Friday 13th July, World Resort, Bophut, Koh Samui, Thailand
It's Friday 13th but, so what? Another day, another
breakfast at World Resort. Today we had resolved to explore some of
the other resorts clockwise round the island going east and then
south. This would take in Chaweng and Lamai beaches (the hedonistic
teenagers' and the seedy middle-aged men resorts respectively which
I'd mentioned in a previous blog entry). We caught a songtheaw to
Chaweng and found our way to the beach. It was somewhat
over-developed with modern looking hotels and nightclubs fronting
onto the beach, not to mention a few places that were in the process
of being built which were a bit of an eyesore. It was also very busy
with lots of people and lots of activities for them like jetskis.
There were lots of places where you couldn't move for sun loungers.
The latter is probably my idea of hell in reference to beaches. Why
go half way round the world to lie on a sun lounger essentially
identical to those you'd find in Greece or Spain? You'll get just as
red from not using the appropriate level of sunblock (actually,
you'll get redder at this latitude). It does make for good people
watching, though. The beach itself was actually better than Bophut in
terms of sand being less coarse and the water being slightly less
murky.
Battery tourists on Chaweng Beach
Please join the campaign to allow these people the freedom to move around and not be chained to their sunloungers all day, only allowed to move to use the toilet or buy over-priced drinks and European food
Electricity supply: Thai style
None of the underground cabling nonsense in this part of the world.
We wandered along a
little and, after a drink stop, we headed up to try and catch another
sontheaw to head over to Lamai. We waited until one came along that
seemed to be heading in the right direction. It wasn't, but was, in
fact, heading back the way we came. We waited longer and longer with
maybe 5 or so going in the opposite direction. Two came along the
road our way and it transpired that the second was actually heading
the way we wanted to go so we hopped in. He stopped for one local guy
and another couple of Europeans, a couple of middle-aged men. The
driver seemed to go a long way round but eventually made it to
downtown Lamai. The two white guys paid up and walked off, we asked
how much and the driver said B200 between us. Now we knew this was
too much. It had cost B60 each to go from Nathon to Bophut and this
trip was further, but he insisted on the B200 saying the two guys had
paid that much and I said that he had charged them too much.
Meanwhile traffic was building up behind the vehicle on the single
laned road (OK, a couple of jeeps and the odd moped, but they were
getting irate). Our driver even threatened to get the police (yeah,
good luck with that, I can bribe them more than you can). Anyway, I
said OK, B150 for both which he accepted and which was still over
priced (by B30 which is 60p, so hardly worth fighting over).
Obviously I should have just given him the B120 and walked away,
though I still saw it as something of a minor victory not paying what
he first wanted especially since we Brits are generally pretty crap
at haggling anyway.
Who you calling jerk?
A whole chicken between us
We searched out the
beach walking down a road that had a few open air bars, clearly aimed
at the girly bar fraternity, complete with dancing poles. This being
mid afternoon, however, they were deserted and closed as we cut
through to the beach and, first thing generally being first, decided
to have lunch. We ate at some place that did jerk chicken. OK, I know
we're half a globe away from the place jerk chicken originated, but
it was rather good (if not as spicy as I would have liked) and there
is something about the recipe with reggae playing in the background,
which there was here, that just seemed right in the baking heat on a
tropical beach.
Reggae seems to be
quite a univesal thing around the world, whenever you go to the beach
in hot countries, not just the Caribbean. Wherever you go in
Thailand, Malaysia, Bali, you will find a reggae bar and. You could
barely through a chopstick down any road at one of these beach
resorts and not have it hit something that was painted red, gold,
green and black. As I mention above it never really feels out of
place either, and I feel that beer tastes better if there's a bit of
Bob Marley on the stereo in the background as you watch palm trees
swaying in the gentle breeze. Perhaps it's the tree swaying that
makes reggae so in sync with the rhythm of tropical beaches.
Whatever, unlike Irish bars which you can find at any resort that's
slightly over-developed (or any city virtually anywhere in the world
for that matter), reggae seems to be the heartbeat of this climate
and the general beach vibe. It could also be partly due to the fact
that Bob Marley is more accessible to the ignorant
farang than the
average indigenous music
Lamai beach was
probably the best of the beaches we had encountered on Samui. It
wasn't as over developed as Chaweng or Bophut and we actually were
able to find a bit of tree shade to place a towel down for a chill
out until we decided to head back to the World. We caught a songtheaw
quite quickly this time and he wanted B100 to go all the way back to
Bophut which seemed about the going rate, unlike the cheating rascal
who brought us here. The trip back was largely uneventful, apart from
the van we were trailing that was advertising a muay Thai night on
Saturday. It had loud speakers with a pre-recorded Australian guy
announcing that it was “an international bout to be watched by
millions of people and that it would be the highlight of the
holiday”. Yeah, and I could buy a thorny stick and shove it up my
bottom as a new way to repel mosquitoes as well. Actually, in the
times we've been to Thailand we've not actually been to a muay Thai
bout and I'm sure it's actually quite good. I'd even like to do a bit
of training at a muay Thai gym sometime (non-contact, obviously. I'm
way too much of a coward to risk getting hit) Then they played the
Rocky theme. Then recording stopped for about 30 seconds then it
started again. I'm just glad we overtook the van after a little
while.
Views of us on Lamai Beach
Friday night in Bophut
and the Fisherman's Village becomes pedestrianised as they call it
the Fisherman's Walk where the path is lined with stalls selling
food, drink and general tourist tat, so this was how we wanted to
spend the evening, our last on Samui. Most importantly, however, we
needed to get some cash out so we had some spending money and, more
importantly, I could pay for my new glasses which I was hoping were
ready for me at the opticians in town. We headed on a songtheaw
again, this time driven by a rather attractive woman (she'd be
driving me to town by way of distraction, what what?) Earlier on this
trip I'd discovered that there was a charge of B150 for withdrawals
which I assumed was only applicable to machines attached to shops, so
we went to a back ATM only to find that it applies to all
transactions in Thailand. This was probably also the reason you had
to select another option on the machines at Khao Sok since they tell
you that you're to be charged and ask if you want to proceed.
We get to the opticians
where I got the glasses and they are perfect. I'm a bit miffed that
they don't appear to have the coatings on that they were supposed to
have (which wasn't really obvious at first in the dim light), but at
least I now had decent visual accuity without seeing the world as a
dark and polarised place, which I guess must be how Nick Griffin sees
the world all the time. We then headed into the market throng and
bought some cocktails at B60 a piece. I had a long island ice tea
which had a stupid amount of spirit in it for just over a quid. We
wandered around the place looking at the stalls, stopping for the odd
extra cocktail or some food to mop up the alcohol. On sale was a
massive variety of foodstuffs and I alighted on one stall where I was
told by the lady selling them that it was B100 for any one of three
possible selections: chicken wings, prawns and something else I
couldn't quite identify. She told me they were crickets (pretty large
ones at that). I'd have loved to try them, but I didn't want a full
portion as my main meal. Besides, I'm not sure how the would have
gone with my mojito.
Happiness is a new pair of specs
Fisherman's Walk Street Market, Friday night, Downtown Bophut
Horseshoe crabs for dinner?
Apparently only the eggs are edible. They are arachnids and have blue copper-based blood
After a little more
wandering, we found a bar (a reggae bar, no less) for a beer on the
beach before we headed back to the hotel for our last sleep on Samui