Trips to Samed Island

Recently I had a chance to travel to Samed Island Twice. The first time was during Christmas and the second time was during new year.

I have heard of Samed for long but never had chance to go there. It's not far from Pattaya, just about an hour away by car. It was my boyfriend's thought to go there. I looked online for the information on how to get there and where we could get a boat to the island.

There are many beaches on Samed but there is one that is close to the main pier and has many restaurants and even a few pubs on it. It's a big beach called Sai Kaew. My boyfriend called it White Sand beach.

We left Bangkok on Thursday and set the GPS to the pier I looked online. It took us about 2.5 to 3 hours to get to the district where the piers to the island are. Once we turned to the road to the pier I was going to go to, there was a guy on a motorbike driving along my car and asked us if we wanted to go to Samed. He said he had a boat for us. We decided to drive after him to the pier.

We ended up at the pier of the municipality office. There was a car park with roof we could park while we were gone to the island. We paid about 80 baht per 3 nights (don't remember the exact rate). After that they took us to a table to arrange us a boat. The lady there asked us if we had a place to stay yet and we said no. She gave us a book with pictures of hotels on the island in it. We picked one for 2,000 baht. She said that price included breakfast but when we got there we found out that the breakfast was not included.

We got a boat for 3,000 baht for round trip. They gave us a ticket and on the day back we just called them one hour ahead and they came pick us up and they asked us for the ticket.

Once we got on the boat, 10 minutes later we were on the island.

We dragged our luggage to the hotel and we got a room which I didn't really like. The rooms there were not built great. One building contained 3 rooms and if you jump in one of the rooms people in the other rooms could hear and feel it. The wall was so thin. I could hear people next door snored clearly. The worse part is that there was the sand all over, on the floor, in bed, in the bathroom.

That night we walked out to the beach and walked along the beach. We sat and ate at a restaurant next to the biggest pub on the beach. I loved to sit there. They had seats by the beach close to the water. Around 8pm, a group of men was there to give us a fire show.

After the meal, we walked farther to another beach next to each other. It was quiet and pretty.

The next day we rented a scooter and drove around the island. If you plan to do so then you need to have a great skill of riding scooter. You will have to drive up and down the mountain on dirt road.

The spent the last day looking for a new and better place to stay for the next time we come back. We walked to the quiet beach we walked to the first night. There was a resort with separated houses up the hill. We got 2 rooms for 1,500 baht each, one for us and one for my boyfriend's niece who would be one the way for a visit soon.

After that we decided to leave one day earlier. We called to get the boat and an hour later we were on the way back to Bangkok.

About a week later we drove from Bangkok to Samed again. This time we had my boyfriend's niece and her boyfriend with us. We got there late on Dec 31th. We went to the same pier but different desk to get a boat with the same price. After that we took a boat to Tok's Little Hut where we made reservation last time we were there.

That night was new year eve. There were so many people on the island, so much different from a week ago. We walked to the same place we ate the first night we came during Christmas and it was hard to find available seats. The pub next to it was so crowded with people. We ordered food and had to wait for over an hour to get everything. There was a fire show just like the one we saw the first time we came.

After the meal we walked around for a bit to see the island celebrating the new year and then we walked back to our bungalow and rest.

Next morning we woke up and walked down to the beach. We sat at the restaurant and had breakfast and then walked around and saw many tents that people slept in at night. As I mentioned before that there were so many people there to celebrate the new year so all hotel got booked. We were lucky that we could find a nice place to stay during that time.

We walked from where we stayed to the beaches close to it. The first one which is next to us is called "Ao Phai". There was a very pretty restaurant at Ao Phai. They set up tables on the rock under the trees with candles on them. Sorry I couldn't get any good pictures of the restaurant. A few mores steps from there were a few restaurants. We sat there one and had some great seafood.

Next to Ao Phai is Ao Pudsa. There was a really nice resort there.

Ao Pudsa

From Ao Pudsa we walked to Ao Nuan. The way from Pudsa beach to Nuan Bay is kind of like a forest. We climbed up the rock ad walked to the trees and we got to a small private beach. After that we walked to where we stayed.

The next day we woke up early to take pictures of the sunrise.

