Thailand: Koh Tao: Sairee Beach and Golden 99 Buffet Restaurant Review

Quick one for Koh Tao, the island with most dive sides in Thailand. 

So if you're wondering how to go Koh Tao from Koh Samui, click me and scroll down a little to see the balded wording. 

So John and I stayed for 4d3n because he wanted to go diving (you cant fly 24 hours after you dive). 

As usual, we avoided the most happening area and for the first time in my life i was regretted on my hotel choice because it was in middle of no where (and that is because of wrong location showed in the map and mislead my judge), anyway i will keep that for next hotel review post. 

Quick look on the island. 

grab from internet.

Not up to the level of Phuket but close to Samui, so you can expect a leisure village island. 

The most happening area is Sairee Beach (refer to the map), you can find everything in that village and of course a nice beautiful but crowed beach, with heaps of beach side pub/restaurant/bar for amazing sunset view that i will show you some pix later on. 

This is not a small island but take hours to walk from north to south, so you can either rent a bike / bicycle or ATV like below. 

i didn't ride this blue monster even once, i felt unsafe. But John had great fun riding this to goes around the island. 

John and I doesn't have any motorbike license *but no one care in Thai, and we have very little experience of riding a bike in villages, so we decided to get an ATV.

Well, the fact is John eyed and couldn't move his eye from the ATV since the day he reached, because this is the first time he saw ATV for rent in Thailand, he rather give up diving but wanted to rent one.

So we got one, 24 hours rent for 1500bath, you don't need to show your license but you have to deposit your passport, and get it back when you return the ATV.

oh by the way...

they sell gasoline in bottle, just like Bali. 

And i cant deny that ATV brought we so much convenience in moving around in the island, because the location of our hotel is suck, totally nothing around, the nearest shop is 15 minutes walking distance which you possible kill John.

So our schedule as below:
1st day: Reached Koh Tao by 4pm and check in hotel.
2nd day: Snorkeling and Island hoping to Koh Nang Yuan
3rd day: Round the island with ATV (well this suppose to his diving day!)
4th day: Pack and left to Surathani.

Lets move on to the sunset view in Sairee beach!

we reached pretty early but its alright, we enjoyed our evening cocktail while waiting the sun goes down.

great weather after storm in the noon time

argggg... great enjoyment.

you cant believe until you see this. 

we didn't see the sunset but God is given this beautiful clouds for us. 

great evening.

glimpse on the night life in Sairee beach.

and of course the walking street that full with street food, restaurant, dive shop and etc.

=========================================================

Alright, review on the fave restaurant of us in the island, Golden 99 Buffet, which located between the main pier and chalok bay, you won't miss it if you take the main road. 

As the name of the restuarant, its MoGaTa (Thai BBQ Buffet) restaurant, and its only 99bath / person (as in March 2013).

2 pits for BBQ and steamboat

lots of yummy and fresh prepare ready-to-eat food

you will never believe you get so much choice of food by only paying 99bath.

Alright next will be hotel review, stayed tune to know more!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

20140623, 1103pm
Rach in gastric pain mood.

Thailand: Koh Samui - Suanmali Samui Review

Lamai Beach is another happening area of Samui after Chaweng, so you can find all ranges of accommodation in this place. 

Samui wasn't our destination but a transfer point to Koh Toa, so we chose Lamai Beach and aimed a budget one night stay. 

Suanmali, the small family run hotel was our choice, and that was a good choice.  

To save your time, play the clip below for glimpse of the room, if you like it, click here for more information or booking. 

                                        

Why i like Suanmali Samui?

1. Small, so less noise in the hotel and higher chance to know new friends.

2. Clean. You can expect a clean, bright room like 5* hotel. 

3. Convenience. Close to everything you need. 1 to 3 minutes on foot to main street (you can get anything you need), 5 minutes to beach, 5 minutes to night market.

4. Cheap. RM 100 / night is real great deal.  (as in March 2013)

But, you might concert that....

1. No sea view. Its located in an alley of the main street. Far from noise yet close to everything.

2. Small pool. And deep / not kid friendly. 

3. No in-house restaurant but only a bar for snack and drink.

4. No tour / ticket booking service (but tour organizer is just 50 steps away)

Below are some snap shots for your reference. 

the main entrance.

small and deep pool

first floor room view.

bar that selling drink and snack only

2nd floor view from the stair case. Share patio.

our room and i love the door before i go into the room.

medium size bed but comfortable enough. Spacious room. 

from the opposite view.

big toilet + bathroom. 

