Ko Samet (an island)

Day 3 I credit Lonely Planet with helping me on my multimodal trip to the island of Ko Samet, which I was able to pull off smoothly even though it sounded awfully complicated:

Skytrain to bus teriminal 2.5 hour Bus to Rayong 30 min hour Sawngthaeon (an open-air minibus) to Ban Phe 45 min Boat to WonDeung Beach on Ko Samet Rowboat ashore

The bus was air conditioned and they even passed out little bottles of water and hot washcloths! It seemed to take forever to get out of Bangkok, which sprawls endlessly. But finaly we were traversing farmland. And I saw water buffalos. And yaks. Touts in Rayong give me misinformation, trying to get me to take their private transport to Ban Phe, which I'm sure would have cost much more than the $.50 sawngthaeon. The boats only leave for the island when 20 people showed up, and since I was the only one I was a bit worried, but then a huge crowd of Japanese tourists showed up so I was saved. And my Danish friends showed up too. Small world.

When the rowboat dropped us off ashore, it was a 10 minute hike to Lungdung Beach, where I stay in a handsome little bungalow with bath, electric, fan, mosquito net, private veranda, oceanview, and 30 seconds from the beach for $12.50 a night.

Ko Samet is the closest I come to the cliche of the tropical island paradise. It's not nearly as spectacular as the islands of Southern Thailand, where they filmed James Bond in The Man With the Golden Gun, and Leo DiCaprio in The Beach. Those beaches have stunning limestone cliffs as their backdrops. But Ko Samet is nice enough, and better yet, it's the closest island to Bangkok.

The island is a national park, but all along the shore it has been developed by bungalow operations. There are probably 100 of them on the whole island, all along the Eastern shore where the beaches are. Each bungalow operation has its own restaurant, and many have stores. The bungalows vary a lot. Some (like mine) are fairly spartan and rustic. Others are themed with various "tropical" stuff. Some are downright expensive. But the neat thing is that since this is all national park land, you can just walk through all the different resorts and use their beaches. There is a dirt road down the spine of the island (about 10 km north to south, and varies 1-5 km wide) used by service vehicles, truck taxis, and the ubiquitious rented motorbikes. But the trail connecting all the bungalow operations is a footpath. There are about a dozen beaches, most of them with several resorts. Each beach is separated by a headland, where the trail climbs a ridge through a thick tropical jungle.

The beaches are covered with dogs. But a sign proclaims they are not rabid, and many seem to be semi-pets. Mostly they just lie around sleeping. There are some really cute puppies. It seems like a pretty good life. There are also wild chickens.And frogs. And crickets. My god, the crickets raise a ruccous. In some spots I swear the decibel level of those crickets exceeds that of a jet engine. Towards the northern end of the island the resorts are very densely packed and commercial and not so nice. I'm staying further south, where the resorts are more laid back, with more space separating them, and fewer people.

I enjoyed a delicious green curry with vegetables at my resort for $1.75. It was 7pm and for some reason I suddenly felt quite tired. Must be the jetlag catching up to me.

Day 4 Last night it rained cats and dogs. The whole storm occured while I lay in my bed in my little bungalow. It was difficult to sleep with the rain pounding on the roof. This was no ordinary storm. March is typically a dry month here. They are not used to rain until May or June. This morning the beach was washed out all over the place. Landslides, mudslides, mud all over the paths, foot bridges collapsed. Yet the Thais went right to work repairing, sweeping, and cleaning up. And the sun came up. It was a very convenient rainstorm for all of us beachcombers. It got all its water out while we slept, and let us go out during the day and enjoy the sunshine. But before I went swimming today I went for a good long hike, first to the northern tip of the island, then to the southern.

Numerous times Thais passed by me on their motorbikes, seemingly incredulous that I was walking such a "long distance", even though it wasn't that bad. Met a Dutch dude at the southern tip. Then I came across my Danish friends, for the third day in a row. On my hike I also ran into some Austrians. They, like me, were making the trek by foot. Good old Austrians, with their Alps, they're used to hiking. A young Swedish man stopped me for directions. Came across the most expensive resort on the island where one night costs $200. Each bungalow has its own private pool and waterfall. I guess $200 is actually a good value, considering that this place would go for $500 or more in Hawaii. But I didn't get to see much, because I was kindly escorted off the premises. "Private beach", they said. I didn't know the beach could be private, but I wasn't going to argue.

On the way back, a group of Thais invited me over to their table and gave me brandy and cola. They wanted to know all about me.

After my hike I enjoyed an hourlong Thai massage in an open air hut on the beach. One hour for $6.

I should say something about the tropical forests. I have this image in my mind of what a tropical forest should look like, and this is not really it. The forest, as it occurs naturally, on Ko Samet is green and lush, but not particularly attractive. In fact, it looks basically the same as your average forest on the US East Coast during summer. Where I saw the stereotypically tropical plants were at the bungalows, where they are designed and tended by landscape architects. I don't know if this is true of all tropical forests or just here. I've never been to the Amazon or the Congo, or for the rainforests of Bali or Malaysia, but I imagine they're probably closer to what I was expecting than this. Not complaining, though. For a short getaway from Bangkok, and given my limited schedule in Thailand, Ko Samet is a wonderful place.

The food on the island was delicious. Lots of dishes with basil and chiles. And prawns. And green papaya salads. Women walk around with a pole on their back balancing two baskets full of all the ingredients for green papaya salad. Then they make it right there for you on the spot.