KO SAMET
Last weekend I went to Ko Samet with Spencer - a quiet little island in the Gulf of Thailand about a 4 hour bus ride from Bangkok. Of course, you can’t get to the island on the bus, so we hired a speed boat late Friday night, along with a couple of Brazilian models (no, we didn’t hire them, we shared the fare - ooh la la). The boat zoomed us out to the island in the darkness, right to the bungalows we wanted to stay in, and brought us close enough to shore so we could jump out and wade onto the beach. Friday night we stayed in a cute little bungalow tucked into the trees on a hill, just up from the beach. We explored our little beach and saw a few flame dancers, but it was surprisingly quiet for the “party” section of the island.

Saturday morning after a nice little run (I’m willing be bet NOBODY else on the island got up and went for a run. Most people sat at the edge of the white sand beach and drank pineapple smoothies or got thai massage laying on their towels). Then we rented another scooter (this one only 110 cc and $7/day with gas included) and headed off to explore the island. The island is only a few km in length with 1 “road” running from tip to toe. The road really more like a dirt track that heads directly up and directly down small mountains dense with vegetation. Talk about extreme scootering! In each little valley there was access to another white sand beach, another little group of bungalows, another rocky outlook to the ocean.... We had a wonderful time exploring and nobody even got hurt in the scooter crash.





We spent Saturday night at another little beach, lounging at a little bar at the edge of the water drinking buckets of the nightly special and playing connect four until the bar closed. What a tropical paradise!









On Sunday, we rode the ferry back to the mainland ($1.50) which seemed to be a re-vamped fishing boat that could hold about 15 people, and then caught the bus back to Bangkok. I definitely realized here that I am a fish at heart and miss Lake Superior. I could spend the rest of my life on a beach, I think.