A Weekend to Koh Samet

It all began with the idea of a one or two day escape from busy Bangkok. So, together with a friend of mine and our girlfriends, we left on a Sunday early in the morning. We already knew that the day we left was not the best day as it was two days before the Songkran holiday, but who cares; “Mai pen rai” as any Thai would say. So with an almost three hour car drive we arrived at Rayong, the “Detroit” of Thailand. From Rayong we continued on Sukhumvit (Route 3) in the direction of Chantaburi. Within a fifteen minute car drive we arrived at the harbor town Ban Phre.

Once arrived here with our own car we saw that you can take a taxi from Ban Phre to Bangkok for 1800thb, but I presume that it will be cheaper from Bangkok. There are also many travel agencies that can arrange day-trips to Koh Samet for a very special price my friend. Only today of course, and you are the lucky one!

Once we arrived in this small town we were smoothly approached by a motorbike boy who would bring us to the “right” place. Well in this case, of course, the right place for him to make money from us. We skipped our first tourist trap and moved on to the next that was already 50% cheaper. We chose to take the easy and slow ferry to the main pier of Koh Samet, but you can also take a speedboat (1800thb) or ferry from the mainland to any of the many beaches of Koh Samet.

On the tropical island Koh Samet

So we took the ferry (50thb pp) to Koh Samet and after twenty minutes on the old fishing boat we arrived at Nanton Pier. From there we took a Songtheauw to Ao (=bay) Vang Sai (30thb p/p). I already thought “That’s strange I thought we had to pay entrance for the National Park of which Koh Samet is a part of”. Well after five minutes we arrived at the entrance point where we are supposed to pay. Actually it is very strange that you are not warned before you are leaving the mainland that Koh Samet is a part of a National Park and that Thai visitors should pay only 20thb entrance fee and non-residents (falang) have the privilege to pay 200thb. I do not like this practice, but I was prepared for it and I did not wanted to spoil all the fun so I had the intention to get ripped of by the Thai government. But my friend showed his resident book and paid 40thb for him and his girlfriend. I of course did not have my resident book with me but I just said very polite, “Song con” (Two persons) and handed over also 40thb. No problem at all. That was a good start of the holiday! Be notified that you can actually skip this entrance point by not taking the Songtheauw but first walk to the point after the entrance point and just walk around this entrance point. The Songtheauw drove us along the east coast of the island and dropped us of at the indeed very beautiful bay of Vang Sai. At the mainland they had told us that all the hotels & resorts would be fully booked and that we had to make an (expensive) reservation from the mainland. And by expensive I mean prices from 1500thb up to 3000thb for two persons. Well, we chose to take the risk and when we arrived at Ao Vang Sai our girlfriends checked out the nearby hotels & resorts. They booked us a room at The Sea Horse for 4 persons for 600thb. Of course no air-con, TV, refrigerator or hot shower (but that is something you will not be missing in April). Later we saw some other places like The Malibu, Talaburi and Vang Sai Resort. For a price of about 2000thb you will have a beautiful bungalow with everything you need and right on the beach. As only English men and mad dogs spend their day in the hot sun we sat in the shadow of our hotel restaurant and enjoyed the colorful beach life of English men, mad dogs and of course a few other stupid tourists. At the end of the day we did what any sensible person would; we took part in the beach life. At the beginning of sunset all the little restaurants start to prepare for the evening and by the time it is really dark the beach is changed into one big arena of tables and chairs lighted by small oil-lamps. So with a bottle of Sang Som whisky and good Thai food we enjoyed the evening until we were almost too drunk to crawl back to our beach cabin. For your information the dinner and drinks this afternoon had not been cheap. All together we spent about 2200thb for food and drinks for 4 persons. But the food was good! The next day we woke up very early as the room was very hot. We could not have breakfast at our own “hotel restaurant” so we moved to one restaurant next to it. To find out that eating here would have been about 20% cheaper than in our own “hotel restaurant”. Today we would go back to the main land again and as I already bought tickets for the way back we took again a Songtheauw back to Nanton Pier. But we could also have taken a ferry from Ao Vang Sai straight to the mainland for 60thb pp (at 8:30, 10:30, 12:30 and 14:30).

The next day to Khao Chamao

Once back at the main land we decided to visit Khao Chamao & Khao Wong National Park (founded in 1975). That’s about a 30km or a twenty minute drive over Sukhumvit in the direction of Chantaburi. As we had been already once to Nam Tok Kao Chamao we choose this time Nam Tok Khlong Pla-Kang, which is about 5km further as the main entrance point. As said this is also a national park and again here also you are supposed to pay entrance fee at 20thb for Thai and 200thb for Non-Residents. Again showing the resident book from my friend saved us 360thb entrance fee. As it is the dry season (December-April) it is not the best time of the year to visit a waterfall (nam tok) and so at the entrance was already a sign that the water level was low. Well again “Mai pen rai” and we took a 10-minute walk to what must be after the rainy season (June – November) a wild river. But not now, so we walked upstream for another ten minutes and there was a small pond of water. Of course there were already a young Thai couple playing and swimming in the water. So in full Thai tradition we all went in to the water with our cloths on. It was a very refreshing dip in the cool water. After my friend and I experimented our technical know-how on how to make the water pond bigger our girlfriend’s decided that it was time to eat (hey we are Dutch!). Of course they had already seen a great Som-Tam food stall at the entrance of the park, but luckily for us they also made good Phad-Thai. After a simple but good meal we finally went back to Bangkok. 

For your information Khao Chamao & Khao Wong National Park with Khao Chamao Waterfall (Nam tok) & Khlong Pla-Kang Waterfall can be visited with for the price of one entrance ticket. And a little bit more to the south (about 70km from Rayong) in this area there are three other National Parks: Khao Khitchakut (Krathing Waterfall), Nam tok Phlio (4 waterfalls, near Chantaburi) and Nam tok Klong Kaeo (4 Waterfalls and along the border with Cambodia).

For further information you can contact National Park Office, 61 Phahonyothin road, Chatuchak, Bangkok, tel. 02-5797223 or at www.dnp.go.th

Chang Noi

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