Ko Samet

Its the perfect quiet weekend get-away from Bangkok.

Every morning I packed, and went to the restaurant for breakfast – usually banana pancakes and nestle coffee – and just forgot to leave.

I remember sitting in a chair on a deck one night and the breeze brought me the front page of a week old newspaper, upon which was a photo of the space shuttle blowing up. First I’d heard of it…

In a way I’m still on that island.

beautiful clear blue water, white sand, good food and not too touristy. it was a nice way to relax for the weekend and the accomodation was cheap and nice.

This was the first beach I had been to where the sand actually squeaked under my feet! Perhaps this `phenomenon´ is somewhat normal, but for someone who doesn´t make it to the beach more that a couple times a year, it was pretty neat.

Ko Samet was just amazing — turquoise waters white sand, bungalow right next to the water, etc. etc. The only down-side is it´s often crowded because a lot of Thais (especially on the weekend) head over from Bangkok for vacation (I remember it being just a two hour bus ride). Nonetheless, if you just have just few days to `hit the beach´ in Thailand; i.e. not enough time to head down the ´elephant’s trunk,´ Ko Samet is a nice alternative.

This pic, was taken in the summer of 2002 where I was definitely the tannest (and laziest!) I have ever been - many, many hours were spent on the beach. :)

Ko Samet is a lovely and relatively uncommercialised island. I was there a few days after the Tsunami so as another person said, it was a bit subdued, but not really a party island anyhow. There are lots of quiet spots to be found and good value accommodation to be had. Great for some chill time.