Ao Pudsa

We left Samed that day and stopped by Pattaya and spent a couple nights there before we came back home in Bangkok.

A Trip in Pattaya: Day 3, Riding Elephant at the Elephant Village!

After we went to bed at 5.30am, we woke up around noon. We drove the scooter to the elephant village to see the elephant show. The show time was 2.30pm. To tell you the truth, I still felt a little dizzy. Not sure from being drunk or going to bed very late that made me dizzy.

We got to the Elephant Village at 2.05pm, 25 minutes before the show started. We paid for 1,200 baht for 2 of us for the show. Once we got in, we saw some foreigners were waiting. Only 2 Thais there, the lady who came with a foreigner guy and I. We bought 2 bundles of bananas for 200 baht to feed the elephants.

The speaker was a Thai guy and he did it well on the explanation about the elephants. I can't remember it all but there are 29 elephants at the village and only 2 of them are male.

He said the village is the first place that gives help to elephants and they get supported by the government. Most of the elephants were retired from working for the companies. There is a law in Thailand that doesn't allow people to use elephants to work anymore.

Male elephants are different from female ones. Male elephants have tusk while female don't. The companies that want to use elephants for their work would rather have female than male elephants. Male elephants will turn violent and can't do any work when they are in heat which takes 3 months long and they could be in heat twice for a year. That means they can work for them only for 6 months! For female elephants, it takes them 7 days for a period. They could have it every month but after it's over, they can get back to work.

Each of the elephants eats for 20kg a day and they need a lot of water to cool their bodies down. They like bathing in the water and cover themselves with cool mud. Do you know that they can swim for 6 hours without resting?!

Elephants can be trained and they are as smart as 6 years old kid. It takes like 6 months to a year for them to learn the basic commands like kneel down for the mahout to be able to climb up on them. They showed us during the show that an elephant knelt down for her mahout to climb on her and she also grabbed her mahout's sandals that he forgot it on the ground and handed them to him! Smart yeah?

You will be very close to the elephants there. They will be standing right in front of you. You can take pictures of them or touch them as much as you like. I fed them some bananas and they took it right from my hand.

I don't remember how long an elephant could live for a lifetime but it's so long that most of them have 2-3 generations of mahouts for their lifetime. And when they train a person to be a mahout, they will do it when that person is very young like a 6 years old kid. And then the speaker said a 6 years old kid can climb up on the elephants very easily and then he invited me who was the tiniest lady among the audiences to demonstrate how to climb up on the elephant! I was like "what?!"

I followed him to an elephant. She knelt down for me to climb up on her. My legs are short so a guy there had to help and push me up. And wow, I was on the elephant's neck now!. And they let me ride the elephant for a bit. Every audiences did the same. They let all of you try riding the elephants. But no worry! There will be a mahout with you up there! I was the first one who rode the elephant and my boyfriend was taking my pictures. When I got off, he was the last one that was climbing up on the elephant and it was my turn to take pictures of him!

I still had a bundle of bananas left. We had it on the seat next to us. Then the speaker let an elephant walk in and she ate all the bananas the audiences had on the seats. She chose only the yellow bananas because the taste was better than the green ones. The bundle we had had 2 bunches of bananas. My boyfriend moved it to the the seat behind us after he saw her ate all of the other audience's bananas. But her trunk was long enough to get our bananas and she put the whole bundle in her mouth! All our bananas were gone!! What a greedy girl!

There was an elephant that was retired from a circus. She was very tall and always bowed her head like she wanted to say thank you. She could use her trunk as her fingers very well. The speaker said she could grab a thin paper on the ground. I put a 20 baht banknote on the ground and she could grab it! The speaker also tried putting a tiny coin on the ground and she also could grab it! He said she also understood the numbers. He told a lady to pick up a number she liked and she picked #5. Then the speaker laid 10 bananas on the ground and told the lady to order the elephant to eat 5 bananas. We started to count and she began eating the bananas one by one and after she ate the 5th bananas she stopped! Wow 5 bananas were eaten and 5 of them were left on the ground! The speaker also said she could use her trunk as her fingers very well and once she unchained herself using her trunk and ran to a banana garden near the village. She ate all the bananas and destroyed the garden, caused the mahout to pay for the owner of the garden for 5,000 baht!

