Moped hire is very popular in Koh Samui but i am always a bit weary about hiring vehicles in her was no exception, especially as many seemed to want to keep you passport as a retainer. Luckily for us our hotel had moped rental so we decided to hire it from our hotel/resort (Centara Villas), cost us a bit more but seemed less daunting. Its was in fact very simple to do, we just asked at reception and 5 mins later we had a moped for 24 hours at a cost of 300 baht! We actually got lucky as the previous person to hire hire it must have brought it back with a full tank of petrol. Usually you get it with a little bit and you just return it with the same! We got a full tank worth about 120 baht in itself and still only needed to return it with a small amount, which was nice!
Off we went on our moped around Koh Samui
Anyway we didn’t really know where we’re going or how long it would take but we turned left out of centara villas resort and followed the road. We had an idea of where some places were from looking at the map and after joining the 4170 road in no time we had pasted the rum distillery and arrived at the Samui snake farm.
We then headed for the the elephant gate which again didn’t seem to take very long. This is an entrance gate surprisingly consisting of elephants;). We went through here to see the the Way kiri wongkaram temple and bull fighting ring. The bull ring was essentially a field with bulls in. No fighting going on though so moved on before they decided they wanted to fight us;).
We set off again onto the 4169, this time in search of the Him lad waterfall which was located just before nathon on the 4172 road. On reaching nathon we obviously realised we had missed it so turned around and tried to retrace our steps. One thing you soon realised in Ko Samui is that things are not really sign posted and if they are it’s not always from both directions;(Anyway we found the waterfall sign posted from this direction, so parked up at the end of the road and set off in the direction of the waterfall sign. We were basically walking through a bit of a forest/ jungle along the river to find the waterfall. Not the easiest of walks and starting to think someone was having a laugh so asked a couple coming the other way how far it was, they told us about 6 minutes or so! We carried on…. about 20 mins later we still hadn’t found it but did pass a funky looking tree with strange roots. We ran into another couple, this time they said it was just round corner and down a slope! Luckily this time they were more accurate and we finally found it. Well I say we found it, it wasn’t exactly the greatest waterfall in the world and certainly not worth to journey there, but suppose it was a bit of exercise! Maybe it’s more impressive later on in the rainy season! There is a guy at the water fall selling cold drinks etc for not much more than you pay in a shop so we were at least able to get a drink!
On the way we went past Bang por and was also going to stop at Mae nam but missed the turn off to pier, was probably a little dirt track somewhere along the way;)
Anyway arrived at Bo phut after a wild guess at which road to turn down. This turned out to be a really nice fishing village similar in many ways to other places in Samui but has a better feel about it, had a French or Cornish fishing village type feel to it! Probably because of the narrow road which runs very close to sea so all restaurants along it have excellent sea views.
Next stop was the Big Buddha but along the way we went through a very busy area at bang rak pier, which had loud music playing. Turns out this was the place we would be catching our ferry to Koh Phangnan from! We had already booked ours but it was about 250 baht(£5) per person to buy a ticket there!
There was also a traditional thai food Market here selling everything from freshly caught fish to loose Thai curry paste! The paste was in massive balls, bigger than a basket ball and you could just buy what you needed! After a quick look round we set off again to find the Buddha was infact a temple containing a very impressive big Buddha.
By this point it was starting to get dark so decided to set off in the direction of our hotel and after a stop in chaweng for food we still had a 45 min journey to do on a moped in the dark, which was nice! Its was all going well until, yes you’ve guessed it we missed the turning and after a quick look at the map we set off back only for a stray dog to decide he fancied running at us, luckily managed to avoid without falling off! There are actually quite a few strays around the island but all seem friendly enough and either ignore you or just wonder arround you. Apart from this one but it didnt seem to be running at us in a vicious way, just didnt want to hang around to find out;) The rest of the journey was uneventful and managed to get back safe and sound! Few!!!
