Saturday 23rd March
Overnight we have sailed from mainland Thailand to the Thai island of Koh Samui. We are anchored just off the island and so went ashore by tender boats. We had some local tender boats which were bigger to help get everyone ashore quickly. We went on a short tour today to see a few places on the island. It was a much more relaxed day but just as hot as yesterday. We went to a coconut plantation and saw how they take off the outside of the coconut then so easily open the nut with a small machete and then grind the coconut inside. We were allowed to have a taste of the lovely fresh coconut. We also saw how monkeys are used to climb trees to pick coconuts and throw them down to the ground.
We travelled further round the island, our coach found it difficult to get up hills- thought we might need to push! Just as well there aren't many hills on this island. Our next stop was to see The Big Buddha. It is on Fan Island and you go across the causeway to get there. The Buddha was built in 1792 and as you see in the picture you have to go up lots of steps. There were lots of large bells there and people could make a small donation and take a stick to ring the bells. Several small children were enjoying ringing the bells. We went on just a little way to Plai Leam Temple which is only a few years old. The main temple building was beautiful inside, the wall paintings and carved doors showed scenes from the life of Buddha. Next to this building is a lake with a large statue of an 18 armed Goddess of Mercy built on an island. In the lake there were fish, they looked like catfish. You could buy fish food and watch as hundreds of fish came to the surface to eat.
We went back to the ship in one of our ships' tenders and the breeze and the odd splash of seawater through the window was very welcome.