Ko Samet - Teh Fail :(

So I spent the better part of a day traveling... I walked about 2 miles to the bus station, hopped on one to Rayong (which took WAY too long, holy cow it stopped a lot), then took a 45 minute ride in the back of a truck to the pier across from the island of Ko Samet. This truck was completely packed, with probably about 15 other people jammed tightly in... and as my luck would have it, it was pouring down rain the whole time.

After the hour long ferry ride to the island, I walked another couple miles to the beach I wanted to stay at (I was already drenched, why not walk?).

The entire island is a national park, so the whole place feels like a jungle. But as you can see, the roads were not fun in the rain...



I stayed on Ko Samet for 3 nights. It was raining when I got there, and it was raining when I left.



However, ther were times when the rain did stop long enough for me to pull out my camera and take some pictures. This is where I stayed my first night. I got the place for 50% off because it is the low season and I was there during the week. This came to 200฿.



I was quite hopeful in my approach! This place felt like I was staying right in the middle of the jungle! And the view from the porch was pretty cool.



However, this had to be the biggest dive I've ever slept in... but despite the lack of a sealed door, the place had very few bugs... a lot of geckos though, but I've learned to like them in my room because they eat the bugs.



Yes, that's simply a mattress on the floor :(





But! Unlike the other 2 places I stayed after this night, it had it's own bathroom!

The other places had shared bathrooms, which was an experience in and of itself. There's nothing quite like showering, shaving, and pooing all within 3 feet of other people, many of them girls, all while trying to keep mosquitos the size of nickles from biting you.

Oh and bug repellent? The bastards couldn't have cared less :( Needless to say: during my time on Ko Samet I was violated again and again and again.



On the first full day I had there, the sun actually did show it's face for about 4 consecutive hours.

I was able to take a nice several-mile walk to another beach and enjoy being in nature for the first time in my travels.

The sounds of the wild here are so much different than back home. Unfortunately, it's inexplicable by way of text... and these pictures don't do the place justice either :(

I stumbled across this large drainage field (my best guess anywho) on my way to the other beach. It was really interesting hiking through jungle roads and trails closed in by the lush and very thick vegetation of the island, to come out into this wide open space.



I made it to my destination beach and did some hiking around the island's perimiter. This made me think of you Garey... the rocks found here are such as I've never before laid my eyes upon.





In this hike I ended up stumbling upon what I'm guessing to be a person's burial site?? A peak inside showed a folded note, and several faded pictures.



This is the beach directly across from where I was staying. I was able to get out here between rainings.



...and got to read a bit too!



I got about 30 minutes in before the rains returned.



Below is definitely the highlight of my trip. There wasn't anyone around, at least within earshot anyway, so I was able to sit in this hammock for a good period of time reading in the shade of the overhanging tree with nothing but the sounds of nature surrounding me.



Part of the view form my hammock:



...but after doing absolutely nothing but reading and watching TV in the common area of the bungalows I was staying at on the second day (completely trapped in by rain, you see), I decided it was time to leave. The weather forecast was rather bleak :(