , 99°44'39.62"E .


Now, something about renting the car from Hertz, make sure you check them wheels before you take the car. It was into the second day on the island that we realized there was something stuck in our wheels. We called Hertz, they said, whatever we do, don't pull that out. It was part of the previous puncture repairs. The job looked shoddy and we asked what if the tire went flat while we were driving, won't that be dangerous? Should we not get proper wheels in the first place where safety is concerned? To which, there was no answer to our question.



Anyways, I did arrived at Donsak after a fun hour of discovering that being in the Vios taking on corners is like being in a ferry before I even got on one and that the 2000cc engine can churn out quite good torque even at speeds beyond 150km/h. I was relieved to see the clam pier with only less than five vehicles on queue and my girlfriend was glad we were still alive.



We caught the 6pm ferry, drove over the rusty gangway into the belly of the beast, we left the car on the lower deck and head on up into the comfy lounge area above to spend the next one and half hours looking through large windows as the sky turned an orange and into the deep blue. We walked the upper decks and have the breeze blow our hairs into a frenzy.



I was quite surprised the ferry was rather presentable, but not every day is we-strike-lottery day as you can see from the pictures above, on our return trip the other ferry in the Raja fleet was of a much inferior quality. Getting to a destination by never tried before means, yet another exploration chapter in my book of adventures as it continues in Thailand.

Bangkok Airport Link, Don’t

Well for those of you who are arriving in Bangkok, first advise, don’t take the bloody overhyped Airport Link. Well, fast as it may be, but when I arrived at the Makkasan station, it was like arriving on a deserted island after a shipwreck in the Pacific Ocean. See, Makkasan is supposed to be the so called “City Air Terminal” and one would perceived it to be well served or linked by other connecting public transport at least. Arriving at Makkasan, we found the place almost deserted. There were little staffs on duty and when asked where the taxi queue was, we were told, it’s on the main road. Main road??

That’s when we realized it meant going to the ground floor, out of the terminal, going on foot under the station lugging my baggage to the main road some 500 meters away and to flag a cab by ourselves. And while on the main road, I truly enjoyed inhaling the exhaust fumes of traffic which was at a standstill. I was also thrilled by the experience of waiting extremely long for the crawling taxi. City planners in Thailand (oh they so brilliant) decided to place the City Terminal next to one of the most congested roads (Ratchadaphisek - Phetchaburi intersection) in Bangkok just to proof to tourist the notorious traffic jams in Bangkok are for real. And I had heard on the news lately, the record breaking lowest number of passengers in a day was 300. The average was 1,600. A billion dollar project that’s more like a joke.

Koh Larn on a Weekend

Heading for a short beach trip on a weekend gateway, not so far, just an hour or more away. Where? Pattaya for the farangs, or Bang Sean for the local folks? Neither. Its an island I will blog here. Well in Singapore we go across to the over developed Sentosa, here we have bustling and crowded Koh Larn opposite of Pattaya.




The Beach @ GPS: 12°55'30.45"N, 100°46'41.68"E

Getting there means joining the sardine crowd on a 20 Baht ride on the common ferry, standing on the roof just like trains in India. Or, you could negotiate with the scary scattered speed boat operators that harass you on your way to the pier for as low as 2000 Baht for a personal speedboat over to a designated beach on the island. We opted for the scary speed boat operators. Depending on the time of the year and the season, the operators will drop you off a beach where the waters are calm. There are a few beaches on Koh Larn for your info.



It was hot and the beach was wide. Popular destination for tourist as well and the number of boats anchored on the shallow waters numbered in hundreds. Para-sail, banana boats and jet skiing are some of the activities there.



That’s also where we learnt that 30 minutes of 600 Baht jet skiing fun could turn out to be 6000 Baht after our friends rammed into a boat. At first I thought it was the Jet-Ski con scheme so common around Pattaya where tourist get ripped off for damages they did not caused. But I learnt that the damage was genuine. I also learnt that jumping into conclusion that all the Jet Ski operators were con artist and cursing them with the word “monitor lizards” in Thai was not a good idea (I wanted to engage them in a fight because I thought they were attempting to con us, also for some reasons or other, monitor lizard in Thai is a very bad word).



