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Hiking to the End

Posted by Stuart at 08:15 PM on January 18, 2004

Today has been more of the same on Ko Samet, with the only change being that I soaked myself in SPF 50 today. The six of us spent most of the day sitting under the umbrellas on the beach and enjoying the view of the blue water and enjoying digging our feet into the cool, white sand under our table.

Once the sun started nearing the horizon, I decided to hike around the island. I ended up walking all the way down the length of the island. (The island is much longer than it is wide.) I'll have to check the map when I get home to see how far I went, but I'd guess it was several kilometers.

It was a great hike. Samet, like most Thai islands, are made up of beach pockets. In other words, I would walk along a 100-yard long beach and when I reached the end of the beach I would have to to scramble over rocks or take a trail over the hill and through the woods to the next 100-yard beach. There were probably about 6 or 7 beaches that I crossed as I made my way down the length of the island.

By the time I reached the end, the sun was setting and I treated myself to a solitary rest on the rocks as I listened to the wind and the crashing waves and watched the sun sink over the gulf and the big crabs scamper over the rocks around me.

I took the "main road" (read: rutted dirt trail) back to my beach. Luckily, along the way two Thai guys on motorcycle came by and one of them offered a ride. I had already been hiking for over two hours at this point, and the dirt road was quiet hilly. Not to mention it was quickly getting dark. Needless to say, I accepted the offer.

The next 15 minutes or so was exhilarting as we rode up and down the hills. At the tops of the hills we could look out over the island and the beaches around it's edge. At one point I said, "Suay mak" (Very beautiful) and so of course the boy tried to chat with me a bit in Thai. Come to find out he was actually not kon thai but was instead kon khmer (Cambodian).

I finally made it back to the bungalow three hours after leaving. Then it was time for a hot shower (we were very surprised to have hot water in our room) and a very delicious barbeque dinner on the beach. Another great day on Samet has come and gone.