Much Needed Break

On the morning of the 24th we left the great north for the islands in the south. We headed to Koh Samui, one of the islands on the eastern side of Thailand in the Gulf of Siam. We have been looking forward to this part of the vacation since we left for India on the 15th of May.

To insure we really enjoyed this part of the trip, we decided to splurge on our hotel. We are staying at the Amari Palm Reef, second highest rated (by Trip Advisor) hotel on the island (although we didn't know that when we reserved the hotel). The Amari has some nice touches that we have not seen in awhile: multiple towels, large bars of soaps, quiet & working a/c, really nice breakfast spread, and very attentive hotel staff (there are even two men stationed at the street at all times to help you cross to the other side).

After arriving at our hotel we headed straight to the beach. The beach itself is quite nice - fine white sand that is soft under the feet. The water is also amazing - the clearest body of water either Jeremy or I have seen. And the water is easy to walk in - a good temperature, quite shallow for a long distance, and no waves/currents to worry about. While we like the beach, it has its moments of grossness - where the water hits the beach it can feel very muddy underneath your feet since the sand is so fine; this is particularly unpleasant during low tide. The beach also caters to an older crowd so it can be very quiet at times making it very peaceful. The hotel also has two pool areas which are nice, but we were spoiled by JW Marriott in Mumbai, India which was an infinity pool with built-in chairs/loungers inside the pool.

For dinner, we ate at a small place on the beach where we were literally two feet away from the water. Today we spent more time in the water, where small colorful fish swam all around us. Tomorrow we are going snorkling to a nearby island, Ko Tao, which has world reknowned snorkling and diving.

This morning, both of us woke up and decided that we were officially tired of Thai food (yes, Jeremy even admitted to being tired of Phad Thai). So we had nachos for lunch and are headed to a nearby Italian restaurant for some gourmet pizza. Yum.

Unfortunately the time here already seems to be flying by. We both wish we had additional time to do more (like go to the Marine Park, where the movie The Beach takes place) in addition to relaxing on the beach.