While I have spent another month in Thailand, it’s probably better to keep them all in one post rather than split them up. The post will be a bit long, but I think it makes the most sense for me to keep them in one post this time around.

Ferry to Koh Samui

In my last post about Bangkok, I mentioned that I was on the way to Koh Samui and I was traveling by ferry. I really enjoyed my time on the ship. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I love traveling by sea. It’s something that I’ve thought about since I was on Semester at Sea, and it holds true today. I’ve been on all different levels of boat and ship and it doesn’t matter – I enjoy them all. Thankfully I’m not prone to sea sickness! 

The ferry to Koh Samui was run by Seahorse. It was a really nice ship for a ferry, in many ways it reminded me of a cruise ship. The difference being not as many public areas. It was about 6 decks, but the majority of them were not accessible to the public as far as I could tell. Since it’s a 22 hour journey (ours was 24 due to some type of delay at sea, I didn’t catch what it was), your ticket cost also included a bed. There were of course cabins that are more cruise like, but the one that I did is a capsule bed. It was situated in a ‘room’ that had two capsules and stairs that led to the top one. The door did close and lock, though there were a couple (cheaper) capsule beds that didn’t have doors. Those sold faster I’m sure. As it was, I was able to get the entire ‘room’ to myself, which was nice as I was able to have my bag on the stairs rather than shoved in my bed with me.

The bed itself? Terrible to be honest. Often in Asia beds are more firm than we see in other parts of the world, I accept that, but that bed? It was a hard mat covered in a sheet. I’m fairly certain it was harder than a gym mat, though in reality it was probably about the same. That was uncomfortable enough, but the pillow was both very tall and very firm. There was no give at all which put my neck at a weird angle. I tried everything I could, but despite being exhausted it still took a couple hours for me to fall asleep and when I woke up the next morning I had a kink in my neck and popped like I was made of pop rocks.

That all being said – I did enjoy the rest of the ferry. I spent most of the night before on the top deck avoiding direct sun (did not need to burn), writing, and then later on eating dinner and having a drink. It was nice, relaxing, and being at sea meant I was cut off from the world technology wise so I was disconnected and able to take the time to just be.

Koh Samui

I arrived on Koh Samui around 2pm and had to figure out where I was going for my hotel. I was on the opposite side of the island. I made the decision to try and go for a side of the island that wasn’t as popular/touristy but that also meant it was a 45 minute drive. I would’ve liked to have used one of the trucks with seating in the back, but I didn’t see it when I was looking around once I walked down the pier to the main road.

There were private taxis at the pier, but I knew from what I looked at that the prices were much higher than they needed to be. I’m sure they put the tourist tax on them. The ride from the pier to my hotel was 1500 baht (47$) but they were willing to give me the deal of 1000 baht (31$)…as though I couldn’t see through that. This guy was insistent and kept trying to convince me to take it, even going so far as to rope in another passenger from the ferry to try to get us a better deal to split the cost. I finally just walked away, figured I would figure out where I needed to go once I was away from him. The other passenger joined me and we walked to the main road talking about how pushy that guy was being, both of us had traveled too much to go with private taxi’s when it wasn’t needed. They’re almost always overpriced.

I ended up using the Grab app (basically uber) to get a ride for 650 baht (20$), still a bit more than what I’d seen, but by that time the taxi driver had shown up again still trying to get me to agree to a ride and I just wanted to get to my hotel and away from him. For price comparison, when I headed back to the pier a week later, I spent 500 baht (16$). I could’ve gotten even cheaper, but it was hot and I wanted the AC of an actual car rather than sitting in the back of a truck. 

I spent the week at a really nice hotel just off the main road. It was far enough away that I couldn’t hear the traffic, but close enough for easy walking. I explored most of the little town/village that I was situated in, but didn’t end up going to any of the other parts of the island. I didn’t feel like it was needed when I had the beach a short 10 minute walk away and a huge variety of food and things to do. 

Mostly I just wandered. I spent a couple hours one day walking from one end of the town to the other, then walked back along the beach. It was super nice, but I probably lost about 5lbs of water weight. I tried to eat at different places, not all of them lived up to their reviews but they were all really good. 