They also showed us how to catch an elephant in the past and how we used them in the battle fields as we can hear from the history of Thailand.

At the end of the show, they let us do a mini elephant trekking. We gave the mahout for 200 baht as a tip. He said the money he got from the tourists would be spent on the food for his elephant.

It was a great memory there. If you would like to be close to the elephants, I recommend you here.

related stories:

• A Trip in Pattaya: Day 1
• A Trip in Pattaya: Day 2, The crazy night in Gogo clubs!
• A Trip in Pattaya: Day 4, The Crocodile Show!

A Trip in Pattaya: Day 2, The crazy night in Gogo clubs!

We woke up a little late that morning. We looked at the maps we grabbed from the hotel front and then we decided to drive the scooter to Naklue district. We saw signs to the elephant village and million years stone park and crocodile farms. My boyfriend headed to the elephant village but there was no elephant show that day. The guy there told us that there would be a show the next day. My boyfriend didn't bring his camera with him so we decided not to go to the crocodile farm.

We drove back to Sukhumvit road and looked for the floating market. Finally we found it. It's opposite the Jurassic Park. It is a big market with many foreigners. There were many shops which are divided by the regions in Thailand. Some of them are decorated in old style. We stopped to eat at a food zone and then walked around. There were some boats selling dessert and food. Sorry that I didn't take many photos there.

After that we walked around the shopping area by the beach. There were many stands that sells movies. Not only regular movies but they also sell some porn. We were selecting some movies and then a foreigner guy walked to the vendor and said something to him and the vendor took some homo porn out from under the table!

There are a couple streets with clubs for gays. When we walked by, I saw some pictures on the wall in front of the clubs. My boyfriend asked me if I wanted to get inside and see them. I said sure and asked him if he would get in there with me. He said yes, it's dangerous for me to go there alone. I asked "why? They are all gay?!" He said he would never let me go anywhere in Pattaya alone. It's dangerous! Yeah I agree. Pattaya seems very different from the other places in Thailand! Have you ever heard this "Good guys to to heaven, bad guys go to Pattaya". Haha yeah you can find it on some shirts they sell there.

At night we went out of the hotel a little late to have dinner because we planned on getting drunk and seeing the clubs. We went to a restaurant named "Lobster Pot" which we saw an advertisement on a magazine says "the probably number 1 seafood place in Pattaya". We got a table on the terrace over the sea. The view was nice. We could see the back of the gogo clubs next to the restaurant.

We ordered some food and he got Gin Tonic for himself and he ordered strawberry tequila for me. He told me to drink as much as I could before I had my dinner or it would take longer and more drink to get drunk. I drank half of the glass and to tell you the truth I felt I was a little drunk already!

I don't know how to explain when being drunk but after we finished our dinner at the restaurant, we walked around the walking street. I felt like I was floating the whole time, a little dizzy but not bad, my arms and legs were weak and at some point I a little felt like vomiting. After we left the restaurant, my boyfriend bought a bottle of water and kept handing it to me and told me to drink as much I could. He said it would help make me feel better but I felt like going to pee all the time and my tummy was going to explode!

He took me to a gogo club. I don't remember the name but it was kind of hidden. He ordered gin tonic for himself and orange Bacardi for me. It was good and I liked it more than the strawberry tequila. There was a small stage in the club with some posts on it. There were some girl dancing on the stage. Some of them were almost naked and some of them were totally naked! Guys can buy them drink and they can rub, grab or do whatever they want to the girl's body! I saw a girl sitting next to a guy and he was grabbing, rubbing here and there on her body!

After we left that gogo club we walked to another one of them. It was kind of hidden as well. There was a stage with some posts and there were some girls dancing on it, some were almost naked and some were totally naked just like the first club we went to. We sat at a table and he got gin tonic for himself and he ordered Sprite for me. No more alcohol for me! He said it was enough for a rookie like me! I was drunk but he told me to act like I was not drunk or they will kick us out! You know what? I stared at him when I was drunk and felt he was sooooo handsome! He is always handsome but I felt he was more handsome that time!

