Ko Samet - Of tents, beaches and fireshows

The three most commonly visited tourist destinations in Thailand must be Bangkok, Phuket, and Ko Samui (think Operation Ko Samui from Meet the Parents). I didn't have much desire to visit the latter two, which were also inconveniently far away from Bangkok. We decided to go to the small island of Ko Samet instead, a holiday destination for Thais.

On a map, the island of Ko Samet looks very close to Bangkok. In reality, it's pretty painful to get there. The trip from our Bangkok guest house to the sand of the beach involved an hour monorail trip to the bus station, a four-hour bus ride to the pier, then an hour-long ferry ride to our beach destination. The bus ride was particularly hellish, because Thais seem to enjoy movies unbelievably loud, and the bus operators played at full volume two god-awful movies, making it impossible to sleep. Ko Samet has a number of beaches along its east coast, and we headed to one called Ao Wong Deuan, ecommended by a Thai we met in a Bangkok temple. We walked onto the beach from the water with our packs on and had to find a place to stay for the night. Both our guidebook and several people had recommended that we find a bungalow once we arrive, since it's important to see the room before booking. I had also heard one caveat - on Thai holidays, it is impossible to find a bungalow at all. I looked up the major Thai holidays and happily found that none coincided with our stay.

Ko Samet is reputed to have the whitest sand in Thailand.

We began asking at the bungalows on the beach if there were rooms available. Most laughed and ignored us, until one Aussie bartender informed us that it was indeed a Thai holiday and that every bungalow on the beach would be booked up. Our recourse? Ko Samet is a national park and camping is allowed anywhere on the island, including on the beach. We rented and pitched a (very cramped) 2-person tent from the park office for 300 baht ($10) not 30 feet from the water. I was thrilled but for two problems. Our tent inevitably had sand all over the tent floor because we kept our sandy packs inside. Also, I was a bit concerned about the mosquitos at night since the netting was a bit holey, having read in our guidebook that malaria was a problem on the island (turns out it's not, but scary nonetheless). We grabbed a bite to eat at a sweet restaurant where the waves wash your feet while eating. Just like the Muay Thai arena in Chiang Mai, mini- Connect-4 games were on each table (it's really a fantastic way to pass time while waiting for food). We changed into swimwear and then went in the water, packed with Thais and more than a few tourists.

Ko Samet is reputed to have the whitest sand in Thailand. I never saw another beach in Thailand, but it was certainly the purest beach I had been to. The water, though not very clear, was warm and calm, and there were no rocks or coral under my feet, just soft sand. We bought a couple towels and relaxed for the rest of the day. I tried sleeping outside for a while with a candle and scented mosquito-repeller lit on either side, but what drove me inside the tent were stray dogs chasing and fighting each other and scavenging on the beach.

I woke up early the next morning to see the beach nearly empty. All the Thais were leaving since the holiday was over. We returned our tent and checked into a now-vacant bungalow - we splurged for an AC room since we had slept under-budget the night before.

That day and the next we just lazed around - reading on the beach, lolling around in the water, drinking and eating well. Our last day on the island we met a few Israelis with whom we spent the evening. We ate, drank, played pool, then went outside for the beach's nightly fireshow. 8 Thai kids, from their look ranging between age 8 and 18, dipped assorted sticks and ropes into kerosene, lit them on fire, and spun, threw, and juggled them in all sorts of crazy positions - standing on one another's shoulders, reclining back until they were essentially lying down spinning a flaming stick less than half a foot from their body. At first it made me question what kind of parent would give an 8-year old a flaming stick to juggle. Then it made me question my childhood activities.

The fireshow ended and it started raining, so we (and the Israelis) headed inside to a beachside club, had a few buckets (a bucket filled with your choice of mixed drink), and danced for a couple hours.

The next day we had to head back to Bangkok, so we caught the first ferry back to the mainland, endured another nightmarish bus ride (this time with strangely watchable Hulk Hogan movie "The Ultimate Weapon" turned up on full volume), and crashed at our hotel.

Go to Ko Samet