Rainy in Koh Samui

Today is day no. 3 in Koh Samui and the weather has not been very kind to us since we arrive on Monday afternoon. There was always an air of rain out there and the fear that any fun out in the sun would be cold blanketed by those approaching grey clouds.

We have put ourselves up at Samui Pier Resort - one is that is located in the north of the island and quite close to the airport. By my accordance and my comparatively (against Olof) expensive taste, this resort will get only an OK from me. But it has received what I would call rave reviews on tripadvisor. Not that it is lousy, but it wasn't as good as I had thought.

We booked a deluxe room at THB1,800 per night, without breakfast. The resort is radared with its own WI-FI internet so guests can literally go online anywhere within the its perimeter. Guess where I am writing this blog now? Right my room door. I dragged one of the beach chairs outside our litte hut in and only then can I get some decent connection speed. So internet connection wise, it got a point minus from me.

Room. I guess I can't expect to get lobster if I paid the price of a shrimp. The resort has most of its room on the ground and perhaps only 3 or 4 family suites which have 2 storeys. We got a squarish hut next to the kitchen. At first I was worried we will hear pots and pans clanging early in the morning, but it turned out to be ok, mostly because there are not many guests around. Our hut is furnished with a queen bed, wardrobe, TV cum writing table, mini Hitachi fridge and two beach chairs just outside the hut. Bathroom is quite spacious equipped with hot shower, although it is hard to think who would want a hot shower in this 30-degrees weather. It was certainly not a 5-star bathroom. I would perhaps give it a 2.5. For room cleaniness, I do not have too much to complain nor too much to complement, except that I do not fancy having co-guests - ants. Before you even dare say I am too pampered with the luxuries of life to withstand an ant or two, it wasn't just a handful where you can get rid off with a one-time extermination mission. There are plenty of them, even on the bed! Imagine having some creepy crawlies sleeping with you, crawling all over you while you are in dreamland? Goose bumpy huh?

The view from our room is nice. We get to see the sea and two piers. Yes, we are sandwiched between two piers. The good thing with being so close to a pier is easy access to other small islands. While the others have to be chauffered from other hotels to the pier, we just have to walk 5 mins to get there. The bad? Perhaps you already guessed it. Before the motorboats leave for their destinations with excited passengers or when they return from trips the happy and sun-drenched city elopers, the smell from burning petrol and rumbling noise of the super motors are not quite pleasurable for two guests who long for fresh air and quiet. The waters along this stretch of the beach is also not quite conducive for swimming. With very poor visibility and boats coming in and going out, I just don't have the urge to plunge in. Then we realised that Koh Samui is actually more of a hotel/resort island with nice beaches and hotels, but not so much for beach diving and snorkelling. Taking a boat out into Koh Tao, Koh Phangan or Ang Thong Marine Park is mostly the choice, if not de facto, of tourists who want to see fishes and corals.

And so we did. We signed up for a snorkelling trip yesterday to Ang Thong Marine Park. Unfortunately, I did not quite enjoy it, mostly because I got two times a mask that did not fit my face. Water came into my mask all the time and filled it up as soon as I dipped my head under water. So I was more busy clearning water from my mask all the time than having a good swim with the fishes. Plus, the snorkelling site was FULL of tourists. In China, they call it aptly "cooking dumplings". You can hardly maneuver in the water without bumping into somebody else's legs or hands or worse, you see a gay man wadding right in front of you in his white triangular, almost transparent, underwear. What was more emotional for me was to see how much destruction the marine lives have endured. The corals were nothing colorful to speak of, nor were the fishes I saw during the few brief moments when my mask was cleared of water. It was nothing quite like what I saw at Perhentian many years ago when I first dived.

It is still drizzling. Olof is off for the theory module of his open water diving course. We signed him up this morning for an open water diving course with Coral Grand Divers. They are reputed to be quite good. While I am not doing the course, I will be going for the pool dives and eventually the boat dives with him in the next 3 days. I reckon I need to refresh my rusty skills.