13.6.-26.6.2023
We decided to dedicate the last couple of weeks of our trip for relaxing. We’ve seen and experienced so much in the last six months that we were done with sightseeing. The first week we spent in Phuket. This place was new to all of us, so it was nice to go and see what it was like, since it is also one of the top holiday destinations for Finns.
We had booked a room in a hotel called OZO Phuket, because all the reviews said it was a child-friendly place. The hotel was also located in a slightly quieter area near Kata Beach, as our family would not have benefitted from the vivid nightlife and bars on Patong Beach area. The choice of hotel turned out to be an excellent one. The breakfast was excellent, the children had their own pools with water slides and the beach was only a couple of minutes walk away. The only thing that surprised us was the large number of Russian guests. There was at least one Russian receptionist at our hotel, who was mainly focused on serving Russian tourists, as they spoke only Russian. However, our hotel was apparently not the only one with a large number of Russian tourists, as the signs and menus in all the restaurants and shops in the area were written first in Russian, then in English and finally in the local language too.
Risto probably set his own diving record in the swimming pool when he dived from one end of the 25-meter pool to the other. The dive took 44 seconds, so our little herring can stay underwater for quite a long time.
We had initially thought we might book a snorkelling trip to Phi Phi islands, but as the boat trip, even with the speedboat, would have been unreasonably long, we decided to skip that, and just enjoy the hotel pool and the beach.
From Phuket, we moved a bit further north to Koh Samui for the second week. Although the drive to the ferry port in Phuket was not very long, the road was so slow to drive that we had to leave at 7:30am. First we drove on a minivan for four hours. On the way we had only one toilet stop, “twenty minutes maaaaximum”, as the driver told us several times. When we booked the trip, we had thought that the driver would take us all the way to the ferry port, but after the toilet stop the driver told us that he’ll take us to an office where we change to the bus which will take us to the ferry terminal.
Apparently this open-air office was the place where all the passengers from all over mainland Thailand going to Koh Samui were gathered. From there we were all taken together to the ferry terminal. That was another 45min drive. At this small office, we got small stickers saying we were going to Koh Samui. We also got another sticker proving we had already booked a taxi from the Koh Samui ferry port to our hotel. So, with stickers on our chests, we hopped on the ferry and travelled in beautiful weather to Koh Samui’s port town Nathon.
At the port we had to wait for a while in rather hot conditions, as the taxi we had booked was not waiting for us at the port. Instead, there were numerous other taxi drivers offering their services. At “a very good price”, of course. We didn’t take them up on their offer, and after a few phone calls we found out that our taxi was on its way, just a little late.
Again, we had booked the Koh Samui hotel on a kids-first basis, as this Bandara Resort and Spa hotel had been praised by families with children in particular. The hotel was located right on the beach and had several separate swimming pools (including one for adults only), a small playground and a kids’ club with a variety of free and paid activities every day. On the first day, the kids tried out Thai kick boxing, which Risto seemed to like a lot. Even though Marko was slightly over the maximum age limit of 12 years for joining the kids’ club, he ended up trying kickboxing with the kids.
Six nights on Koh Samui passed quickly, even though we didn’t do much.
One evening, after dinner at the Fisherman’s Village, we booked a half-day Pig Island excursion. As the name suggests, the trip was to an island with lots of pigs. We bought food for the pigs from a kiosk on the island and fed them. And boy, they were greedy (or hungry)! Jaana and the kids, however, liked the puppies on the island better.
After Pig Island we went on a speedboat to a nearby reef for snorkelling. The water was really warm, so no colourful corals there. The visibility was also surprisingly poor. However, there were plenty of fish on the reef, and it felt like swimming in a fish soup. The fish liked us because Marko, being a smart man, had brought some bread with him. We crumbled the bread into the water for the fish to eat while we snorkelled. Risto didn’t fully appreciate the swimming in fish soup experience, as one of the fish mistook Risto’s finger for a piece of bread.
An area called Fisherman’s Village was just a stone’s throw from our hotel. We usually went there for dinner, as there were plenty of restaurants in the area. Every night there was also a great fire show on the beach, which we watched on the first night there. We’ve seen quite a few different fire shows on this trip, but this one was by far the best of them all. One night there was a similar show on our hotel’s own beach, and the children got to try out the fireball spinning, with the help of the performers of course.
After a nice week in Koh Samui, we flew back to Bangkok for a few days before flying home and concluding our half a year trip on 30.6.2013.