We arrived at Koh Samui on Sunday morning after a very short ferry crossing from Koh Pahnang, this is the largest of the three islands we've visited so far and we were staying on the south west coast on a beach called Hat Chaweng, as we arrived is was soon apparent that this was a very touristy area with fancy resorts lined from one side of the beach to the other and it seemed a lot busier than Koh Pahnang, there was a good buzz about the place with lots of water sports happening and plenty of locals trying to sell everything under the sun, the set up of the place was quite like Koh Tao only on a lot larger scale.
With us only having two days here we set of fast to do some exploring, we walked the length of the 6km beach which took nearly an hour with the odd stop for a Chang refreshment, on our way back we met up with an English guy (Tim) we met in Koh Pahnang and had a meal and a few beers on the beach. Our second and last day we headed into town to see a few more sights, this started with some stalls where a few bargains were picked up and then onto an very cool bar made entirely of ice, needless to say we only stayed in for one drink as it was around 5 degrees. After exploring a bit more we stumbled across an Irish bar so we treaded ourselves to some good western grub and even a couple of pints of Magners, oh it was a glorious taste.
Later in the evening we decided to sample some of the nightlife and headed to a cool bar called Solo in the main town called Chaweng Central about half an hours walk from our resort, there seemed to be a good atmosphere about the place and every one was very friendly so a fun night was had. Unfortunately the two days were nowhere near enough time to explore the island but what we seen we liked and the whole atmosphere of the place was a lot more lively and fun compared to Koh Pahnang.
Off to Krabi now on the west coast of mainland Thailand,
John and Colin