Koh Samui - the calm before the storm

The three of us arrived in Koh Samui quite early after crossing the sea for a couple of hours in a ferry. On arrival we got together a group of seven travelers to share the taxi and by sheer luck all of us were heading to the same hostel. In no time we had a van full of backpackers all heading to the timeless hostel on the other side of the island, by the Chewagan beach.

That's how we met Paul a cool snowboarder and slackliner German, an Italian girl with whom I barely spoke and Sofien and Tiphaine, two French friends with whom we eneded up spending quite some time during our stay.

The timeless hostel was well located near the beach, with a nice bar/common area in a partially covered courtyard with a couple of long tables that brought all travellers together.

We went for lunch with our new friends. It was surprising how more expensive the restaurants in that area were. It was hard to find a meal for less than 100 THB, whereas I was used to paying 40 to 60 THB in the north.

With our bellies full, and check in done, we rented a couple of scooters to zoom around the island. With Tavares on my back seat, and Jorge on his own scooter, we set off to the south by the coast crossing Lamai and then inland up the mountains. The 125cc scooters handled well the roads full of water and even managed to push both me and Tavares up the steep mountain roads, albeit with some effort. As always, driving a scooter through a paradisiac island is a sure ticket to uplift the spirit. Even Tavares had a chance to have some fun for a short while in the empty inland roads.

The first stop was an amazing waterfall. Despite being beautiful it didn't stand out from the many waterfalls I've seen, except for the force of its waters that fell maybe 30 meters with roaring fury. Below, large and small rocks split the waters. We hopped around and climbed the largest rock to better appreciate the views. When climbing down Jorge told me "be careful not to fall in between rocks". I followed his advice but the same can't be said of himself. Behind me Jorge fell in the water up to his chest. We all started laughing but we found out moments later that he had hurt himself with the fall, his pinky toe was swelling and went through a few shades of purple in the next few days.

Alison, my Irish travel friend who happens to be a nurse, did her best to provide a diagnosis from the pictures and descriptions we sent her. According to her it was very likely broken. She also advised us to get him on anti inflammatory drugs, raise the foot and put ice on it. After a visit to the pharmacy Jorge was all set. We decided not to go to a hospital as they were close to return to Portugal where he would have access to better care. With Jorge injured I started to doubt that the full moon party would live up to the original expectations.

That afternoon we still visited a pretty hidden garden full of buddhist statues, a view point with a great view over the south side of the island, a huge statue of a chinese general that is adored as a god (still have to do some reading on this one) and a mummified monk with some way too cool looking sunglasses.

With the sun setting we returned to the hostel where we joined the family dinner organised by the staff and met the travellers there. Had some laughs, a few drinks and made plans for the full moon party on the following day.

Sofiene and Tiphane decided to join us. Paul was undecided but ended up staying in Koh Samui. However he still joined us for a late dip in the ocean that night.

On the day of the full moon party the weather wasn't looking great. Tavares was hoping he could do a bit of surfing but the sea was as flat as it gets. We spent the morning at the hostel and once the rain gave us a break around lunch time we took off with our scooters to make the most of the remaining rental time. We saw the gigant budda and walked part of the main street in the fisherman's village before the rain and the clock forced us to go back.

With the scooters returned in one piece, we took a car ride to the pier where we would take our boat to Koh Phagan and the full moon party.Read more