One Night in Chaweng (and a week in Thailand overall)
Again the travelogue doesn't get posted until I've been back home for a week. Ha! Promptness is never going to be strong point with me.
To be completely honest, this trip was more about spending time with family than seeing sights and I don't post photos of family and friends (other than Cuddles the Spider, of course) here on LJ. So, although Thailand is undeniably beautiful, perhaps not so many pics to see this time.
When we all met up last Christmas, my family hatched the plan to meet up for a holiday overseas at some time during the year. As I'm one of six siblings (most of whom have partners and/or children) and Mum has her own timetable to consider, this is a logistic nightmare. But, despite this 5 of the 6 plus Mum managed to meet up in Thailand for a week. I can take absolutely NO credit for this organisation. Others organised it and just said "yeah, okay" and applied for the leave from work.
Due to work commitments and a couple of other issues, I arrived in Thailand a day later than the rest and met them on the island of Koh Samui which is in the Gulf of Thailand, about halfway from Bangkok to the Malaysian border. For the first few days we stayed at the Shasa Hotel which in the Southern end of the island and we spent the time walking on beaches, visiting street markets and splashing about in the hotel pool with the kids.
(The arm that Cuddles is sitting on is mine. The photo was taken by my niece, Charlotte. She's six.)
There was also the local butterfly sanctuary.
(The photo doesn't really give you an idea of the size of this butterfly. I think it was bigger than my hand.)
Nice view from the top of the sanctuary grounds.
And later we saw some of Koh Samui's waterfalls. (Keep in mind for comparison later.)
The we caught a ferry to Koh Pha-Ngan which is another island just North of Koh Samui which is about the same land mass, but seems more rural and has some awesome beaches where you can swim amongst the coral.
We went snorkeling off one beach, but since I don't have an underwater camera, I can't do it justice.
See, it's pretty enough. And it has a very nice bar/restaurant.
But... yeah.
To be honest, the coral itself isn't very colourful and hence doesn't really compare to the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland (where I went snorkeling at when I was 12), but the fish amongst the coral were truly spectacular and you could swim amongst them really easily. It was very, very cool.
Later we went to see some waterfalls, but the weather had been really good in the few days since we'd left Koh Samui. And no rain seems to have very rapid effect on waterfalls on these islands because this is what one of the premier waterfalls on Koh Pha-Ngan looked like when we saw it.
Yeah, there's a little trickle there, if you look very, very closely. But not exactly spectacular, no. Ah, well.
The hotel we stayed at was called Sunset Cove. And very well named it was.
The cabins we stayed in were rustic, but fairly comfy. And we spent a lot of time around the pool again.
And we took full advantage of the fact that they gave away free bananas!
What?
After the Queensland floods last summer, the price of bananas in Australia has been absolutely ridiculous (okay, I was tempted to say the price was absolutely bananas, but apparently there are puns so lame that even I wouldn't... except I kinda have now... oh, well).
The bananas, and pretty much all the other fruits we had in Thailand, were totally delicious too.
Anyways. To wrap this entry up...
We caught the ferry back to Koh Samui.
Where we stayed in the largest town, Chaweng, for one night only (hence the title of this post).
More pools, beach, shops, restaurants and a free massage thrown in. But no photos. Sorry.
And now back home again and back into the work routine (which wasted no time at all in getting back to insane levels).
Still got things to look forward to on the horizon. Friends visiting from overseas soon. And it looks like I will score another conference in North America in November.
Life ain't too bad, all in all.
To be completely honest, this trip was more about spending time with family than seeing sights and I don't post photos of family and friends (other than Cuddles the Spider, of course) here on LJ. So, although Thailand is undeniably beautiful, perhaps not so many pics to see this time.
When we all met up last Christmas, my family hatched the plan to meet up for a holiday overseas at some time during the year. As I'm one of six siblings (most of whom have partners and/or children) and Mum has her own timetable to consider, this is a logistic nightmare. But, despite this 5 of the 6 plus Mum managed to meet up in Thailand for a week. I can take absolutely NO credit for this organisation. Others organised it and just said "yeah, okay" and applied for the leave from work.
Due to work commitments and a couple of other issues, I arrived in Thailand a day later than the rest and met them on the island of Koh Samui which is in the Gulf of Thailand, about halfway from Bangkok to the Malaysian border. For the first few days we stayed at the Shasa Hotel which in the Southern end of the island and we spent the time walking on beaches, visiting street markets and splashing about in the hotel pool with the kids.
(The arm that Cuddles is sitting on is mine. The photo was taken by my niece, Charlotte. She's six.)
There was also the local butterfly sanctuary.
(The photo doesn't really give you an idea of the size of this butterfly. I think it was bigger than my hand.)
Nice view from the top of the sanctuary grounds.
And later we saw some of Koh Samui's waterfalls. (Keep in mind for comparison later.)
The we caught a ferry to Koh Pha-Ngan which is another island just North of Koh Samui which is about the same land mass, but seems more rural and has some awesome beaches where you can swim amongst the coral.
We went snorkeling off one beach, but since I don't have an underwater camera, I can't do it justice.
See, it's pretty enough. And it has a very nice bar/restaurant.
But... yeah.
To be honest, the coral itself isn't very colourful and hence doesn't really compare to the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland (where I went snorkeling at when I was 12), but the fish amongst the coral were truly spectacular and you could swim amongst them really easily. It was very, very cool.
Later we went to see some waterfalls, but the weather had been really good in the few days since we'd left Koh Samui. And no rain seems to have very rapid effect on waterfalls on these islands because this is what one of the premier waterfalls on Koh Pha-Ngan looked like when we saw it.
Yeah, there's a little trickle there, if you look very, very closely. But not exactly spectacular, no. Ah, well.
The hotel we stayed at was called Sunset Cove. And very well named it was.
The cabins we stayed in were rustic, but fairly comfy. And we spent a lot of time around the pool again.
And we took full advantage of the fact that they gave away free bananas!
What?
After the Queensland floods last summer, the price of bananas in Australia has been absolutely ridiculous (okay, I was tempted to say the price was absolutely bananas, but apparently there are puns so lame that even I wouldn't... except I kinda have now... oh, well).
The bananas, and pretty much all the other fruits we had in Thailand, were totally delicious too.
Anyways. To wrap this entry up...
We caught the ferry back to Koh Samui.
Where we stayed in the largest town, Chaweng, for one night only (hence the title of this post).
More pools, beach, shops, restaurants and a free massage thrown in. But no photos. Sorry.
And now back home again and back into the work routine (which wasted no time at all in getting back to insane levels).
Still got things to look forward to on the horizon. Friends visiting from overseas soon. And it looks like I will score another conference in North America in November.
Life ain't too bad, all in all.