There was a bathtub on the floor behind our table. 2 girls were in it naked. One was licking the other body! My boyfriend bought a basket of ping pongs for 500 baht for 25 ping pongs. I had no idea what they were for but he told me to wait and see. Once he got the ping pong he threw them to the girls. It surprised me to see them scream and try to catch and collect the balls. He told me to do the same and there were many girls walking to my table and asked me for ping pongs. Oh yeah, how could I deny it! I gave them ping pongs but I still threw them for some girl who were standing far away on the stage. One of them who was standing next to my table hugged me after I gave her some ping pongs and said thank you! I asked my boyfriends why they wanted them so much. He told me that those girls would get 20 baht for a ping pong. Ah, I got it now!

After that we went to another club. Yeah, it looked the same as those 2 places. One thing different was that there was a post on our table and a girl was on there and dancing. He told me to look on the table which reflected things above it and I could see that the girl who was dancing on it had no panties on!! It was very crowded there. An old foreigner guy coming with a girl which my boyfriend thought she must be from a bar sat with us at the same table. A girl who was dancing sat down on the table in front of him and spread her legs widely. I couldn't see what he was doing because I sat opposite him but my boyfriend told me that the guy poked his finger in the girl's secret area!

My boyfriend told me that he never thought he would be in places like that and drinking with me and it was fun to share the experience and see me excited to see it for the first time. Haha yeah it was a great experience and I dont think I would want to drink or see the clubs again!

The last place we went for the night was a club to see "ping pong show". Actually we went to that street once last year and I saw some guys standing and inviting the tourists to see ping pong show. I wondered what that was and my boyfriend told me it was a show that girls would shoot a ping pong or a dart out of her vagina! Man never heard anything like that before!!! So I told him I wanna see it once.

He told a guy who was inviting people on the street that we wanted to see the show and he took us to a club. We paid for 600 baht for 2 person and we would get a free drink. We got the seats in front of the stage. It was like the other 3 places we went. There was a stage and some posts and a girl was on it. She didn't have her panties on. She was laying on her back on the stage, spreading her legs and had her knees up. She inserted a thin paper tube in her vagina and then shot the darts at the balloons in the audience's hands! Oh my god! I can't believe it!

After that there was another girl on the stage and took some flower chain out of her vagina!! The next show was egg show. Another girl came up on the stage and inserted an egg in her vagina and then walked around and took the egg out and then put it back in and walked around and took it out for several times.

The next show was very weird. There were 2 girls on the stage. One of them took a chain of razors out of her vagina and the other was taking a chain of needles out!! The next show was a show with 2 girls who blew the horn with their vagina!!

The last show I saw that night was "Banana Show". The same girl who did the egg show came back on stage and laid down on her back and spread her legs with her knees up. Of course, she didn't have any panties on! Then she peeled a banana and inserted it in and shot it in a cup someone was holding in the hand!!

Sorry it is not allowed to take pictures or record the videos in the bars so I don't have any pictures to post here. But I have pictures of the crazy street to post here and I already posted them above.

By the way, we went there once last year and took pictures of the street during the day. I can't find the pictures yet and I will post them as soon as I find them. And tell me if you can you see how different it is from the day and the night??

After I have done seeing things I wanted to see, I told him I was hungry and felt like eating something again. I felt like some crepe and he was very nice walking around with me looking for crepe! I finally changed my mind and had noodles instead!
I appreciate him very much that he brought me to see what I wanted to see.

related stories:

• A Trip in Pattaya: Day 1
• A Trip in Pattaya: Day 3, Riding Elephant at the Elephant Village!
• A Trip in Pattaya: Day 4, The Crocodile Show!

A Trip in Pattaya: Day 1

I finally had a trip again after not having any for 6 months. My boyfriend got back from where he is working for a vacation and we decided to spend the week in Pattaya.

We stayed at Residence Garden, a small hotel on Tapphraya road, which is 5 minutes walk to the walking street by Pattaya beach, the craziest zone in Pattaya.

He arrived at the airport at 8.20am on March 29th. We spent 2 nights at Heritage Baan Silom on Silom Soi 19 and hired a taxi to Pattaya on Wednesday for 1,500 baht.

The room at Heritage Baan Silom was nice, big and clean. The first night went fine but the second night we was woken up in the middle of the night from a loud noise. Oh my god, somebody were fighting in front of our door! A girl was yelling so loud and that woke us up.