With so many boats anchored, an accident is always waiting to happen. The other Indian tourist causing a commotion with the thugs on the beach had 3 Jet Skis slammed into each other, damages claimed to be 50,000 Baht or more and he could not pay. Lesson learnt, don’t Jet Ski there, it just ain’t worth it.




Fresh seafood on Mainland @ GPS: 12°55'29.58"N, 100°52'1.72"E

Food and shop houses are an abundant on this spot of an island. But if you are wise like we did, we bought the yummies from mainland over to the island at a fraction of what you will have to pay on Koh Larn. Along the streets near the pier on mainland, you will find shop houses selling life seafood. We got a kilogram of crayfish for THB350, had them steamed and packed for the trip. On Koh Larn, the same crayfish sold for THB1,200 per kilogram. Same goes for beer and all that alcohol. Local culture, we spent the entire day on Koh Larn in economy mode, brought all the stuffs from mainland and stayed tipsy chatting away into the evening to join the force of boats on the return leg at 5pm.



Good Dinner @ GPS: 12°51'39.90"N, 100°53'43.73"E

Evening time, the sea breeze a blowing. How else to enjoy the transition from dusk colors till deep blue night under the moonlit shores? Driving along the Pattaya shoreline, we found restaurants aplenty. Simple tables and plastic stools lined the pavement separating the road and the shoreline. Anglers catching them Whiting by the buckets stood where the pavement were free. We choose one spot at random and feasted, washing down scrumptious seafood with the last remaining whisky brought over from Koh Larn. A weekend on Koh Larn, cheap, simple and not so far. Just too much crowd as with every other sunny spots nearby Bangkok.

I, ATV Koh Tao

Moving in and around Koh Tao resulted in sore thumb. Since I am born with an inherited genetic incapability to balance myself on motorcycles, I had to go for ATV on the island. I had to grip on hard as the rocky roads attempted at every bump to dislodge my press on the tiny thumb throttle. Try that for an hour and see how your thumb feels.


You can get the smallest ATV at 600 to 700 Baht for a full day, that’s pretty inexpensive considering the fun you can have. See, Koh Tao is not just a place where you melt and become one with the sofa in your resort, but also a place for an explorer. Riding the ATV over windy roads, challenging the small engine to steep hills, testing the brakes around corners at the bottom of the slopes, exciting I say. And getting lost was part of the fun too.


Travel deep and you can find yourself sipping cold beer on scenic spots overlooking the ocean from some obscure small pubs. Travel high into the hills and you find some of the best food. Travel all over into interesting resorts and survey for your next stay. Challenge the dog to a race. I had fun on the ATV, from Mae Haad to Sairee.



Full photo sets here under Koh Tao Feb 2010 & Koh Tao Apr 2011.

Getting to Koh Tao, by Lomprayah and it Sucks

Koh Tao is an island north of Samui, north beyond the full moon party island of Phangan. No direct flights and the only way to get there is by your personal yacht or the daily ferries departing from Bangkok, Hua Hin, Chumphon or Samui.



I recommend the Chumphon route, so as I did enjoying the 7 hours drive from Bangkok at 3am in the morning, followed by the Lomprayah twin hulled high speed ferry departing at 1pm. The boat journey was an hour and a half. One could get to Chumphon in a short 5 hours if needed to, forgoing all the coffee breaks, the toilet visits, the export outlet shopping and the meal stops along route in mega petrol stations so many in Thailand.

Take your time, drive a slow pace and enjoy the pleasant experience from darkness till dawn and into the daylight morning I say. Recently, they had a new service introduced. Its called Solar Air. You take a propeller plane from Bangkok to Chumphon airport, then a bus followed by the ferry service. No need to wake that early in the morning for self-drive. It cost about THB3,000 one way.


Bookings for the ferry could be done in advance over the Lomprayah web site, that was what I did and luckily I did so too. If not, one will have to endure the slow services of the check in counter as I write later. Getting to the ferry terminal is a challenge. The directional map on the website ain’t clear at all, could end up in Burma. So, in this post I had attached a snapshot of Google Maps for references (Long 10°21'30.60"N, Lat 99°16'1.80"E).


