Tom’s Adventure Through Southeast Asia Part 10 — Ko Samui, Thailand
After spending six weeks travelling across four countries it was time to return to Thailand, the country where it all started. From Siem Reap I flew to Ko Samui, an island in the southeast part of the country. Ko Samui is the country’s most developed island, making it a popular vacation destination along with Phuket, Ko Pha Ngan, and Ko Phi Phi. It’s also the only island in Thailand which has its own airport.
After landing in Ko Samui, I had to wait a while before the taxi arrived to take me to my hostel. I was staying in a less popular area, a hostel just south of Lamai Beach called Chill Inn. Someone I met while travelling recommended this hostel to me, and I’m so glad they did as it was probably my favourite hostel of the entire trip! The most popular beach on the island is Chaweng, and this is definitely where you should stay if you’re looking to party it up Jersey Shore style. But this was the first time I had stayed more than three days in one place, and at this point in my trip I wanted to be away from the action and just relax.
Unfortunately the weather was really bad, like cloudy and rainy every day bad. This was weird as it was the beginning of April, which is normally part of the dry season. While I was initially bummed about this, looking back it didn’t really affect how much I enjoyed Ko Samui. While I didn’t get much beach time there as a result, I knew I would at my next destination so it wasn’t that big of a deal.
What made Chill Inn so great were the owners, an Irish guy and his Thai wife, who took the time and effort to welcome everyone and make sure they felt at home. They also ran a bunch of events from trivia to card games to get backpackers to meet each other. While it’s not difficult to meet backpackers in hostels, it does make a noticeable difference when the owners help encourage interaction. They don’t even have to run events, even the way the common areas are designed can make a huge difference.
The common area at Chill Inn is all open air, with large, bamboo huts filled with cushions which are perfect for…well, chillin. Fortunately they have tarps so that you don’t get wet when it’s raining. They also have their own bar and restaurant which really came in handy as it meant less trips out in the rain. It was nice to feel settled in one place for a while, and it allowed me to catch up on things I thought I’d be doing more frequently on my trip, like reading and journaling. Despite the bad weather, I managed to snap a great sunset photo which to my surprise became the fan favourite on my Instagram.
About a fifteen minute walk from the hostel was a bar called Rock Bar, which I went to with people from the hostel almost every night. Ironically it’s a reggae bar, it’s called Rock Bar because it has a giant rock on the shoreline where you can sit on a cushion and relax. It was great for sunsets and chilling out at nighttime.
Right next door to Rock Bar is the Grandmother and Grandfather Rocks. I’ll leave it to you to figure out how they got that name…
One night the hostel owner took us to another hostel called Kingston Jamaica Hostel. To my surprise, the owner of this hostel was not only Canadian, but from St. Catherines! He taught us how to play a card game called Yaniv which is a really fun card game to play with a large group of people. I also got a bit of reverse culture shock as they had episodes of Just for Laughs: Gags playing on the TV!
The next day a group of us at the hostel rented a car to explore the other side of the island. Our first stop was a great lookout point which made for a great view. Next we explored the Fisherman’s Village Walking Street, a cute but touristy area filled with shops, bars and restaurants. It was here that I finally got my first Thai massage and it was amazing! It didn’t hurt, but I’m someone who is used to exercise and stretching. It felt like a combination of a massage and a stretching session, and it’s easily the best massage I’ve ever had.
After grabbing some lunch we checked out the beach strip. This was the first day that the clouds were breaking up and the sun was starting to break through. We then drove back to the hostel, and I spent my last night on Ko Samui at Rock Bar and then back at the hostel playing cards.
On the morning I left Ko Samui, the weather was finally clear and sunny. It made me think, why couldn’t it have been like this the whole time I was here? But as I said before, I still had an amazing time on Ko Samui and you can’t let things outside your control get you down. So after checking out of Chill Inn, I headed to my ferry which would take me to the next island. It’s an island with a really famous party that should be on any backpacker’s itinerary.
