If it's one thing I can't stress enough about this beautiful country, it's the islands and their enthralling beaches. I can't even count the number of islands off the coasts of Thailand. One of them (Koh Samet) is quite close to home, just a 4-hour drive. It's a common spot for Thais to visit for the weekend to get away from the city. The island is just gorgeous.
I went for a weekend with a group of recently befriended Canadian teachers living just a few minutes from me. Sadly, Tyler 1 and Amanda did not join me for this trip :( Life does go on.
On our first morning there, we were greeted with lovely weather, despite it being monsoon season here until October. It couldn't have been better. We took a stroll along the beach and got some lovely shots.
Before leaving for the island, Tyler 1 charged me with the task of renting a scooter and making it to the very end of the island without turning back. Sounds simple. Ha! Hardly. Koh Samet is shaped like a dagger. The hotels, docks, etc are all located on the north side. There's a very beat-up, unforgiving dirt road that goes the whole distance to the south.
We braved that road. We braved it to the bitter end. The four of us rented 2 scooters with one person riding on the back.
The trek took us about 3 hours. We made a few stops along the way: found a more-exclusive beach, an abandoned heliport, a water reservoir, had lunch, blah, blah, blah. Some shots from along the way.
The heliport. Chopper-men.
A beautiful butterfly along the way.
On this cliff (pictured above) we met a whole group of Chinese people. We took various shots for them and they took some for us. I started asking them how to say certain words in Chinese and we talked about ping pong. Then, of course, we had to get a picture.
Neeeeeee hoooow!
To say the road was difficult or challenging is like saying Chuck Norris is just an actor. There were times when our scooters got stuck in deep crevices or nasty potholes. Then there were the insanely steep slopes. But the best was when we got combinations of the two: deep crevices and potholes in insanely steep slopes. Good times.
Then, finally, we reached the end of the island. It was worth every bit of that treacherous drive.
We drove back and found our way to the beach restaurant that has the nightly fire show. It first started with a few fireworks.
Then we weaseled our way to the front where we were close -- actually too close -- to the action. This was a fire spark shot our way.
For the finale they changed things up from fire to fireworks. It was awesome.
This video gives you an idea of just how close we were.
The next day was spent pretty much just hanging out. We relaxed on the beach, played frisbee and enjoyed the lovely weather Mother Earth continued giving us.
Here are some miscellaneous pictures from the trip I think you'll enjoy.
This guy was doing this for like half an hour!!
One of the more secluded beaches on the island.
That's all folks. Thanks for reading. Ya'll come back now again, ya here!!
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