The one thing that I didn’t really like about Koh Samui was how touristy it was. Even Bangkok didn’t have as many tourists as Koh Samui did (outside of designated areas anyway). The number of foreigners that I saw far our ranked the number of Asians. And that’s not even counting the Asian tourists. It was kind of sad, especially since I wasn’t in one of the more popular tourist spots on the island. I’m sure there are sections of the island that have less tourists (probably the areas that are more inland), and I’m definitely glad that they have the boost in the economy from the tourists. But it wasn’t really what I was hoping for for my trip so I was glad to put it aside to go to a more local spot on the mainland for another week. 

Krabi Town

After Koh Samui, I headed by ferry back to the mainland. I know what you’re thinking “what other way is there?” but Koh Samui actually has an airport, so there was another way. In fact, somehow my ride to the pier got mixed up and I ended up getting taken to the airport first. Funny after the fact, but I was a bit nervous initially not sure if that would make me too late. Thankfully, it didn’t and I got to the pier with plenty of time to check in. 

The ferry to the mainland was a more traditional ferry. The last couple of ferries that I’ve been on have been more upscale – full restaurants, nice seating, etc. This ferry was what I remembered from when I was a kid. Metal bench seats and only a small cafe that probably isn’t always open. It’s function is to literally go from the island to the mainland and nothing else. Easy peasy. Once I got to the mainland, I had to figure out where to catch my bus (part of the ticket with the ferry that I purchased) to get to Krabi town. Took a bit, but I was able to find the location and get ‘checked in’. Funnily enough, I ended up being the only person going to Krabi Town, everyone else going in that direction were headed to a nearby beach town that’s more popular. So I was the only one on my van and the driver took me straight to my hotel rather than to the station which definitely made it easier after the 3 hour bus drive. 

Krabi town was the opposite of Koh Samui. Where in Koh Samui I couldn’t take two steps without seeing a foreigner, I was surrounded by locals in Krabi town – which is exactly what I wanted. I spent the week eating at local places and exploring the town. There wasn’t much to see – once again, not really a tourist spot – but it was nice to see the laidback way of life. On one of my first nights there, I asked the guy at the desk for a suggestion on where to eat, and he gave me directions to a market. Turns out it was a street festival market, it was fun to walk up and down the food strip and just take a look at the different offerings. Not much was in English as this was geared towards locals, not tourists, so there were at a lot of things that I didn’t recognize but I ended up getting a full dinner with a fresh fruit smoothie and dessert for only 130 baht (4$). And I only saw a total of 6 non-Asians the entire time so I was getting some looks as I wandered the space. 

The rest of my time in Krabi was spent attempting to get my sleep schedule realigned. I got all out of whack a while back, and ended up not falling asleep until 6 am some ‘nights’ and then I was sleeping until 4pm, so I worked to get reset. I’ll post about that next week! It’s not perfect – I’m still going to bed later than I should, but at least I’m going to bed when the sun is down still! With my reversed sleep schedule, I spent more time in my hotel room than I did in many of the other places that I’ve been. Being up all night meant that I didn’t go out much. But when I was up in the morning I went for breakfast and I had lunch out as well. Explored a bit in the morning or afternoon depending on the day and where I was at with my sleep schedule. Not perfect – but it was better than nothing! 

Koh Lanta

When I first decided to go to Thailand, I received the typical suggestions from people who had been here – both from people I know and people that know my family. I’ll be honestly – about 90% of the time I’m given suggestions, I think about them and then discard them. That’s because about 95% of those suggestions tend to be the ‘must sees’ in a locations and I’m honestly not big on going to those unless I don’t have any other plans. Most of the major places I’ve visited I’ve found because I was wandering around and saw signs for it.

For my Thailand trip – amongst a lot of suggestions – it was suggested to go to Koh Lanta (well Krabi and Koh Lanta). I was told it’s pretty laid back compared to some of the other islands and that’s what I was looking for. I’m happy to say that it definitely was more laid back – but part of that could be because I went right as they’re entering the off season. I think one of the most interesting parts about the trip to Koh Lanta was that it was done all on a mini-bus (aka a van) and the ferry was really just a barge that takes you across the water while you stay on your transport, though if you walk on there is a place to sorta sit.

