Calming Koh Samet

Koh Samet, Thailand - 6th stop on this amazing adventure :)

I had never heard of this little place before, but my lovely friends Matt and Dani highly recommended it having got married there 2 years ago. I was a little nervous going somewhere new, instead of returning to the safety of Koh Lanta however as the lovely Lindsay told me I am on a travel adventure so why go for comfortable? And she is, of course, absolutely right. As soon as I got off the boat and arrived I knew it was the right decision.

The bus from Bangkok took forever, and when we got guided to our boat they hurried us onto it and then sat us there for an hour melting in the sun while just about any kind of produce got loaded up around us. Very much a local boat lol. Welcome to Thailand...where on any kind of public transport you are packed in amongst produce, magazines, newspapers, uncles, cousins etc.

I decided on Jeps Bungalow after working through the numerous recommendations by Dani. Truth be told it was the photos of their beach bar which sold it for me - the bar is on the sand and has these super cool star lights in the trees so you kind of feel like you are in a fairytale. Or you do if your name is Caroline and your life is made up of one story after another. 

I had booked an AC room and had been told I had to change resort for one night which was fine by me, as they didn't have any fan rooms (which I had wanted) when I called. When I got there the lady told me they had no AC rooms and only a fan room which I could have the whole duration of my stay so they showed me it and I took it. It was super old and dusty and not like the other bungalows at all.  Anyways, I got settled in, hung up my super cool and new bright orange hammock, and unpacked. The windows were all bashed up and mosquito protection was zero so I asked for some parcel tape/duct tape (whatever it is called) and went to work taping up my windows. I did a pretty good job even if I do say so myself. It didn't stop me getting the most eaten I have ever been in Asia, but imagine if I hadn't taped them up...

I loved my little bungalow and spent my evenings chilling in the beach bar, then retiring to my sanctuary balcony and chilling in my hammock after a good yoga session. I managed to get into some awesome yoga poses while on that balcony, I was getting so relaxed my body just cruised into poses that normally took me forever to even get close to doing. It was just what I needed as I tried to 'enjoy' my time alone on the perfect island.  I had been with people the whole way through my adventure so far, so this was my first time totally alone without people I knew. Just me, and my mind, and my thoughts. Interesting times. Sometimes I loved it, sometimes I hated it. My friends told me it was just what I needed - self reflect time - after a year of chaos in Bermuda and massive life changes of leaving my home in the sun in Bermuda, and leaving behind a career and trying to work out what I wanted in life. So I tried to suck it up whenever the demons came out to play. By the end of the week, I was more  calm than I can remember being in a long time. Hence my yoga poses coming to fruition :) I managed randomly to get into Compass on first attempt, then Flying Pigeon (which just scared me to look at photos of) on one side, and then two days later completely randomly I got into King Dancer Pose which is just about the coolest poses ever. I had previously thought I would dislocate my shoulders getting into this pose and for some reason it just clicked, and it worked and was comfortable. Love it <3

Life was good. My friend Karen put it so accurately when she wrote on my wall, you can be surrounded by 100 new people every day and still feel as lonely as can be when travelling because you are not surrounded by your close friends. When I first got to the island I looked at the beaches and thought well this is pretty but it isn't Bermuda pretty, and wondered sadly if I would always compare everything and everywhere to my lovely Bermuda. By the middle of the week the haze had lifted and I sacked off running and yoga one evening to just sit and watch what was in front of me and appreciate everything about that exact moment. That was my calmest evening of the whole trip :)

My evenings were fairly chilled. One evening an english guy joined me and told me all about his girlfriend who lived in KL and how he travelled while she taught - sounded like a good deal he had going on. He was meeting her afterwards to travel together. He told me about a cool place to run to and get a nice Mojito in happy hour, and watch the sunset. I never did make it to that beach to watch the sunset. Koh Samet made me very lazy and I loved hanging out near Jeps, as did everyone else who seemed to gather there each evening. I also met a cool guy on my second to last night from New Zealand at the start of his adventure. A few beers later and we decided to head to Naga Bungalows for buckets - I had forgotten how lethal those things were. One blue melon flavoured bucket later, and then a bright red strawberry daqueri bucket later, we thought 'how cool let's try laughing gas'. We bought a balloon filled with laughing gas and laughed our heads off, no idea if real or we were just having so much fun we laughed anyway. Was a cool evening.