Lomprayah in Chumphon, they provide safe overnight parking looked after by the residence for THB50 per day to watch over your precious ride. Just make sure you get a shady spot for your car if you do not want it to be baking under the glaring sun. And to do so, wait for the return ferry from Koh Tao an hour before your trip, many folks will be driving their cars out on the return trip to Bangkok and that’s when you have the luxury to choose lots under the shade. Not much point arriving too early in advance as the parking could be full.



Now, heaps of whining, Lomprayah, no queue system, no baggage services and very slow checking-in process. Checking-in took more then 10 minutes per person as the counter was only a served by single slow laid back country woman scribbling your bookings onto notebooks. They have speed limits in terms of work but strangely, no one in the queue was complaining. Haven’t they heard of computerization?


Then when it was time, I had to lug and roll my baggage over the fifty meters of creaky wooden jetty under the searing sun, I got my tan even before landing on the beach. The ferry has two levels, the top so labeled VIP and you will have to pay THB100 extra to be in (it was THB 50 last year). But you may not get it as wished. Experienced riders rushed towards the boat in an instant after the onset of announcement to board. I had sat in the mass area below, powered by only three air conditioning systems. It was hot and humid, it ain’t a pleasant ride.


And so on my second trip to Koh Tao, I opted for booking VIP when checking in, ensuring I would get that seat upstairs instead of sauna room below. I was given a special VIP sticker, pasted onto my shirt, it was suppose to indicate to all that I had special privileges. Then, no special privilege encountered, I still had to join the long queue as per normal. Waltzing into the VIP with expectations that there will be available seats waiting for me, I was greeted by a scene of chaos instead. Large noisy families, hordes of noisy Thai folks engaged in frantic throwing of belongings onto empty seats reserving them for their mothers, kids and whatsoever extended families further down the queue. And they did not have the VIP stickers, they just conquered that VIP room in a stampede. To top it off, I did not see any staffs of Lomprayah coming in to check on who had the VIP stickers and who not, by right those who did not had to pay that extra THB100, it did not happen. And when I asked the Lomprayah staffs about why those people were not being charged, here was how it went:

Me (to Staff of Lomprayah):
Excuse me, we are supposed to pay extra when we sit VIP right?

Staff:
Yes sir.

Me:
Why no one come to check on me and ask me to pay extra THB100?

Staff (started looking at each other to find excuse, realizing they forgot to check who was VIP and who not):
Oh we will do so….

Paused… confusion among staffs…

Staff:
Er sir, can we have a look at your ticket… ?

Me hand over ticket… .

Staff: Oh sir… you already are VIP, we no charge you extra.

Me: What about the others? Did you check on them?

Paused… confusion among staffs…

Staff: Oh no need sir, we know who VIP and who are not. So we will charge those without VIP tickets and stickers.

Me: Why I never see you charge those with normal stickers then? I have been sitting up there for 1 hour already?

Staff: That’s because we know those without the VIP stickers currently upstairs had already paid for the extra VIP charge when checking in, the check in staffs had radioed us to tell us who they are.

Bull shit, utter bullshit. Totally bullshit, how could they recognized them all? And if they did paid extra, they would have got VIP stickers!! Lomprayah is full of bullshit but why should they bother to improve services since they are the only company that monopolizes the only ferry to Koh Tao!! Assholes.

Working here for 7 years, that day, I realized why my Thai friends had told me repeatedly that Thai people are very good at telling lies in my course of work as a warning. They don’t call it lies, my Thai mates had said, they simply call it “don’t finish the sentences” that’s all. Thais are very good at twisting the story and changing the facts. This, I totally witnessed on that day.

So my advice to all, forget about opting for VIP during check in and paying in advance. Many of us with VIP stickers ended with no seats because of these ill-mannered folks who horded the VIP level. Pity the other Caucasian tourists who were squeezed out of VIP rooms and made confused by the Lomprayah staffs who gave all kinds of bullshit reasoning. I am just wondering what the Lomprayah staffs had told those who paid but did not get a seat. I got mine because I screamed at the Lomprayah staffs when I had no seats during the beginning of the journey.

My holiday in Koh Tao was almost perfect except for Lomprayah. But do we have a choice?

Full photo sets here under Koh Tao Feb 2010 & Koh Tao Apr 2011.