On Tuesday we walked to the barber across the apartment he once stayed to have his hair cut. His hair and beard was so long after didn't have it cut at all for 6 months. I told him he looked like a Chinese master! After his hair cut was done, he borrowed the barber the clipper and cut his beard himself. A girl at the barber said to me that he looked more handsome without beard. Yeah, I agree. When i saw his beard got removed, I was like "wow, that's him that I saw before"!

At 11.00am on Wednesday we checked out and the taxi was waiting for us. We needed to made an appointment with the taxi driver one day before the date we wanted them to give us a ride. You can ask at the hotel front for that.

We got to the Residence Garden Hotel in Pattaya around noon. After checking in we walked across the road to a scooter rental place and rented a scooter for 3 days for 600 baht. They just wanted a copy of my boyfriend's passport and a 1,000 baht as a deposit and they returned it when we turned them back the scooter.

After we got the scooter, we drove it around and saw Jomtien beach which is not far from Pattaya beach. Jomtien beach is much longer than Pattaya beach but more quiet. If you like being private, I recommend you here.

It was so hot and we got wet and sticky with sweat from the scooter trip. Once we got back to the hotel we jumped in the pool. Ah, it was so great being in the pool!

That night we walked to the walking street for dinner. We felt like seafood and I order grilled tiger prawns. It was 1,200 baht per kg and I ordered one kg of them. My boyfriend ordered Kaprao Gung or spicy stir fried shrimps with basil. Man I was so full!

After dinner, we walked around the walking street and he said he would give me a tour tomorrow on that street and get me drunk. Hahaha yeah I told him I wanted to see the clubs and try drinking for the first time! Oh yeah, next entry will be the story about that crazy street in Pattaya!

Things to know about renting a scooter:

• You need to hand them your passport if you are a foreigner and your ID card if you are a Thai. They may just have a copy of it and return it back to you right away or keep it with them and turn it back to you when you return the scooter.

• You may need to give them some amount of money as a deposit and you will get it back when you return the scooter.

• It's better to fill up the gas at the gas station because it is cheaper than the gas in a bottle you buy from beside the street.

• You need to have a helmet on, especially if you are the driver or you will be fined by the police.

• Here we drive on the left lane!

Related Article:

• A Trip in Pattaya: Day 2, The crazy night in Gogo clubs!
• A Trip in Pattaya: Day 3, Riding Elephant at the Elephant Village
• A Trip in Pattaya: Day 4, The Crocodile Show!

A Driving Trip from Bangkok to Krabi [2]

The next morning we woke up early. He went to a cliff to take photos from above. After that we headed to the next province, Suratthani. Next to Suratthani is Krabi, our destination. There was a very long road from Suratthani to Krabi which no gas station or any places you can stop.

Before I write more about my trip, I would like to give you a little information about Krabi. I think Krabi is a very good place for a visit. Many interesting places for you to see, bunch of islands and mountains. Too bad that we had only 2 days to spend there so we couldnt visit them all. We missed all the island because it had been raining most of the time. Beside from the islands and mountains, there are also many caves, waterfalls and hotsprings. The best way to get a good map of Krabi is asking for it at a local place like at the hotel you stay. Its much better than what you would get from a store or the internet.

Krabi is a province located on the west coast of southern Thailand. It is believed that Krabi has been home to homo sapiens since the period 25,000 - 35,000 B.C. from some stone tools, ancient colored pictures, beads, pottery and skeletal remains found in the province's many cliffs and caves. The famouse sites for tourist are places like Phi Phi island, Lanta islands, groups of small islands, Big Headed Ghost cave, etc. Lanta is a big island composes of two islands, Lanta Lek and Lanta Yai, which you can take a car on the furry to that island with you. One of the groups of small islands has Maya beach which was on "The Beach" movie starred by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Once we arrived Krabi, we could see the environment was different from what we had seen along the way. Lots of high mountains which were like they just raise up from the surface and there were mountains everywhere you go. We drove to Ao Nang beach and once we saw the ocean there, we was surprised by the turquoise water. It was very pretty.

