Koh Samui and Bangkok

On this trip, I will be retiring my passport with a final international trip to Thailand. It looks like Thai Airways has left the U.S. market. So I flew on United and ANA to Bangkok via Narita. I have always enjoyed the ANA Lounge for its curry, karaage, and ramen.  Better booze selection than the United Club. Since I was flying economy on the way to Bangkok, it was a nice break foodwise.

My flight connection to Koh Samui was twelve hours and I opted to stay at the new Le Meridien Bangkok Airport. I missed the airport shuttle due to poor choice of choosing the wrong exit for customs. An hour later, I grabbed a taxi to the hotel. It worked out since the taxi was half the cost of the airport shuttle. I'm not used to having to pay for transfer service from an airport hotel but maybe the Thais don't understand that concept.

Le Meridien Suite Bathroom and Bedroom

Le Meridien Suite Living Room

The hotel was gorgeous. The service was on point and the breakfast buffet was sufficient. I was given the suite room facing the golf course. I don't know if I would stay at this hotel if I wanted to see Bangkok but it is a nice resort hotel for the city.

Took off for Koh Samui on Thai Airways. It was a quick flight and I was able to enjoy the Silk Lounge for a bit in the Suvarnabhumi Airport. Since it was a domestic flight, the lounge was a bit small. I did snag an instant noodle cup for later from the lounge.

Landed in Koh Samui Airport. The airport is actually owned by the airlines. I'm surprised to see private ventures in such space but I suppose it makes sense for the airlines more than the country. The airport feels almost like a theme park mall than an airport. No jetways, everyone gets shuttled to the entrance/exit from the planes.

Since I was not able to connect with Anantara Koh Samui via email, I saw their timeshare kiosk folks and received a free taxi and $200 USD vouchers toward excursions to listen to their timeshare presentation. The hotel is gorgeous with ocean view. The two bedroom condo was large and comfortable. The pool was a nice size and deep with a swim up bar.

On the first day on the island, settled into the hotel and enjoyed a walk around the facilities and immediate area. Finished off the day with a dinner at Full Moon. The restaurant bills itself as a steak salt and they really go gaga on the imported salts. Personally, I'm not a salt person so I could care less. I actually found the food a little too salty.

Anantara Koh Samui Living Room

Anantara Koh Samui Balcony

Anantara Koh Samui Galley Kitchen

Anantara Koh Samui  2nd bedroom

The next day, had breakfast at High Tide. Buffet style, I enjoyed the variety of foods available. Reasonably priced by Western standards, I thought the experience was good. After breakfast, wandered over to the "fisherman's village" which is more of a local tourist town of bars and restaurants. As part of the free taxi ride deal, spent the afternoon talking to the Anantara timeshare folks. Some major differences that I found interesting was that Anantara was a paid membership rather own ownership. In other words, you literally were prepaying for future vacations because it was a maximum of 30 years. It also explains the lower annual maintenance costs. Once the obligation was done, wandered back to the "village" and ordered some suits and had sticky rice mangoes.

The next day, went out to the local pier where the tour was launching. Lomprayah Pralam Pier was a nice enough pier and the tour company provided snacks and refreshments for most of the trip. On this day, the tour was a boat ride out to the Koh Nang Yuan. It was billed as a snorkeling tour by the company but I saw little in the way of actual snorkeling and more tourists that can be crammed on a 2 mile stretch of sand in the ocean. I was not particularly enthralled with this tour but it was an experience. Returning after the trip, ventured down the street from the hotel and had dinner at Café 69. It was actually pretty good and even ordered food to go to have later in the week. The décor was interesting, a mix of Hollywood and personal home feel. Clearly, if you are not comfortable with gay Thais, you should not come here.

The next day, took another tour with the same company but to the Mu Ko Ang Thong National Marine Park. I found this second tour was better. The snorkeling was better (but not as good as the Phillipines) and the national park was quite nice. Unfortunately, the tour did not give much time here and I would return to explore more of the park. There seems to be a lagoon on the other side that was accessible to the public but the 1 hour time limit precluded any further exploration. I was so tired from the two days of touring that I promptly fell asleep once I was back in the hotel and didn't even have dinner.

The next day I woke up hungry and went to the Hansar Samui Resort next door and ate at H Bistro. A pricey breakfast brunch where only westerners partake, the brunch was good but nothing mind blowing. There were plenty of fresh seafood options if you are interested in that sort of thing. I think I would have been happy at the Anantara. Spent most of the day hanging out at the beach and the pool after breakfast. Interesting thing happened while at the beach. A floating hawker selling bbq meat went by. The little boat was a makeshift grill and the hawker pulled the boat along in the water and trying to sell the beach people some food. I've seen beach hawkers but never one already in the water. Before heading out to the airport, I had a massage appointment at the Anantara Spa and cocktails at the bar before the airport taxi arrived.

At the Koh Samui airport, I felt the airport was more small town feel in a Midwestern state in the US than a tiny island airport. I later found out that the airport is actually owned by Thai Airways and is not a government facility. It explains the lack of jetways and the downtown feel of a small town with restaurants and retailers lining down the street before getting to your actual gate.

Back in Bangkok, I spent a brief 36 hour weekend and visited a friend. Checked into the Doubletree Sukhumvit Bangkok hotel. After spending a week in one or two bedroom suites, it was an adjustment to the smaller but comfortable King room at the Doubletree. After much debate, I had opted to stay at this hotel since I've never stayed at the Doubletree in prior trips. Went to Terminal 21 for a late night dinner in the food court. The food court reminded me of Hawaii where you go in and see just stands of food vendors. In this food court, you buy a food card and put money on the card. The vendors swipe the card when you buy food.

Doubletree Bangkok King Room

The next day, enjoyed the breakfast brunch at the hotel before heading to the pool. The Doubletree and Hilton are literally on the same block and share the same franchise owners. Guests of either hotel can go to the hotel pools. After looking at the Hilton, I opted to stay at the Doubletree and while away the midday. For dinner, went out to Asiatique mall. My friend wanted to check out this new riverfront dining retail complex. It is actually pretty close to the Sheraton or Hilton I was contemplating of staying at. It seems to have a fare share of nice riverfront foreign restaurants or street food. A pretty nice pier feel to the whole venture in my opinion.

Something different at Asiatique

The next day, flew back to the States via Tokyo on ANA and United. Made my usual pit stop at the ANA Lounge and enjoyed my last curry rice karaage and ramen for the year. At least, I don't see myself going through Tokyo anytime soon.