Ko Samet

About 3 hours south of Bangkok in the Gulf of Thailand is the tropical island of Ko Samet. That is where I had the good fortune to spend the weekend along with about 25 other teachers from RIS.

I joined a group of 13 who left the school on Friday afternoon in a hired minivan with driver, looking forward to getting out of the city for a while. We arrived at the pier and our speedboat for the short hop to the island. Here I am on the pier below.

Ko Samet is your classic tropical island, complete with palm trees down to the water, beautiful white sand and warm water. There are lots of little beaches with a variety of accommodation; I stayed at a place called Tubtim in a little shack amongst the trees.

It was nice to back in the salt water. The weather was hot but a breeze made it more pleasant than Bangkok. The water was incredibly warm - almost too warm! Tubtim village is a cute little place with the restaurant spreading out onto the beach.

Walking around the island we came across lots of beautiful little beaches such as this one

The day was spent enjoying the water, reading under the umbrella on the beach, eating tropical fruit as it was delivered by the local vendors walking along from beach to beach and just dozing on the deck chair. The evenings were spent moving from venue to venue on the island for food and drink and we were entertained by live music and an amazing performance by a group of fire players!

Sunday morning saw a spectacular tropical storm with torrential rain but it cleared up again for another swim before we headed back to Bangkok. This picture shows the last of the stormy sky moving away from the island.

It would have been nice to have spent a few more days on Ko Samet but I won't be surprised if I end up there again.