Adventures to Samet
Posted by Stuart at 12:40 PM on May 11, 2003A few days ago I was praying for cool island breezes. Last night, I got more than I bargained for.
It rained almost the entire 3 hour bus ride from Bangkok to Ban Pae. But we finally arrived at the Ban Pae docks, bought our ticket, and walked out onto the pier to take the boat to Ko Samet. In the direction of the island (which is clearly seen from the Thai mainland), very dark clouds were beginning to form. Within minutes the sky above us turned black and the wind began to blow.
We were escorted off the pier and told to wait out the coming storm. And storm it did! I was reminded of the few hurricanes I lived through in Florida as a boy. We sat down at a nearby open-air restaurant for some dinner and the wind was blowing so hard that part of the roof next door was ripped off and landed with a huge crash on our roof. It was actually a little bit scary. In any case, we were very happy we weren't on the boat through all of this.
After about an hour the storm passed and we boarded the boat to the island. It was still raining and so we were quite wet by the end of the 40 minute boat ride. Once we reached the island we had to ride in the back of a taxi-truck to the guesthouse.
Needless to say, by this time it was quite late and we were very wet. The adventure didn't end there, for apparently the word "reservation" doesn't mean anything and we found out our guesthouse gave away our room.
Eventually (after walking to 6 other guesthouses in the rain) we found a place to stay. We checked in, dropped off our wet stuff, didn't bother changing into dry clothes, and headed out for a beer. But the night ended up being a lot of fun. We found a small restaurant/bar nearby on the beach and had fun time hanging out and chatting with other visitors -- both Thai and foreign -- as the rain continued to pour and the cool breezes I requested made for a comfortable evening.
