I recently posted in the Chiang Mai forum about my trip there, which I cut short due to the air pollution. Instead I decided to head to an island to finish off my holiday. Having already been to Phuket (and nearby islands), Koh Samui, Koh Tao and Koh Chang, it seemed that next on the list should be Koh Samet (or Samed, according to some).
After a night in Pattaya at my wife's family's guesthouse (see my home page) we arranged a private hire car to take us to the Ban Phe pier for Koh Samet for 1000B. About a 90-minute drive.
The boat trip to the island was on an old wooden thing, listing to one side, with no lifejackets visible on board. Yes I know, this is Thailand. At least it was a short trip on smooth water, took about half an hour and only 250B or so for both of us.
We hired a motorbike to look around for somewhere to stay. They charge Farangs two hundred baht just to enter the national park (which is most of the island) but none of it gets spent on the road, which is just dirt, rocks and potholes for the length of the island.
First stop was at Ao Phrao on the west side of the island. This is a very quiet spot to stay, with a calm, clean beach and supposedly some good snorkelling about. We decided it was a bit too quiet for our tastes so we had a look at some other places.
On the east coast we went as far south as Ao Wong Deuan, which is quite busy but also downmarket and a bit messy. The tour boats look set to run over a swimmer at any minute so we kept going.
Hat Sai Kaew near the ferry pier had the only sealed road on the island, but again a bit too busy and crowded for us. We found the best compromise at Ao Phai, choosing to stay at the Silver Sand resort.
The east side of the island was a bit more wavy, but we're only talking 50cm waves, so still a relaxing place to loll about in the water. Probably due to the state of the road, some of the resort staff used trolleys like this on the beach to move laundry etc.
Our room was about 3000-4000B a night (varied over weekdays and weekend rates), very modern with a big TV and separate shower room, dressing room and toilet. Short walk to the beach and bar, but far enough away to be quiet.
I spent most of my time at one of the bars or on a deckchair. We found the food was pretty good at the Silversand restaurant and the beer is reasonably priced too compared to other resorts. If you want you can buy beer in their little convenience store and take it back to your room, but it's the same price anyway. About 110B for a large Leo from memory.
The only complaint I could make about the place really is that the service is by a bunch of Burmese who seem to have made a group decision not to smile at anyone. I'm sure they're getting paid bugger all, but they really couldn't be less interested in helping you. My wife managed to have a joke with one waiter and after that he was more helpful, but if poor service upsets you this is the one bugbear of Silversand.
In the evening the restaurant spreads out onto the sand. Like most Thai beaches you can expect to see some tea-light hot air balloons, and quite regular fire shows.
There were three different bars at the beachfront for Silversand. The one on the right in the next photo is the nightclub, which was quite popular on the weekend. They had a "full moon" party, but it wasn't much different to any other night apart from more young tourists from other resorts turning up to party.
We prefered the bar on the left, where a small bottle of Sangsom and mixers was only 150B. After drinking beer on the beach all day this was enough to send us off to bed.
We stayed for three nights before taking the speedboat back to Ban Phe.
Unfortunately as it stopped three times before actually making the crossing it wasn't really any faster than the ferry, despite costing three times as much.
Overall I think I still prefer Koh Chang to Koh Samet, as there is much more to do there (and the road isn't so awful), but Samet is a 90min shorter drive from Pattaya or Bangkok and entertaining enough for this length of trip.