Day 74, Ko Samet island

Offering on t boat's bow
to protect from the sea

Our discussion with the owner of the hotel at breakfast was very instructive:

Us -"What is it worth doing in Ban Phe?"

He - "Apart from a zipline in a tree park nothing. All the tourists prefer to go to Ko Samet island."

As you could imagine, it was easy to make a decision (not the same as all the painful questions we asked ourselves the day before... but as Katie said, we found a budget hotel kids). So, we spent the day on Ko Samet island and we stayed on a diamond beach called Hat Sai Kaew. 

Drizzles on the beach

There are a lot of ferry companies and prices for a return ticket are cheap: 50 baht per person. The thing we didn't know is that most of the island, included the best parts, of course, are a national park. We were charged 200 baht each, that is the price for foreigners. Our other option was to stay all day close to the pier that is crowded with restaurants and hotels. Another decision that was easy to take.

Sunset on the way back

The diamond beach is the closest to the pier, no need to get a taxi or to rent a motorbike. It was the best compromise to stay one day on a beach. What is strange is that this beach is no longer a protected site, tourist places line the beach; jetskis and other motorboats do not seem to respect  any distance rule.

It was raining for most of the afternoon.We appreciated staying on deckchairs under a beach/rain umbrella. The good point is that there is enough space to share the beach with other people and it is not cold here at the moment in South East Asia...