Matt's Southeast Asia Travels: New Years In Koh Samui!

After we had a bit of a rest and a good hunt through some bookshops after the last post we got on a night bus back to bangkok. I managed to get a great sleep on the bus and then we spent the better part of a day in the bustling bangkok. Compared to the quiet pieceful Chiang Mai, Bangkok is overwhelming, so it was great to get our night train down to surat thani, gateway to Koh Samui. The train was a really great expercience, we took second class, so we had seats until about 7:30pm and then some guys came around and magically converted everything into quite comefortable beds. From Surat Thani we jumped on a 'high speed catamaran' to the island.(along with countless Australians and English) The beach here at Chewang in Koh Samui is amazing, picture perfect and stretching for miles, and lined with resorts and restaurants, with milky white sand and water warmer than an indoor swimming pool. Koh Samui is not a huge island, only 5 miles across, but with a huge mountain in the middle the only way around is circumnavigation by road. There are various beach towns (about 3 or 4 main ones) around the island and the one we are in, Chewang, is the biggest of all of them, with the biggest beach and nicest sand. We treated ourselves last night to a tasty dinner on the beach and relaxed until the sun went down. Tonight we are going to have dinner and then spend the rest of the evening on the beach to celebrate the New Year.