Koh Samui

We had originally just put “beach” down for Koh Samui, but the boys weren’t terribly excited about another beach day. We checked around and found a zipline facility not far from where we’d be coming ashore via tender. A GetYourGuide offering included transport to and from the pier; we booked it for 9:30.

Insignia anchored waaaay out in the water, quite far from the dock. Given this, we hustled to get ready and breakfasted so that we could catch the earliest tender possible. The ship’s lifeboats/tenders were supplemented by some local vessels, which meant more seats and availability for us among those going ashore on Oceania excursions. This was good, as we were barely setting foot ashore when I got a Whatsapp message asking for our location. We found our driver and were off to zipline.

The drive was only about 10 minutes to the place. The grounds were very animal-friendly, with chickens (with very young chicks) running around, birds in the trees, and a large iguana in a pen. This all provided some entertainment as we waited for the rest of the morning crew to arrive. Once everyone was there we were split up into groups with two leaders each. Our group was just us four, which was fine by us. DJ was quite nervous as he doesn’t like heights, but things moved along and he went with the flow. We headed up the stairs to the first platform, but the higher we went the less he liked it. To his credit, he soldiered on and did the first zipline. He didn’t love it, but he did it. The rest of us did love it. It was great to sail along among the trees and feel the breeze (very welcome on a hot and humid morning).

All in all we did nine ziplines, the longest one coming in at a little over 300 meters. Our guides were terrific, helping us get clipped in and out and taking extra care of DJ given his nervousness. When we were done we were taken over to a coffee shop on the premises where we were served delicious watermelon. This was a perfect snack after a fun but sweaty outing.Read more