I really did enjoy my time on Koh Lanta, but the weather was not my friend. It was not only hot with direct sun, but incredibly humid. I would go outside and within 15-30 minutes I would be feeling drained and sapped of energy. Everywhere I’ve been in Thailand has been hot and humid, but there was something about Koh Lanta that seemed even worse. I wasn’t watching the weather to compare, so I can’t say if it was more humid or more direct sun or what – but I would do things in bursts because I just wouldn’t have the energy after a while. I would head out with so much energy and it was gone so quickly and I would find myself wanting to head back quickly. Plus the majority of the places were open air on the island, which made for really pretty views and was actually really nice, but also no places to really escape the heat. Throw in the bug bites from sand ants and spiders and mosquitos whenever I was out, and I was a bit annoyed with being out and about. I would be outside for 5 minutes and end up bit. I went through so much bug repellant – but at least that did work as long as I reapplied regularly. I still explored though, just not as much as other places, I spent most of my time exploring heading to various places to eat.

That being said, the hotel I booked upgraded me to their sister resort for free so I ended up with my own bungalow at a really pretty resort not far from the beach (didn’t have direct beach access) and two swimming pools. I spent some time in the pool each night which was really relaxing as it helped combat at lot of the sticky and overheated feeling. The other times I spent hanging out in the shade there or just relaxing near my bungalow. My first night there, a monkey actually casually walked right by me as I was eating dinner. It was hilarious – I didn’t get any picture though. I really loved the sunsets though, that was one of my favorite parts of the island. 

While I was there, the country actually celebrated Thai New Year – known as Songkran. It’s a really fun holiday. It’s got two main days, with the second day being the bigger celebration (I’m about 90% sure the festival in Krabi Town was a leadup to this since it ended the last day of the holiday. But what I really liked about it is that one of the main ways to celebrate is with water wars. People will hit you with water from a water gun or will just dump water on you with a bucket/bowl. I found out about the holiday when I was eating lunch and the server delivered my food with a “Happy New Year”. I then looked it up and thought it was cool, but I hadn’t seen anyone celebrating it I didn’t think. Turns out, I just missed the location it was being celebrated because I walked up the beach rather than the main road. 

On the way back to my resort, I walked the main street and got to see people of all ages laughing as they soaked people. I ended up soaked myself when a little girl spent about 5 minutes just blasting me with a super soaker. It was hilarious – some people hanging out in the bar area of the restaurant started talking to me as I continued to let the girl hit me (it felt really good in the heat haha) and I ended up spending about 3 hours just sitting around and talking to the people there. It was a great night and I went back there multiple times for the food and company. The Green Curry Pizza was amazing! Though I think I frustrated the chef as I had mentioned I love spicy food and so they tried to make it spicier and it really wasn’t. The next time I went I got a Red Curry with Fish that was amazing and the chef made it even spicier and it was great! The final meal I had there was actually the Green Curry Pizza again because I liked it so much and the chef upped the spice level even more for me. It definitely hit the mark! I really enjoyed the place and was given great recommendations. I’ll posting links to some of my google reviews soon and will be reviewing the place so keep an eye out on the Wander Wisdom page for that! 

A Great 2 Months

Overall I really liked my time in Thailand. I would’ve liked to have explored more places and there were definitely areas I didn’t get to that I want to go back and see (I avoided the North due to the burnings happening there right now). I would say my biggest negative was the heat/humidity. It’s actually part of what changed my plans from exploring more of SEA and instead heading to Australia (the other part was wanting to have plenty of time to see AUS and NZ before I head back to Europe. Especially since I plan to stop in SEA again before heading there). It was great to get back into the movement though and I think that I found my current sweet spot, I liked staying about 1 to 2 weeks in a place and then moving on. It allows me to explore more without feeling rushed, have my lazy days, and take the time to talk to people and look things up before I decided my next location. I’ll definitely be putting that into place more often as I move forward!