Koh Samui

In truth, I only came to Koh Samui because I’d left it a little late to book hostels on Koh Tao and Koh Phangan, two islands I wanted to visit off the east coast of Thailand. I was also trying to be frugal after realising the slightly expensive south of Thailand was draining my finances faster than I’d like. With low expectations I arrived and checked in to a very basic hostel in a slightly ugly part of town. A walk to the local night market didn’t help - after looking round all the stalls at food sitting out in the heat, my stomach notified me it would rather I eat elsewhere.

Things started to look up though, when I found a nice looking, and extremely cheap, Chinese/Thai restaurant (well, a glorified food stand) on the way back. The next day I visited a couple of waterfalls on the island with a group I’d met on the Hostelworld app. Again, I wasn’t expecting much - having seen so many waterfalls recently, it takes a lot to impress me - but the group of people, the jumping off rocks, the fun mini hike to a higher waterfall and the dog I befriended made for some really lovely moments. After adventuring around the waterfalls, relaxing looking at the view and plenty of time with my head under the falls, we headed for a late lunch a a quick dip in the sea. 

The following day went fairly similarly. With a different group I visited a giant gold buddha, some other towering statues nearby, and was blessed with holy water by two different monks. The highlight though was a small temple surrounded by water, the inside walls full of hand painted murals telling the story of the buddha. While the art wasn’t at quite the same level, it reminded me of the sistine chapel. Small, peaceful and personal, in contrast to all the grand temples I’ve seen so far. 

When people ask about my travels, I doubt Koh Samui will often come to mind. But perhaps it’s taught me a valuable lesson in finding the moments of beauty where they appear.