We spent three nights in Koh Samui, an island on the east side of Thailand. It is touted as one of the places for beach resorts, much as Phuket is more to the south. We had heard good things about Koh Samui, as not being as commercialized as Phuket.
We stayed in an Ibis resort (not expensive) right on the beach and generally had a good time. The scenery was very nice and we could walk on the beach all the way to the Fisherman’s Village, which is a major area for restaurants and shops. We also took a “Safari” tour in an off-road 4x4 vehicle, which was a mixed bag.
Now, to be honest, we are not beach type of people. The idea of sitting in a lounge chair by the beach and sipping exotic drinks is not our image of good times. We need to do something. That’s where the problem comes in in a place like Koh Samui. If we wanted to walk (our favorite hobby), there was a busy street, packed with cars and two-wheelers right outside the gate of our resort. Not fun. Beach was nice but it had new sand carted in from outside (may be after the hurricane which swept the old sand) and it was hard to walk on. Neither of us can ride a two-wheeler, and we did not want to learn on an island in a foreign country. The only option left to see the island was taking a tour, however much we don’t like to do so.
The tour had some positive attributes. We met some nice and like-minded people, and we enjoyed riding the top of 4x4 for a short period, something that would never be allowed in US. Some locations we went to had pretty nice views of the island.
However, several of the places we went to were very crowded and noisy. A waterfall we visited would pale in comparison to most in the White Mountains in New Hampshire, and it was difficult to find a place to even take a picture, with all the selfie taking tourists. The zipline we took was quite short and a bit of a ripoff. The off-road experience (in fact it was on a very poorly maintained road) was somewhat of a novelty but very uncomfortable, given there were only a few things one could hold on to in the rear of the vehicle.
Overall, we had a mixed experience at a much-touted Thai beach resort. We are not sure if we would go to another one very soon.
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