After a month of debating, wondering, deciding and planning, my fiancé and I finally booked the hotel and flights to Koh Samui in Thailand. He is half Thai and has been to Thailand a few times since he was little. However, only around Bangkok and his hometown up in the north. This time, I chose Koh Samui, a little island in the south along the border of Malaysia, as our destination. I didn’t plan it on purpose but the trip took place in last week of November and so happens during Thanksgiving!
After a midnight flight and transfer in Bangkok, we finally arrived Samui 9 in the morning. We barely slept for the past 24 hours but we were so excited! Steeping off the airplane, the island breeze brings the smells of a tropical paradise. The airport itself looks like nothing but a resort—palm trees, open lands, bungalows and wall-less buildings. The resort we stayed in was beyond description. After checked in we jumped into the pool to cool down a little bit—the weather is killing hot.
Later in the afternoon, we went to the Lamai town center. Guess what, I found my favorite all time favorite place—McDonalds! My friends in Hong Kong always joke about how American I am for loving McDonalds so much. But seriously, I never go to McDonalds in the US, but the Asian ones are total bombs. They are more like sit-down restaurant, especially the create-your-own burger McDonalds in HK. Maybe I will write another blog just about it. Thai McDonalds has spinach pie other than apple pie. It is creamy spinach filling in the piecrust. Taste a bit like quiche and it is really good! Then we passed a street market. It is a long and narrow road to the beach filled with food carts and stands. Local people were selling traditional Thai dishes, mainly the fried food and also sushi, kebabs, and flower decoration for a local festival. I started to pickup some simple Thai language like sawadeeka and Kob Khun Ka (ka is for girls and krap is for guys). They mean hello and thank you. We bought some food and took back to hotel as dinner.
We were really tired so we went to bed early around 9. After 9 hours of sleep we woke up around 6. The breakfast buffet was crazy good again (I just love Thai food). Then the weather calls for a pool day. We stayed at the pool and beach until it gets really hot and sunny around noon. Then it is time for our spa reservation. I had a 90 min aroma fusion massage. I swear that was the fastest 90 minutes in my life. I have had spa in the US, Canada, and China. But they are nothing like the Thai spa! I strongly recommend it for everyone to try it at least once in his or her life. Of course, I ended up having three spas during my stay.
Later that day we went to Chaweng, another town center along the east coast of the island. It is said the biggest town area on the island. The hotel van dropped us off at a mall. It is just like a modern mall you would encounter in any other cities. We did some shopping and walked around the area. To be honest, the streets and shops are all alike, just a lot more bars and clubs in Chaweng. Since we weren’t interested in those, we headed to the food market we saw on the way to the mall. It is a big open air area filled with food stalls. They all offer mainly seafood. The local seafood is amazing! So fresh and one of the best qualities. The prawns and lobster are like the size of my forearm. And there are many kinds of seafood that I have never seen before but I didn’t really care as long as they tasted good.
That night we also went to bed early since we booked for elephant trekking the next day. After dashing to the breakfast, the tour guide came to pick us up around 9 in the morning. we rode on elephant first then hiked to see waterfalls. Afterwards, we helped a baby elephant take shower and watched elephant, monkey and crocodile shows. Then the trip ended with shooting some rifles and snipers. After the long day, I had another spa before I went to bed.