Koh Samui

After a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur we made for the Perhentian islands off the north east coast of Malaysia. We decided to stay on Perhentian Besar, which is the slightly larger of the two tiny Perhentian islands, and found a room in a bungalow beside the beach.

As we were settling in, I noticed that the towel in the bathroom had a large black ant mashed into the fabric. I presented the towel to the bungalow owner, thinking that he might like to give me another one. Instead he said 'ant no problem' and in one swift move picked the dead ant off the towel with his fingernail put it in his mouth and swallowed it. Then he handed me back the towel with a smile. Needless to say I didn't bother him with any more requests!

There aren't any roads on Perhentian Besar, so without taking a boat we were restricted to two beaches. Unfortunately neither was very good for swimming. The first beach had polluted looking scum floating on the water. The second beach looked just like a tropical paradise from a holiday brochure except that the water was filled with tiny stinging jellyfish. Cabin fever set in after only two days and we decided to go swiftly onwards to Thailand.

After a long and hot journey we arrived on the island of Koh Samui. Eleven years ago Steve spent three months living in a beach hut on Koh Samui. However as we drove from the ferry terminal to the main town Chawang, he failed to recognise almost anything. In the last ten years Koh Samui has changed from a small tropical island where most people worked growing coconuts to a huge holiday resort with plane loads of holiday makers arriving every day. Driving around the island the first impression was pretty unattractive. There is loads of construction work going on and with the heavy traffic and lack of decent pavements, going for pleasant strolls in the countryside was never going to be an option.

The beach at Chawang though is fantastic. A long bay with white sand and clear warm water, it's an ideal place to chill out. My stepdad Ian came out to meet us from the UK and we have been spending our days swimming and sitting on the beach. As I had lost my swimsuit in Kuala Lumpur, I spent the first week on the beach looking very uncool in a pair of men's swimming trunks and a tshirt, until I finally got around to buying some more normal looking swim wear.

We have however managed to drag ourselves away from the beach to do a little bit of site seeing. We went on a day trip to the very pretty Ang Thong National Marine Park which is where Alex Garland set his best selling novel The Beach, a kind of Lord of the Flies style tale with backpackers.

We also went on a visit to see one of Koh Samui's waterfalls. It was far too hot to be walking and none of us made it up to the pool at the top of the waterfall. The most interesting bit of the outing was listening to our taxi driver talk. He pointed out the newly built prison (looks like a hotel with big walls) and told us stories of murdered tourists, revenge killings and the Koh Samui mafia.

While it's obvious that a few dodgy things do go on in Koh Samui, there are lots of girly bars for example, I had most of what out taxi driver said down as the product of a hyperactive imagination. Still after looking at the article Danger in paradise it does seems as though crime is becoming an issue on Koh Samui, even though we haven't experienced any problems ourselves.

Last night we went to the full moon party at the neighbouring island of Koh Phangan. The ride over in a speed boat at night was quite good fun in itself. The whole beach was packed with people dancing, with different sound systems competing to draw in the crowds. There were a few new age style things going on as well, with people throwing flaming brands into the air. All together it felt a bit like being back at a rave in the 1990's.

Steve though, who had really been there in the 1990's, was quite shocked. The full moon party beach, that had previously been in the middle of nowhere along a dirt track was now in the middle of a busy town with at least 15 bars showing the FA Cup final!

We are planning a few more days relaxing on the beach before flying up to Bangkok.