2 doors to the bathrooms

basin outside of the bathrooms

view outside. No sea view, but thanks God its received enough sunlight.

taken from the entrance of the hotel, this is the distance walk to the main street. 

in the entrance of the alley, family mar is another 20 steps aways.

view of the right hand side, the busiest street of Lamai. 

 Alright i gtg! next will be Koh tao and i will come back quick!










Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
20140518, 0945pm
Rach in stomach pain mood.

Thailand: Koh Samui - How to go Koh Samui and Glimpse of Lamai Beach.

So March 2013 John and I went to Koh Samui, Koh Tao and Koh Phangan, the famous islands in Thailand. 

John loves sea and Koh Tao has the most dive spots among all the islands in Thailand, so we decided to just stay one night in Koh Samui, and transferred to Koh Tao for 4d3n. We took a day for Koh Phangan too. 

So if you're taking Airasia, you will stop in Surathani, the state of Koh Samui.

You will have to take bus to pier and change ferry to reach the island. In short...

How to go Koh Samui from Surathani Airport?

Airasia = Kuala Lumpur - Surathani (bout 1h +)

Bus = Surathani Airport - Pier (1 & half hour, )

Ferry = Pier - Koh Samui DokSak Pier (2 hours)

Don't worry because you're clueless on where to get bus and ferry ticket. 

There are ticket counter for Bus + Ferry ticket sold in Surathani airport, 500bath / way / person (as in March 2013), and bus is waiting right outside of airport to send you to the pier, just hop on the ferry and you'll arrive in Koh Samui in next 3 to 4 hours. 

Alternatively, if you want quicker route, you can take Berjaya Air for direct route from Kuala Lumpur to Koh Samui. So you can save on bus and ferry transfer time. 

And yea, there is an airport in Koh Samui, but its not a busy airport anyway. 

Random on the air pix taken by John

You can see this in the exist of custom in airport.

Pier meeting point.

The ferry.

and there we reach samui.

Alright, Koh Samui is not an big Island, but defo a very developed tourist destination.

There are a few bays in Samui but the most happening aka most tourists bay is Chaweng Beach (refer to map below), you can get almost everything (including airport and pier) in that bay. If you had ever been Phuket, you can expect Chaweng Beach is similar with that.

But John and I both dislike happening place, we prefer small town so that we could real relax.

And for that we choose Lamai Beach for our 1 night stay before transfer to Koh Tao in the next day.

grad from internet.

Its take half hour from DokSak Pier to Lamai Beach, there are plenty of minivan waiting in the pier so nothing to worry bout.

Just to remind you, some hotel do provide pier pick up service with minimal cost or free if you stay with them, so check with hotel before spend extra for taking transport. 

Lamai Beach has shorter bay but less happening, suitable for those who want a relax holiday.

Yet Lamai is handy enough even there are only one main street. You can get convenience store, McDonald, a right size of night market aka hawker center, tour center, budget to luxury accommodation in this place.

quite street in the late afternoon

started to see crowd and road block for night market later.

went for a short walk in the beach, thru this public road.

thanks for the great evening.

can you see the blue sea and sky?

Don't worry on restaurant and food in Lamai, wide range of restaurants in the place, you can choose a sea side restaurant for a romantic dinner date, you spend minimal bucks for maximum street foods in night market.

And we choose the latter.

Totally different with what we seen in the day time. 

hawker center is not huge but full of food!

the eating area 

John's fave pork

stir fried rice, noodle, meat and vege.

we couldn't get a table so we packed some food and had it in our hotel room. 

The next day, we went to a seaside hotel for buffet breakfast (our hotel doesn't provide breakfast), and enjoy our last few hours in Samui before depart to Koh Tao.

we came here for the view but not food.

nice and comfortable.

average foods though.

but the atmosphere worth it all. 

Ok now you may ask, how to go Koh Tao from Koh Samui?

There are plenty of tour center organize ferry / speed boat ticket to and from Koh Tao, 2 trips in a day and plenty of seats, so you have nothing to worry about even you book it one day before depart.

There are 2 ship companies organize the transfer trip:
1. Seatran
2. Lamprayah.

Both companies have same schedule, which is 8am and 130pm, both 750/way/person including hotel transfer to the pier.

We choose 130pm and minivan pick up in hotel between 11.30am to 12nn.

last but not least, my best travel partner and I.

Alright next post will be Samui hotel review. 

I promise i will pick up blog post as fast as i can ok! I putting effort la you see? this is the 3rd post of the month le!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kthxbye!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
20140514, 1111am
Rach in prepare to work mood and yea my working hour start by 1230nn lalalalalalalal.