Samui

Four days later, we found ourselves in Ibiza, errr... Koh Samui. This place is no less then Ibiza, or thats what we were told, and that's what we saw. As usual, I had booked ourselves into a hotel 40 minutes away from the airport. And if you have been to Samui or will ever go, you should know that you could drive around the entire coast line of this little island in just about an hour, so by those standards...it was far. There is one main road on Samui. Yes, just one. Then there are these little by-lanes, that are pretty insignificant and they lead you to dead ends.

There is one thing to note, If its bright and beautiful and sunny in Krabi, you're sure to get rain in Samui. Samui lies in the west coast of the Gulf oh Thailand. It's pretty, but honestly, it was not as pretty as Krabi.

I had looked up several hotels. The ones that gave me the best deals were Zazen, Passage, Amari, and Anantara. Our hotel was called The Passage. We reached the hotel, and as luck would have it, it started to pour. So we decided to stay in. Our villa was gorgeous. A huge bedrom that opened into our private swimming pool and a small garden overlooking the sea, a living room, and a nice big loo. We got a great deal on this hotel (Rs 8000 a night), so if you want to live in a villa style hotel, you can pick this one. The restarant is average, but the hotel is nice.

In the evening we hired a car (TBH 1500 a day, plus fuel). We drove around one half of Samui to Chaweng beach. If you are a shopahaolic, this place is for you. The one and only street is lned with small shops selling just about everything. Fake bags, shoes, clothes, belts, and whatever else can be 'faked'. In Thailand, they make a lot of stuff out of coconuts. So if you can get a fair deal on the lamps, get those. They are really cute.

Lonely planet advised us to go to Soi, Green mango, which is supposedly the most happening club in Samui. Unfortunately for us, we reached there only to see a cat eating food at a table near the entrance. That really put us off. So we walked back the entire stretch of the beach and ate at Baan Samui restaurant. The food was'finger licking good' :) They also have a live band playing rock everyday. You can barely understand what they're singing coz the English seems like French thanks to their awesome accent.

While driving back, I looked at the sky and I saw a zillion stars smiling back and me. I was super excited because the next day would probably be nice, bright, and sunny. My predicton was wrong. Too bad! The next morning I woke up to a hell lot of rain.

So I looked up my maps (yes, maps - local map, google maps, tourist map, etc), and decided to go to the Aquarium, Zoo, and Bird and Tiger show. The aquarium entrance fee is THB 750 per person, including tickets to the bird show, tiger show, and sea lion show. The aquarium is just about OK. The zoo is horrible (there were just 10 animals, if I couted corectly), but the sea lion show is awesome. If you're lucky, they will pick you up as a volunteer on the show and then you can smile and look pretty and get pictures clicked with the sea lion.
The god part about this place is the Pancake stalls on the outside. We had the banana nutella pancakes. To good!

We then drove to The Cliff. It promises the most stunning views of Koh Samui, and its true. Sitting high on a cliff right opposite the Samui yatch club is this lovely restaurant for Mediterranean and Spanish Tapas. The food was very very good and we had shots too (I just cannot remember what the concoction, but I know it was damn neat). Average price for lunch is about TBH 1000 for two people.

The chinese village night market (near Bhoput) is another thing you must do. Locals put up these little food stalls and you can even shop for clothes and accessories. Pranav tried the stir fried grasshoppers (which he insists on calling cockroaches). Ummmm...no comments. We had potato crispies with pepper and something which looked liked boiled eggs but was actually made of coconut batter and you sprinkle a little sugar on it and eat it. Quite nice actually. I kept calling it 'nakli andas' coz I couldn't understand what they were calling it.

We went to Chaweng everyday. We ate food at the Baan Samui restaurant twice and we also ate at Bellini Restaurant & Bar. That was pretty nice and it was probably our cheapest meal because they give you a thin crust pizza, brushetta, and a coke for THB 299 for two people. I ordered a soup and two glasses of wine, and still the bill was THB 600. Nice deal, I say!

We spent the next day in Koh Phangan island. Cute little island. We missed the full moon party by a couple of days, but we could have stayed back for the half moon party. You have to try the "Bucket". When you buy a bucket, the shop keeper cracks open 4 bottles (halves) of alcohol plus one red bull into this plastic bucket (like the ones that the villagers take along when they're going to do potty in the fields), and you are expected to finish that...neat...individually!

Overall, Samui is a great place provided the sun is in the sky :)

Things to do:
1. Samui aquarium and zoo (must wait to see the sea lion show. If the show doesnt take place because of the rain, they allow you to come back te next day to watch it).
2. Samui butterfly garden (this is at Centara beach resort and you get a buy one get one free coupon that you can redeem at the hotel's beach side bar).
3. Chaweng beach (for shopping and night life).
4. Rent a car and drive around Samui island.
5. Koh Phangan Island (this is where ou have the famous Full Moon parties. They happen once a month on full moon night.)
6. Koh Tao (offers one of the best snorkelling and diving spots in the Andaman sea)
7. Five islands tour
8. Fisherman's village and Bophut