The first day of our contiki tour was a big day. We woke up in the morning to hop on some jeeps and spent a full day discovering Koh Samui. So on our second day, we were grateful to have a little free time and run down to the beach.
It’s easy to access the beach by Ark Bar, but the music can get pretty loud and the water is rocky. Great if you want to hang out by the pool drinking, but we were thinking of a more traditional beach day. It didn’t take long to find a section of gorgeous clear blue water just a bit further down the beach. We threw down our stuff and headed into the water.
Vendors are constantly walking up and down the beach and almost a little too insistent that you buy their bracelets, bikinis, flags, toys, ice cream and beverages. It does throw a cramp in your relaxation but silver lining is that you don’t even have to move if you want something… they’ll come right up to you.
We felt pretty comfortable leaving our stuff on the beach while we went into the water, but we’re also the girls who left our backpack lying about in Pai. No one ever bothered our belongings and I think there would be more children running around if stealing from the tourists was a thing (at least that’s how it worked when I was in Paris).
In addition to the walking vendors, there are restaurants, bars and resorts lining the beach so it’s fairly easy to pick a spot when you get hungry for lunch. We just walked up to the closest restaurant. I’m sure it was overpriced, especially compared with street food, but it seemed like everything was overpriced in Samui regardless of whether you were beachfront or on the streets.
On the way back to our hotel we stopped for some banana pancakes. The guy flips out dough and fries it as he slices in whatever filling you choose. He then folds it up and fries the outside a bit more (there’s lots of butter involved here). Once golden brown, he spreads Nutella across the top, drizzles sweet milk, cuts it up and sticks a large toothpick on top.
Maggie likes getting just Nutella but the whole banana thing is really good. The butter makes it a sweet and salty combination. We’ve also gotten these pancakes with cheese only (like a grilled cheese) and I’ve seen others get banana peanut butter which also looks delicious. Moral of this story is we have found our new street food/late night snack.
A long day at the beach always calls for some down time and we actually figured out how to make calls home using Google voice, surprising our parents with a few calls and dropping the first hints of extending our trip.
We got all freshened up and headed out for dinner at the night market and drinks at a fun bar down the street that serves up lots of buckets and fun games.
