Thailand Day 11 Phuket to Koh Samui

Monday May 16^th

First off: thank you Kim and Nici. I appreciate your comments. It was nice to meet you and share the trip and the sunset together. I apologize for the 'German couple' reference. I remembered one of your names, but I'm afraid to say I forgot the other one. Glad you had a good time playing mini golf! Hope you continue to follow along.

Off to an early start again this morning. I was up by 7:00, packed up, had breakfast and checked up by 8:00 so that I could take advantage of renting a scooter for the day. You see, I had another case of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and I was wondering what the some of the other beaches on Phuket were like. So, I picked up the scooter that I had arranged last night and headed out to explore. It was great to be riding again, albeit a little scooter, but there is nothing that compares to the Imax vista you getting riding a bike, especially on the wrong side of the road!

I spent four hours riding up the west short of Phuket Island, visiting beaches, exploring back roads and enjoying the open road, well some of it was, other parts were through the towns of the island. There was some really nice vistas to see too. I went to Karon, Patong, Kamala and Siriya Beaches. The final stop was at Kata Beach again, which I think is the nicest of the ones I've seen, partly because of the island offshore.

Took the bike back by 12:00 and headed to the pool for a swim. Again there was no one there and I had it to myself. I just wanted to enjoy it, have a short swim and get rid of the salt from the sea. Then I went to the lobby and ordered a taxi for 2:00.

The ride to the airport took an hour again, and the flight to Samui took all of forty minutes on a four seat wide prop plane. (At the airport in Phuket I found the book 'Marching Powder' that I'd first heard about in South America, about a British man jailed in a Bolivian prison for drug smuggling.) Took a cab to my new home for the next four nights. It's called the Island Resort and Spa. It's about half the price of the hotel in Phuket, and about a quarter as nice. Initially I was quite disappointed with the room (it's in a two room bungalow and is pretty basic) and the beach, but realistically, with just me here I don't need anything as fancy as the Alpina, and I don't plan on spending much time at the resort.

Then I decided to go for a walk down the street in town (the hotel is right on the beach but also right in the town, which is very touristy). I bought a few necessities, toothpaste, deodorant, new sunglasses and then investigated what there is to do here. I have decided to rent another scooter for a couple of days and explore the island. I don't need a tour, I'll to it myself, because basically it is a smallish island with a ring road around it.

After my walk, it was about 7:30 and dark, so I went back to the hotel and decided to eat here. I had a very romantic delicious dinner for one, sitting at a table ten feet from the water, with the full moon glistening on the water and the waves gently lapping at the shore. I had a whole white snapper, two jumbo prawns (and I mean jumbo!), baked potato and a couple of beer. Really nice. Then back to the room for the usual evenings entertainment of blogging and reading.