Koh Samet: Bangkok's delightful beach getaway

Hello, blogopals! Sorry I've been pants at updating; I just got back from a delightful mini-vacation on Koh Samet (sometimes spelled Ko Samed, Koh Samed, or any variation therein). Koh Samet is a tropical island just under four hours' bus ride southeast of Bangkok,
and it is just about everything I want from a tropical island, except monkeys. I didn't see any monkeys.

Lots of adorable dogs, though.

Cost + how to get there from Bangkok:

Bus from Ekkamai bus station in Eastern Bangkok to Ban Phe pier + ferry ticket from Ban Phe pier, round trip: 393 thb ($11 USD).

Boats!

That's it! You just hop on the semi-hourly bus at Ekkamai, hop off at the pier, take an hourly ferry, and you're there, for $11 round trip. Easy as pie. The buses and ferries only run until 6 or 7 PM (depending on which direction you're going), so don't plan to leave late at night, but they have schedules at the bus station, and they even gave me a little schedule when I bought my ticket.

Somebody put an enormous shirt and skirt on this enormous statue.
Is she supposed to wear that? Why is it there? We may never know.

Where to stay:

There are no couchsurfing hosts on the island, unfortunately.

We looked around online a bit on the bus, but decided not to book anything until we got to the island. We found loads of rooms in town (a bit traffic-y and polluted for our tastes) and right on the beach for between 600 and 1200 thb for a fan room, and up to 1500 or higher for AC. Most beachfront bungalows (complete with beachfront bugs and cold showers) were around 800 or 1000 thb, but we stayed at the White Sands Resort for only 600, which was the cheapest place we could find. We later discovered that the sign said 800, so I'm not sure why they only asked for 600, but hey, who's complaining? It was good enough for one night; we had a lot of tiny insect friends - inside and outside had nearly the same number of bugs - but that just encouraged us to spend more time out on the beach rather than being boring in our room, so no harm done.

Our bungalow. Well, half of the building was ours.

There is only one hostel - Olly's - on the island, which has tiny individual air-conditioned sleeping pods for 471 thb a night, but price-wise, that only makes sense for single travelers.

Food:

There are restaurants everywhere, and I was surprised to see prices often double or triple what they would be in Bangkok, or even on the other side of the water on the Ban Phe pier. That said, 80 or 90 thb for a meal isn't really going to kill me for a couple days. Food options along the beach tended to be mostly Thai food and seafood, and there were a lot of Western options in town. All the food we had was pretty mediocre, but we had some great drinks...

Drinks:

Our very favorite bar.

When your friends are getting buffeted by snowstorms, and you are in Thailand, the only thing left to do is to send them a photo of yourself sipping a pina colada on the beach. Thankfully, the beachfront is full of "happy hour" specials. The Naga bar offered 80 thb happy hour cocktails, the lowest price we saw. I got a heck of a "blue pina colada," most likely made with fresh coconut milk, from a nameless, secluded bar, and although they didn't advertise happy hour, we asked, and they offered (sadly small, but delicious) cocktails for 90 thb. I'm not totally convinced they knew what we were talking about, as the drinks didn't taste like they had alcohol in them, so maybe they thought we were asking about mocktails and that's why they were cheaper, but whatever, it was delicious.

After that, we made our way to our little resort and the nearby Friendly Bar, where it is seemingly always happy hour. According to the sign, happy hour is until 10 PM, but the enthusiastic bar staff were exclaiming "happy hour!" until at least 11. 100 thb cocktails isn't exactly an inspiring price, but when you're reclining on those funny pillow-reclining-mattress things that they all have, watching the waves, and enjoying the actually-pleasant cool season weather, 100 thb seems reasonable for a strong and tasty cocktail.

Ooh, pretty lights.

Other costs:

There really aren't any other costs. The island is small, so we just walked everywhere. We sat in a beach chair under an umbrella, and a guy came up to us asking for 60 thb per chair, which is really pretty reasonable, as we kept our stuff there all day. Of course, you're also free to chill out on the beach for free. People occasionally came by trying to sell things, but it was nothing like the constant hawking of Pattaya.

All in all, Koh Samet was fantastic, and I hope to go back soon!