Koh Samet

KOH SAMET

Unclear how to spell the name of this island, and I have seen it spelled many different ways. Having said that, I cannot really think of many other complaints about this place.

You go to Banphe and then rent a speedboat. The speedboat takes you over to the island and directly to where you are staying. There are lots of different places to stay, and our destination is a place called Silver Sands Beach. It is as named. You jump out of the boat and into the surf and they carry your luggage ashore. Then you are right there at the hotel.

The hotel itself has about twenty small bungalows very near to the beach, some actually on the beach. They are quaint but modern with clean interiors, plumbing that works, fan, air conditioning and even a television. The grounds are like a well-manicured garden, with lots of flowers, little pathways and a lot of topiary. The beach is marvelous, with white sand and extremely clean and clear water. The sand slopes gently away from the shore for ideal swimming. There are some beach chairs and umbrellas on the beach, and above that there are some tables that are part of a small restaurant and bar. A few vendors walk up and down the beach with coconuts and some crafts, but they are fairly low key. The prices are cheap for most things, and if you want hard liquor it is very cheap in the little shop, but they will be glad to sell it to you by the drink. The food is very tasty and the menu is huge. Each evening they fire up a barbecue and start serving everything from beef to tuna to huge shrimps. A huge double bungalow (that could hold four) is $50; breakfast is about $2 and a great dinner about $6. There is a refrigerator in each room as well as a small porch with chairs.

They show two movies each evening, although the television system has HBO and CNN International along with Thai and Chinese channels. That is not of interest to me (except for following the USA elections), as there are fireworks, lots of lights on the beach, music playing at various watering holes, and a full reggae bar just up the beach blasting roots music. The moon and the stars provide excellent entertainment.

The days are a combination of swimming, napping, reading, snacking, drinking and wandering about. My idea of a good vacation. The weather was warm but not too hot, the nights were pleasant and while the air con was useful it was not absolutely essential.

There were quite a few tourists, but it was not too crowded and they seemed to be from a wide variety of different places. There seemed to be a lot of younger people here, with most of them in the 30-40-age range. There were a lot of couples (it is a heck of a romantic place). Some of the couples were western guys (most of them young, fit and fairly handsome) paired up with some beautiful Thai girls. I cannot assume that they were all involved in some sort of financial transaction, but I assume that some of them were. If this is prostitution it at least seemed happy, respectful and mutually consensual. No pimps were in evidence, and most seemed to be on an extended date as opposed to a one-nighter.

I would come back to Koh Samet.