I spent a lot of this trip chilling on the beach and people watching, and realising that I really do struggle to sit still for long periods of time! I swam, I walked, I ran, I did yoga, I floated at the surface of the ocean and sunbathed, I read and I slept. It was just perfect :) My idea of chilling anyway, perhaps too active for most people!! My lunches every day were freshly cooked corn on the cob, and sliced mangos and coconuts, bought from the man or woman who walked the full length of the beaches with these heavy grills and coolers and cooked/chopped everything up for you there and then! There were so many Bangkok visitors, people who come for the weekend and take over the entire island for a few days. So much fun to watch them! There was also a guy who did thai chi on the beach each day, a very sick and painfully thin looking anorexic lady who would walk the length of the beach repeatedly each day, couples galore taking lovey dovey photos on the beach and in the water! My favourite thing to watch though was the english sheepdog which Dani tells me has been here for years. It is the most random and awesome sight ever on a Thai beach! Just a gorgeously beautiful dog, I want one for sure! He followed his owner everywhere and would run full speed into the water and just throw himself into the waves to chase his tennis ball.

There were some young kids who came along the beach each evening to perform fire shows, which were usually pretty cool. They were only about 11 years old and confident beyond belief, one of which had tattoos all up his back and an attitude which showed he would be a smooth operator when he was older lol!

I also adopted this cute little cat who I named Sayang 2 - I had a cat called Sayang in Thailand in 2007 :) She followed me everywhere and would turn up on my balcony in the mornings, or after the beach meowing like a crazy kid for attention. Turns out she also loves Pringles, so we shared many a box in the hammock. She was so heavily pregnant it was untrue. I would just sit with her lying next to me and me rubbing her belly, watching and feeling the kittens twitch underneath. She woke me up in the mornings meowing at the door, and would always be waiting on the balcony in the evenings for me when I returned from the beach - who said cats aren't loyal??! LOL. She was such an awesome cat and made me miss George and Ellen like crazy. I hope her and her kittens are safe and someone takes over from me looking after them :)

It is on this island that I realise you attract a lot of attention when you travel alone. Everyone knew who I was. Everyone knew when I ate my dinner, where I sunbathed, when I did yoga, when I ran. They saw everything. Unfortunately this led to some bad luck on my last evening. I was hungover from the buckets night out, and packed my backpack up before dinner (as I was leaving the island the next morning, early) and headed down to eat. I took a few photos of the lights on the beach etc. I walked back up to my bungalow and realised the light was off outside, I turned it on and realised that the padlock on my door had been forced off, as had one of the windows. I went into the room (stupidly with hindsight) and found the contents of my backpack spread across the room. I mean literally, no pocket was left unturned. My medical and make up bags and jewellery bags were tipped upside down, my laundry. Everything.

Scared, I ran downstairs for help. The staff were awesome and came up with me to take photos, and call the police. The police came and took finger prints, then the staff moved me to a brand new AC luxury bungalow next to reception, and where security sits and the camera focused on it. I went to the police station on the back of a staff members bike at full speed, minus a helmet, and by the time I got there, the police were finger printing a guy I recognised from the restaurant who had smiled at me at lunchtime. He couldn't make eye contact this time, and shortly afterwards was put into a cell in the middle of the room where he watched me the whole time. Only in Thailand would you complete paperwork next to the guy who robbed you! I didn't sleep well that night worrying he would be released and come back, and having to go through my bag to work out exactly what had been stolen, and was thankful to leave the island early the next morning. Such a sad end to my wonderfully chilled time in Koh Samet.  The staff and the police handled things wonderfully so no complaints, just a very sad experience.

Anyway, an experience if nothing else, and a travel adventure can't all be smooth sailing. Lessons learned. I was grateful to not be there when it happened, and realise all material things are inconsequential in the grand scheme of it.  I won't let this affect the rest of my adventure. So I still look back to the time I had in Koh Samet with fond memories, and as an awesomely chilled and relaxing time for me. I had some awesome evenings doing some funky new yoga poses, drinking buckets, valuable me time and hanging out with Sayang :)