There was shopping area like in Samui but was quiet. I was not sure if it was because we went there during the week so we didnt see many tourists or it was normally quiet like that. I guessed there would be more tourists during the weekend. We stopped at Ao Nang beach to take some photos and look for a place we would stay then we drove to Noppharat Thara National Park which was next to the Ao Nang beach. The beach there was nice too.

After that we drove to another two different beaches and then back to Ao Nang and checked in at Sala Talay resort. It was a nice hotel with a pool access from the balcony of the rooms on the first floor.

The weather was nice that day and we bought a tour to Phi Phi and other small islands for the next day. After that we rested in our room and I had a long nap again so when I woke up it was dark already. We walked out to eat at the shopping area. Too bad that it rained when we were at the restaurant. We walked back to the hotel in the rain and it rained all night long. The next morning we woke up ealry to take the tour but it was still raining and we canceled the tour.

I had a place I wanted to go in mind so we decided to change to go there instead of taking the tour we bought.

When we spent a night in Chumphon I read from the books about a cave with prehistoric painting in Krabi and it was not too far from Ao Nang, like 50 kilometers. But before we went to that cave we stopped to see shell fossils on the way. The cave, Phi Hua To or Big Skull or Big-headed Ghost Cave, where the prehistoric painting are is in Ao Luek district. We drove for an hour and got there. There was no walking path to the cave. Only one way to get to the cave is by boat. There are kayaks for rent or you can hire a longtail boat if you dont want to do the kayaking.

We rented a kayak and had a guide with us, 400 baht each for us. My boyfriend and the guide did the pedal. He was in the front, I was in the middle and didnt do the pedal and the guide was in the back. It took us 10 minutes to get to the first cave then to the lake and the last place was the cave with prehistoric painting, Phi Hau To.

The guide said there were like 200 pictures in the cave and the name "big skull" was from some big skulls found in the cave. It is thought that the skeletons had been there for over 3,000 years ago. The cave are surrounded by mangrove forest and only 3.5 meters above sea level. After visiting the cave we went back to where we rented the kayak. He was in the back and the guide was in the front. I was still in the middle and in front of my boyfriend and he splashed some water in my shorts. Man my shorts were all wait. After that we sat at a restaurant by the river close to the place we rented the kayak and then drove back to the hotel.

The next morning we woke up early and drove all the way back to Bangkok.

It was a very good trip. I like it a lot. There are still many places I want to go for a visit and we will come back there again.

Related Article:

• A Driving Trip from Bangkok to Krabi [1]

A Driving Trip from Bangkok to Krabi [1]

I have mentioned in the last entry that we bought some books and maps to seek for more information about where to go in Thailand. We bought 2 travel books that gave us infomation of each province and 2 maps, bangkok map and 76 provinces maps that gave us the information about the route.

My boyfriend said he would like to do a driving trip from Bangkok to either Phuket or Krabi and he decided later to do Krabi and I agreed.

Its 814 kilometers from Bangkok to Krabi. If we drove directly to there it would take us like 8-10 hours. But we would like to stop at some interesting places so we spent 2 days to get there.

We left the apartment at Silom around 7 am. We headed to RamaII Road and then to Samut Sakorn and then to Samut Songkram. Once we were in Samut Songkram we headed to Petchburi. We stopped at a beach there called Cha-um. It was a nice beach, long and quiet. I was not sure if it was Monday that made it quiet. We took some photos and then drove to Prachuabkirikhan.

Prachuabkirikhan is the gate to southern Thailand. They dont speak like people do in Bangkok nor in the south, I mean their accent is different, half bangkok half southern. It is a long province. If you have Thailand map in your hands, then you can see that it's long and has the narrowest part of Thailand, only 12 kilometers. on the right of the narrowest part is the ocean and on the other side is Burma. We drove to Singkhon Border, the gate to Burma. There was a small shopping area selling some Burmese stuff by Burmese people. The book says there is much stuff on Saturday morning.

Before we went to the border we had been to 2 places, Hua Hin beach and Chopstick Mountain (Khao Takieb). Hua Hin was a very nice beach with white sand and very quiet. Many big hotels there, like Hilton and Mariott. At the enter to the beach there was a travel police office and there was a poster of some interesting places in Thailand. One of them was Chopstick Temple which was up a high mountain which allowed us to see the ocean and the city from the high perspective. He wanna see it so we decided to go there.

