August 14, 2012

Holiday in Koh Samui – Day 1


The August school holidays will be upon us shortly, and I haven’t even blogged about the trip we made during the June school holidays L  So before it becomes even more stale, here goes…

I bought flight tickets to Surat Thani shortly after Air Asia launched their flights there end of last year.  I was just fiddling around the website and got a really good deal to Surat Thani during the June school holidays so without much thought, I just booked.  I found out later, to my dismay, that Surat Thani IS NOT in Koh Samui, and that we need to get to the ferry terminal in Donsak to take a ferry over to Koh Samui.  I was in two minds whether to proceed with the trip, as I can already imagine the hassle we had to go through to get to Koh Samui, with the two girls in tow.

We went ahead anyhow, fully bracing ourselves for the long journey, and a long journey it was – 1.5 hours by bus to Donsak pier from Surat Thani Airport, and another 2 hours (including waiting time) by ferry before we stepped foot in Koh Samui.  So folks if you are planning to fly to Surat Thani to get to Koh Samui, please think twice.

To our surprise this time, Yan Yan was looking forward to flying, and showed no signs of fear, unlike our trip to Sri Lanka last year.  Back then, she was frightened by the loud roaring engines of the aircraft, and refused to go on the tarmac, and kept crying and pleading to go home.

Looking out at the clouds below

We stayed at Samui Resotel and Spaa chic resort located at the quiet Southern section of Chaweng Beach.  I love the modern elegance and tasteful furnishings of the resort ground and guestroom.


Our room with two queen beds 





By the time we checked into the hotel, it was already close to dinner time so we walked along the street looking for food, and stumbled across this restaurant, which comes highly recommended from Trip Advisor.  As we were tired, and it was threatening to rain, we went right in.

 Dining by the sea

The girls had fried rice and fried noodles, while hubby and I shared a Traditional Kantoke set, a selection of small Thai dishes – comprising tomyan soup, stirfried kangkung, fried chicken with ginger, charcoal roast duck curry and deep-fried prawn cake with plum sauce served with steamed Jasmine rice.  I thought it wasn’t that good by Thai standard – I guess the restaurant has to serve a toned down version of Thai cooking to suit the palate of Westerners.  Dessert was banana fritters with coconut ice-cream – easily the best dish of the night.




The girls then had their nightly dose of multi vitamins for children` to prep them up for the days ahead.

8 comments:

BoeyJoey said...

Sounds like a great trip! Your girls are so good during the long journey; mine would have asked the same question over and over again - when are we arriving??? Very nice pictures of your beautiful girls there :-)

Small Kucing said...

wow...the place is so beautiful. Room are so spacious

Unknown said...

Looks good! I'm thinking of Koh Samui or Chiang Mai to "complete" my visits of Thailand...

A Mom's Diary said...

Boey Joey - thankfully they were good, made the journey less stressful

smallkucing - yeah, I really love the hotel

Irene - hmm...sorry to be a wet blanket but there are equally, if not nicer, beaches in Malaysia la. But perhaps it's not a fair comment since we didn't visit the acclaimed Angthong Marine Park

Kit said...

Hahaha, love the shots of the girls. They look so cute :)

And of course, drooling over the Thai food. Yummmmmm...

A Mom's Diary said...

Kit - looks can be deceiving. They really drive me up the wall sometimes.

I love Thai food too :-)

zmm said...

Oh wow.. It's a long way to get to Koh Samui but glad you made it.

Flight direct to Koh Samui is expensive... that's why we'd not planned a trip yet.

The hotel you stayed in looks good... and 2 queen bed.. 'ngam' for the family.

A Mom's Diary said...

Yeah, direct flights are darn expensive, but when I booked, I didn't realise the journey we had to go through :-) But seriously, I don't think you'll miss anything by giving Koh Samui a miss.

The two queen beds are one of the things that attracted us to this hotel :-)