After a busy few days in and around Bangkok we have now made our way down to the islands in the Gulf of Thailand. In general it is the ‘rainy season’ here in Thailand, but the gulf coast on the east side of southern Thailand has a different weather pattern than the Andaman coast on the west side, and we expect to see some much more predictable good weather here on Koh Smaui and Koh Tao.

The flight from Bangkok is short and sweet and within a couple of hours of leaving the bustle of the city we are checked into our hotel room right across the road from the beach!  Apparently the economic downturn in Europe has meant that toursim has been off and one shop keeper that we talked to said it has not been overly busy here for at least a year.  That certainly explains why the hotel we are staying in is basically empty, and except for I think two other rooms we appear to have the place to ourselves – which is good I guess for us, but must be hard on the locals who typically hope to make enough during the busy season to keep the place open during the low season.

We have allotted more time for each of the rest of our stops on the trip, so we don’t have to try and cram a bunch of things in like we did in Bangkok, so our first day here has no fixed agenda.  After sleeping in a bit we decided to walk down to the beach and along the shore to the local temple with the big Buddha statue.

After looking around the temple and getting the requisite blessing from the monks (cause you can never have too many blessings) we stopped at a shop run by an expat from England for what was advertised as ‘the best banana milkshakes in Samui’.  The shakes were made with milk and ice cream (as they should be) vs the normal Thai style milkshake which is often made with condensed milk and ice, and they did indeed live up to their billing as the shake was very tasty.  We had a nice visit with the owner and learned a few things about the island and relaxed in the shop with a beautiful view of the ocean while chatting away.  Overall a nice way to spend an hour or two before we decided it was time to move on.

I am not sure why it always seems like the walk back is longer than the walk there, but our return trip to the hotel seems to take quite a bit longer.  By the time we get back we are all a bit drained and decide that some time by/in the pool will be very refreshing.  A few hours poolside and it is not hard to convince ourselves that we have earned a massage (no surprise that the vote was 3 to 0 in favor) so we round out the evening with a Thai massage and a late dinner.