From Koh Tao we got a ferry to our next and final stop in Thailand; Koh Samui – I can’t believe how quick our month in Thailand has gone!
We arrived in Koh Samui around midday and planned to walk from the pier to our hostel. However, we arrived at a pier on the opposite side of the island from where we needed to be, so we jumped in a cab and began the journey to our hostel. The driver kept warning us of immense traffic – and we just nodded along …little did we know what we were driving into. Just a few minutes into the journey, we began to notice crowds upon crowds of people every few metres, armed with hoses, buckets and water pistols, with which they were drenching every single person and vehicle who passed. At first I thought; oh no, here we go – we’re about to experience another lunatic driver losing his temper. But it didn’t phase him at all, it was almost as if it were the norm …Welcome to Songkran!
Thai new year also known as Songkran, is THE most incredible festival. I have never seen so many genuinely happy faces, completely immersed in their celebrations . Everyone was dancing in the streets, sipping Thai whiskey (which is actually rum) and wishing everyone a happy new year by drenching them in water and splatting talcum powder handprints on their faces. It seemed that everyone on the island was getting involved in the festivities. We watched out of the window of our taxi in absolute awe; what a way to be welcomed to Koh Samui.
We eventually got to our hostel and checked in. We hadn’t eaten all day, so we headed straight out to grab food and watch Songkran unravel. We found a local restaurant – one of the only ones open as it was a national holiday, and began to peruse the menu. After about five minutes of us both looking entirely uninterestedly at the food on offer, I turned to James and said ‘shall we go and play?’. His eyes lit up – he had been thinking the same. We ditched food in favour of joining the locals in their celebrations. We headed straight to a market stall and spent our day’s budget on two super soakers, which the ladies at the market filled up with water for us. We wished them all a very happy new year and set off to find a good spot. We walked the streets for a while, allowing every child we passed to soak us – much to their excitement, and wished everyone we splashed, a very happy new year. We found that the locals seemed touched to see tourists like us embracing their traditions, and we were wished a happy new year by entire families. The Thai people we encountered that day were some of the friendliest, most humble people I’ve met in my life. You could tell that when they first saw us, they had no intention of soaking us, due to not being Thai – but when they saw that we wanted to get involved, or that we were having water fights with their kids, they were all too happy to embrace us and invite us into their celebrations. It was just the most incredible atmosphere.
We found a great crowd outside one of the bigger hotels, where all the staff and guests had come outside to party in the street – and we joined them. We chose well; they had huge hoses coming from the hotel, flowing into containers and paddling pools for people to fill up their buckets and pistols. Everyone was dancing, everyone was drenched and everyone was having the most amazing time. Plus, the music was seriously behind the times, so I was in my element – I’m one of those people who still thinks 2000 was ten years ago. We were drenching and being drenched by everyone who walked by us – and anyone driving past, either soaked us from their vehicles, or slowed down to let us get them. We were all getting each other too – at one point James got me up the nose with a super soaker and I couldn’t breathe, but aside from that it was all good.
A Thai toddler in our little crowd took a shining to James and I, and us to her; she was dancing, soaking all the adults and had a permanent cheeky grin across her face – we just fell in love with her. James would pour small amounts of water over her and she would get him back with super soakers twice her size – or the full power main hose itself. For the day, there was no difference between young, old, local or tourist; everyone joined together to celebrate Songkran in the best way possible. By the end of the day we were absolutely soaked through and our hands looked like anaemic prunes – but we had had the most incredible day, one we will never forget and one we just did not want to end. But as the sun went down, the celebrations calmed too. We had spent the day feeling like children again, surrounded by local Thai people and their families; celebrating their new year, their way. We had the most special first day in Koh Samui and could not have asked for a better welcome.
The following day we had arranged to meet James’ Aunty and Uncle who were in Koh Samui on their annual holiday; they surprised us by booking us into their hotel for the night and we were beyond excited for a proper bed, our own room and a buffet breakfast. We arrived at their hotel and were instantly greeted by them. It was so nice to see familiar faces after being away from home for so long – and the hotel was just beautiful. Our room was like something out of an episode of cribs; our bathroom alone was bigger than the 8 bed dorm we had at the hostel, and our bed was the biggest I have ever seen. It was perfection. We spent our time there eating and drinking far too much, and for the first time since we left, we spoke about our trip so far. It made me realise just how much we have experienced and seen, and it felt great for us to talk and reminisce and re-live it all with someone other than each other. The saying ‘travel leaves you speechless and then turns you into a story teller’ had never been so true. We thoroughly enjoyed our 48 hours of luxury and can’t thank James’ Aunty and Uncle enough for their generosity. It was a stark contrast to see Koh Samui as a relaxing holiday retreat, compared to the utter craziness of the day before.
The next day, we overstayed our welcome at the hotel after we checked out, and returned to our hostel at 11pm. This is when we noticed the strangeness of where we were staying. As we had been busy since we arrived in Koh Samui, we had barely even noticed our hostel; it had a great layout, it was modern and it had a pool – it should have been great. But there were rules plastered over every wall about every little thing. ‘Don’t wear suncream near the pool or you replace the pool water’ , ‘Don’t drip water on the floor or you clean the floor’ , ‘Don’t drink by the pool or you replace the pool water’ …the list went on. Now, I don’t know if they just really need new pool water or if their cleaner had just quit, but these rules were a joke. We felt like criminals from the moment we arrived and the staff treated us as such too. We tried to use the bar, only to be told it was shut early, we tried to buy breakfast, only to be told it was opening late and even trying to change up money caused WW3 between us and the bar man… well; between the barman and himself – we barely got a word in between his crazy rants. It was completely ridiculous. I looked at the reviews to see if anyone else had written about similar experiences, but what a surprise; all the reviews were ‘amazing’ , ‘best hostel ever’ etc … is it just us?! Either the world is full of people who say everything is ‘sooooo amazing’ when it absolutely is not, or the review sites have some dodgy dealings with the hostels to delete bad reviews. Either way; the false, forced enthusiasm we have encountered on this trip is just too much for me. Maybe I’m just not as zen as the plethora of mother earth-feminist-vegan-spiritual-against deodorant type backpackers we have encountered.
For the remainder of our time in Koh Samui, we enjoyed beach days, seafood in Fishermans Village and James made the most of his last Chang beers of Thailand. He also managed to find the only place showing the West Brom game. Joy. We loved our time in Koh Samui, and Songkran was one of the best experiences of this trip so far – perhaps even of all our travels together.
Our next country is Malaysia and we planned to start in Langkawi. On the map it looked like it should be a simple bus and ferry from Koh Samui. But we were wrong (shocking, I know). We started researching our route the day before we planned to leave, and realised that it was either going to cost a weeks budget in flights, or take two days …and we only had 48 hours before our Thai visa ran out. We agreed that we would have to do half of the journey that day, and the other half the next. So we checked out of the 100 rule hostel early and managed to book a ferry for that afternoon to the opposite side of mainland Thailand – after 6 hours by bus and boat, we got there. On arrival, we booked a bus and boat for the following morning at 6am which would get us to Langkawi by 4pm. What an absolute scramble. Anyone who knows me will know that I am borderline OCD when it comes to planning and time keeping, so this sudden panic and last minute travel, stressed me out.
But we got to Langkawi safe and sound and I fell completely and utterly in love with it.
More about this slice of paradise in my next post!
(Which I promise won’t be late)
Amy x
amyyabroad 