The Gulf of Thailand... we have definitely been looking forward to this part of the world for a while. With high hopes and without any hesitation it was time to dive right in. There are three main islands which make up The Gulf. From South to North, and descending in size are Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. From Surat Thani on the mainland we were just an hour and half ferry ride to our first island, Koh Samui.
On arrival at Koh Samui we flagged down an ‘island bus’ or songthaew, which is essentially a pickup truck with two benches in the back. We chucked our stuff in followed by ourselves and made our way round the island. We found a nice place in an area in the north called Bangrak, and got ourselves a huge room with a balcony, connecting lounge and ensuite. If you don’t stay directly on the beach there’s some bargains to be had, and we got this place with aircon, breakfast and wifi for just 400 bhat (£8) a night. We spent three nights here and rented a scooter so we could get out and see all the different beaches. It’s a surprisingly large island, and we never got around to seeing all those beaches as we kept getting distracted along the way by those very same beaches we were looking to find. We did however also track down some very strange shaped rock formations and one very big Buddha.
As the saying goes, ‘when in Rome...’, so where better in the world to get a Thai massage than on the beach in Thailand. An awesome experience and a world away from your traditional massage as the masseuse works away at you and literally rolls you over her knee extending and stretching muscles and tendons you didn’t know you have. It really is too easy to get distracted here!
We did however find Koh Samui a little overdeveloped, the roads a bit manic and the island itself largely polluted by the influx of tourism which has led to resorts, restaurants and all manner of buildings being thrown up wherever there’s room. There are obviously pockets of nicer areas on the island but how long they stay that way remains to be seen.
After three nights we made our way for the island of Koh Phangan, known as Coconut Island and home to the infamous Full Moon Parties. Our timings were unfortunately a bit out for this, although the next one was scheduled for August 4th, Adam’s birthday. Koh Phangan is a bit smaller than Koh Samui and a lot less developed (it lacks an airport for one), so it retains a lot more island charm and has plenty of quiet and postcard picture beaches to discover. We spent a couple of nights in a nice little beach front bungalow and spent a few days exploring the island and night markets on the scooter again. From here we decided to go truly rustic and spent a few nights on Koh Phangans east coast. Getting there was only the start of the adventure, needing a four by four which had to crawl over rocks and boulders, and up slopes that did not look physically possible. The reward however was well worth the trials of the journey as we had a beautiful bungalow looking out over The Gulf and a stunning cove with a white sandy beach. Due to the remoteness of the location we only had electricity for a few hours in the evening, but we did have as many fresh coconuts as we could manage!
Time still though to squeeze in one more island, as we ferried our way over to the minute (just 21sqkm) island of Koh Tao. Famed for one thing and one thing only, diving. More than likely the world’s largest concentration of dive centres per square mile. People come here to get their Open Water diving certificates, and that was our goal too. It was back to school for three and half days as we had to watch the videos, pay attention in the classroom, do our homework and pass the test at the end. None of it is particularly difficult, and after not working for ten months it was good to be ‘learning’ something new. We of course got to put that theory into practise and spent half the time out on the boat and did four professional dives, whilst learning all manner of scuba skills. We got down to 18 metres and are now certified divers meaning we can do fun dives all over the world as we choose.
We saved ourselves three nights to recover from the exhaustion of diving by staying in what can only be described as a ‘quaint’ little bungalow in the south of the island overlooking the very cool ‘Shark Island’. Quaint in the sense that we had to share it with a couple of creepy crawlies and one very large but relatively friendly lizard. They don’t usually rent this one out but we managed to persuade them to for less than half the price of their newer bungalows. They made it up for us and we managed to make it homely enough for a short stay. A final chance to relax on the beach for a few days before heading to Thailands crazy capital, Bangkok.
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