Exploring Chaweng and Lamai

Tuesday, our 2nd full day in Koh Samui, began much like the other days with a little breakfast and an early morning swim in the infinity pool.

Jenny looking wistfully over the ocean.

Jenny's first and only time in our freezing cold pool. It took a while to convince her to get in.

To infinity and beyond! (heh heh)

Today was the day we thought we'd explore the biggest town on the island, Chaweng.  The resort offers a free drop off in Chaweng at 11 AM and a free pick up at 5 PM.  We took the shuttle into town and the driver was actually the owner of the Sandalwood resort.  He was a really nice guy and he parked the car and gave us a quick orientation of the town. He showed us the good beaches, shopping and the best massages for the money. It was really helpful so we knew our way around town.

We spent most of the day walking along the main street and going into little shops and haggling with the owners (and by we I mean Jenny).  Jenny must have leaned how to drive a hard bargain from Pattie Klein.  We scooped up a few things here and there and eventually went to D's spa (on recommendation from the Sandalwood owner and another couple staying at our resort) for another Thai massage.  It was much cheaper in town.  At the resort the massages were 900 baht, about $27 USD. In town an hour long massage is 210 baht, about $6.  Jenny and I both got the Thai Massage.  This time a skinny old man worked me over.  The massages were good but not as relaxing as our resort because you could hear the other customers and the traffic outside. I guess the atmosphere is what you pay extra for at the hotel!

One of Jenny's first purchases for 700 baht ($20)

After the massages we headed to the Ark Bar.  The Ark Bar is kind of a larger resort right on the beach that caters to mostly party-goers.  They have beach parties every Wednesday and Friday.  We stopped in and had a couple beers and lunch.  We weren't sure what to expect at such a touristy place but the food was really good, we had some yummy fresh vegetable spring rolls and noodles. We didn't get much sun that day because it rained during the day and Jenny was a little crispy from the day before.  Sadly on our first day she failed to apply sunscreen evenly and got pretty burned on the backs of her knees.

Fresh veggie spring rolls with herb dipping sauce 

Pad see ew noodles with veggies, and a Chang beer. Jenny's favorite lunch on this vacation! 

A comical sign at Ark Bar, because it's true. 

Pretty soon it was close to 5 PM and we walked to the McDonalds to meet the Sandalwood car for pick up. The McDonalds is the central location in Chaweng where a lot of people were waiting for their hotel shuttles. Once we got back to our hotel we rested for a bit and got ready for dinner. We weren't sure exactly where to go but we got a car to Lamai, the other main town on the island. Our resort is situated right in between Chaweng and Lamai so neither is very far. Lamai is a bit smaller than Chaweng but they had plenty of things to do and see. We strolled around for about 30 minutes just checking out all of the restaurants. They had not only Thai restaurants but also a lot of Indian food and several mediterranean and Italian places. We decided to stop at a restaurant that had tapas, both mediterranean and Thai as well, called Barrio Latino. It was a pretty nice combination of flavors. We ordered some cheap-ish sangria (from our experience in Thailand wine is usually super expensive here compared with the food prices), veggie spring rolls, crispy goat cheese over salad, and bruschetta for tapas/appetizers. We also got some fish tacos to share. Here they usually have red snapper which is pretty tasty, and it was topped with salsa and guacamole.

Barrio Latino, just a tiny tapas bar with outdoor seating

After dinner we wandered a bit more and found a bar with a pool table to have a few beers. A couple challenged us to play pool and it was on. While we were playing them a British couple showed up and asked to play the winner. Once we lost our first game (the guy we were playing seemed like he played a lot of pool, he lived on Samui so he probably frequented that bar) the winners played the British couple. Well, the British guy was even better at pool and I do believe he ran the table and won. Then I guess it was our turn to play the British couple. It was a closer game this time but we still lost. Oh well. We chatted with everyone for a while and then left to find another spot to hang out. We heard there was a fire show on the beach so we decided to check that out. However, on our walk towards the beach, we decided to just stay in town and find a bar. The road to the beach was kind of a sketchy alleyway and nobody seemed to be heading that way so it didn't seem worth it.

While we were strolling around town we found a tiny little bar that had some games like connect 4 and Jenga that we could see some people were playing. We ended up hanging out there for a while, and met 2 Australian guys and a Canadian couple that were hanging out there. Long story short we drank some Thai rum and stayed out much too late, and we payed for it the next day.