The last leg of the journey was to an island named Koh Samed (or is it Samet?). I’ve seen both spellings), which is an island that is about a 3.5-hour drive from Bangkok. “Koh” means island. I decided to try this place out because I wanted to end my trip on an island but not in an expensive, touristy place like Phuket (although at some point I’d like to visit there during the dry season).

When I arrived at the pier to take the ferry, I was told that the regular “big” boat required a minimum of 20 people to go. So instead, I would have to settle for taking the speed boat, which costs more but is also faster. The speed boat was indeed faster (it only took 15 minutes of bumpy wave riding to get there). However, the ticket I paid for was to have us arrive at one of the main piers. When we arrived at the island, the boat driver literally pulled up to the main beach where people were swimming and docked the boat about 15 feet from shore. I was wearing socks and shoes, and two other people that were in the boat said I should probably take them off. I did, and luckily, there was still enough room in my bag to store them. One of the boat staff helped carry my big suitcase to shore, and I wheeled it the rest of the way along the beach (barefoot).

After a few minutes of walking, I called the host of my place. He came to meet me, but his motorcycle wasn’t big enough to carry my suitcase and us, so he had me follow him to where the place was. At this time, I was still barefoot and decided to just walk barefoot the rest of the way. I could have put my socks and shoes back on, but I just wasn’t in the mood.

This was also in the late afternoon or early evening. I didn’t go swimming that day, but I did walk around to see what was along the shore and have dinner out.

The next day, I did see a sign in a small tourist office about taking a truck tour around the island, so I inquired. I was told I could take the full tour, which would be about 3 hours, or a shorter tour that would only go to certain parts of the island, so I opted for the latter. He took me to several places (only one of which I had not seen already, which annoyed me), including this other beach that was further down the island.

After being driven to another place that I had already seen and having the trip basically end in maybe 30 minutes, I let my feelings of annoyance be known to the driver, and he called the guy in the office to talk with him. I’m not sure what was said, but he then took me to another beach area.

This was basically the end of my second day. Later on, I simply walked along the beach with my feet in the water, checking out the other restaurants along the beach.

While I was in the tour office asking about the truck tour, I saw something about snorkeling, and I decided that would be the big activity to end my time here. The trip included going to a few islands to check out their shores and go snorkeling at some of them (the trip also included lunch). While some of the beach areas were nice, the actual snorkeling was modestly interesting. The places to go snorkeling were only in areas where the water was maybe a couple feet deep. The variety of plant life was not much, although some of it looked interesting.

After lunch, a couple of the people on the boat tour (a Thai couple) notified me that I should join them to climb up a hill to see another view from the island. I said “sure,” and I’m glad I followed them. I was able to take some nice shots from above the coastline.

The second-to-last area we went to (where the boat stopped in the water for us to snorkel) had deeper water and more rocks covered in plant life. Even here, though, it was mildly interesting. The final island that we “snorked” at was for maybe half an hour. We were told we should take off our shoes, and I didn’t understand why (I wasn’t wearing shoes; I was wearing flip-flops). There were many rocks there, and it was quite uncomfortable and painful to walk on them.

The trip overall was so-so. I guess you do get what you pay for. While the snorkeling itself was only mildly interesting at times, I loved how nice the water felt. In fact, the whole 3 days, no matter where I was, the water felt lovely. This has cemented the idea that Thailand is a key place to go if you like to swim in the ocean.

Of course, while here, I had to make sure that I ate some delicious Thai food while I still could.

Along the beach at night you can see numerous Thai boys performing fire shows in front of the restaurants. I only had my phone with me so I couldn’t record it with better footage, but here you are anyway.

During my stay it did rain one night, a lot.

Late one night, I heard what I thought might be frogs communicating, but these were something else. It was rather amusing to listen to, though.

After my trip, I’m undecided as to whether I would stop by here again. I met a Thai guy here who told me that he thinks the islands in southern Thailand are the best. While I will certainly return to Thailand, perhaps I will heed his advice and try for another island further south.