Day 4 - Valentine’s Day Love Bites

I woke up at 4.30am and watched my iPad until Jackie woke up around 7.30am. We exchanged Valentine’s Day cards, but Jackie also gave me a chocolate heart, so I treated her to coffee in bed with a couple of biscuits.

Jackie had woken up with numerous bites on her legs, whilst I only had one on my back and one on my arm. Jackie’s bites were itchy and had gone pusy or pussy. I googled pusy spot to try and ascertain the correct spelling and got quite a shock with the images that it brought up. I don’t recommend it (especially if you’re in the presence of minors) and I’m still none the wiser!

At 9.00am we rented a scooter from C Smile for the day. It cost 400THB, which was a bit steep but the standard price for the whole island. It was only 300THB last year! We then set off to explore the entire island and to try and make a decision as to where to stay for the remainder of our trip.

We headed south, parked up in the main town then walked down to Sai Kaew Beach. It was too busy but we walked along the beach, past a mermaid statue to Koh Samet Beach which was much more to our liking. We decided that this would be the beach we would walk to for at least our first week.

We returned to our bike and followed the one and only road to the south of the island. Our next stop was Tubtim Beach which was very pleasant. We continued and stopped at Wong Duean Beach, where numerous resorts and restaurants lined the beach. We walked to the northern end where the ‘poshish’ Vimarn Samed Resort was perched on the rocks. We found a scenic small bar nearby and relaxed with a couple of cold large Changs. We also took this pitstop as an opportunity to scour the internet for available accommodation near to Koh Samet Beach. We found what on the face of it is the perfect place, Tok’s Little Hut, which we booked for 7 nights for just £253.

Feeling very pleased with ourselves, we stopped at C Samet Beach Resort, which was very tranquil and a good option for our final week. We then popped in at Wai Beach before arriving at the southern tip of the island, which is known as Koh Samet Sunrise and Sunset Viewing Point. We walked to the view points which bizarrely had lots of man made towers of loose stones and rocks.

By now it was pretty much lunchtime, so we rode back to Wong Duean Beach where there were numerous restaurants on the beach. We chose Nice & Easy, which it wasn’t as we were soon to find out. We ordered a couple of large Changs and another Pad Thai each. It was the worst Pad Thai that we could ever remember eating. It was in actual fact just chicken, noodles and a nondescript sauce. To make it worse the Changs were 160THB, but on the bright side the location was lovely.

After lunch we rode to Prao Beach on the western side of the island, then headed back to the main town for Jackie to purchase some antihistamine tablets and some cream for her bites. We treated ourselves to a delicious Mango smoothie then rode back to our place. Once back in the room, I removed my shirt and discovered that my back was also covered in bites, but not itchy like Jackie’s. The cause of the bites is a mystery. We initially thought they were sandfly bites, now more likely to be mosquito bites, but we haven’t ruled out bedbugs.

That evening we rode back into town and I treated Jackie to a particularly cheap Valentine’s Day meal. I had a chicken yellow curry whilst Jackie had spicy prawns and rice, both at just 80THB and the large Changs were just 100THB - our cheapest yet.

We concluded our evening with a banana pancake from a roadside stand and had a gin and tonic nightcap.

Song of the Day - Love Bites by Judas Priest.Read more