We drove up the mountain and we saw some monkeys! When we were parking the car we saw a sign says "do not feed the monkeys in this area". Once we parked the car, there was a monkey ran to our way and jumped up the tree. Another monkey was sitting on the trunk of the truck besides us. I gave him some grapes we had in the car. I turned back to the car to get more grapes and then I heard something falling on the roof of the car. It was a monkey. He jumped off the tree to the roof. While I was looking at what just happened, I could feel something at my hand and I got freaked out and threw all the grapes away. Oh god, it was a monkey, he hid under the car and stole the grapes in my hand!

After we took pictures of the monkeys we climbed up the stairs to the top. Man was so tired!!

After we were done there we headed to the next province, Chumphon. It was late in the afternoon so we decided to spend a night there. We looked at the map to see where should we stay. There were a few beaches and we drove to Sairee beach. It was a very nice beach, small but quiet and private. We stay at a small resort called Hadsai Resort. It was small but new and the food there was good.

(After I got back to my house, my dad told me that there was another beach which was popular among foreigners called Thung Wau laen.)

Related Article:

• A Driving Trip from Bangkok to Krabi [2]

A Trip to Samui Island

It was the 3rd of April. Inthe morning we had some business here in Bangkok and we had flight to Samui at 7 pm. My boyfriend was the one who made the hotel reservation and right before we went there we realized that the hotel we already made the reservation and were gonna stay at were in Phangan. I mentioned about that once in the entry I wrote about the trip there.

The thing was there were only 2 boats to the resort on Phagnan a day. And since we took 7 pm flight we would get there at 8 pm, which meant no boat. We had to stay that night on Samui so right before we got on board I called Amari in Samui to make a reservation for one night.

It was raining in Samui that night. We hired a taxi to Amari. We got in the room and rest. My boyfriend had been trying to call the resort on Phangan but couldnt get any good answer. The next day we woke up and it was still raining so we decided to stay at Amari the whole trip and asked the agent to have the reservation at Phangan moved to the next trip.

We stayed in the hotel till the time for dinner. The rain had already stopped and we walked out to the beach. We stayed at Chaweng beach which was not far from the airport. The beach was nice. Many people but quiet. We walked along the beach and saw that there were many restaurants on the beach and some places were preparing for a night party.

I loved the beach there!

While we were walking along the beach we took a street out to the city, the big shopping area. It was colorful at night. Many shops and restaurants. We walked up and down the road and looked for a place that we could rent a scooter for the next day. Then we walked back to the hotel which was very near that area.

The next day we got some maps from the hotel front and walked to the scooter place. We was so disappointed that we were refused to rent a scooter. The passport was required for that but my boyfriend didnt bring it with him and she refused my id card cause I had a foreinger with me. She said I had a foreigner with me so she wanted that foreigner's passport. What!!?? She told us that she thought we could have one at the hotel we stayed in.

We went back to the hotel and asked them for a rental scooter. It was so easy, no passport required at all, my boyfriend had showed it already when we checked in. 400 baht for 24 hours.

After that we rode the scooter around the island. Samui is in Suratthani Privince. It has its own airport so if you travel by plane you can fly straight to the island. Samui is the third largest island in Thailand with 21 km at its widest point and 25 km at its longest. The scooter trip took like a couple hours around the island. We stopped at the Big Buddha temple. My boyfriend said that he saw it from the plane so it must not far from the airport. After that we rode the scooter pass a temple with some big statues so we stopped for pictures. It was Plailaem temple.

After that stopped at the famous viewpoint, Grandfather and Grandmother Rocks or Hin Ta Hin Yai in Thai.

You may ask why it has that name. Well my boyfriend did that too and I told him why. And the first time he saw the grandfather rock picture at the scooter park in front of the rocks area he giggled.

Hin Ta Hin Yai is at Lamai beach. It is a famous tourist site in Samui. The Grandfather rock looks alike a penis and its why it has that name. Well I think I dont have to talk about the Grandmother rock, cause it has that name from the similar reason.

I found a picture of the grandma on the internet which is much better than mine.

picture from internet