After some delay catching the light rail from downtown Seattle because they’re redoing the tracks that were sagging, I got to the Seattle airport. My flight to Singapore via Singapore airline was flawless.
White Sand Beach, Ko Samet—-Hat Sai Kaew Beach
Singapore air is one of the best airlines I have flown on and it only cost me 72,000 points using my Chase points and now the cost of that ticket is over $1,700. I earned 50,000 points just by opening the Chase credit card along long with other points I had accumulated from earlier flights with their partner airlines along with some card use. I think I’ve taken over 60 international air flights using miles and points instead of cash. It looks like flight cost and airline fees like seats selections will continue to increase in cost over the years.
After landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport, I got priority treatment, because I’m an old guy. I went through immigration with ease using my 60-day evisa. For this trip I’m hoping that I make it through the Cambodia immigration on my third try. The first time in 2020, Covid locked me out and the second time in 2023, I only had five months remaining on my US passport so they denied my entry—-I thought it was a should, and not a MUST have six months remaining on your US Passport to travel to other countries.
After the ฿45 airport train, I transferred to the skytrain to the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok and checked into my Heaven@4 hotel, which cost about $20 per night. After resting up from jet lag, I spent a few evenings checking out the entertainment at the nearby Nana entertainment and Soi Cowboy venues where the prices have doubled, and the crowds were back to pre-Covid levels.
While on the dock, I ate some pad kei meo at one of my favorite restaurants that had a view of Wat Arun and the ferry landing at a cost of ฿100.
The crowds were now back to the size of the ones before COVID-19 pandemic and the entry fee was now ฿300 compared to ฿100 in years past.
I enjoyed visiting some of the shopping malls that were putting away the Christmas decorations and now putting up the Chinese New Year’s decorations for the year of the dragon.
After staying in Bangkok for four days, I went to the Ekkamai bus terminal to catch the big bus to Bangkok Phe and then onto the ferry boat to Ko Samet.
During and after COVID-19, the bus company only ran mini buses once a day to get to Ko Samet. Now the big buses were white instead of the blue and white old buses that used ply this route and now they were scheduled for three departures per day. When I got on the bus, it still had that new “car“ smell to it plus it now had charging plugs on every seat row.
After a comfortable 3 1/2 hour ride south to Ban Phe, the bus drove us directly to the Nuanthip pier for the ฿70 ferry boat ride.
From the Ko Samet ferry boat landing, I took a short walk to the Runa Runa guest houses. I used the Agoda website and it was $16 per night for 7 nights which was the same as last year. However, when I got to my room, I discovered it was a fan only room with no A/C. I failed to check the small print on the Agoda website. The friendly owners, who were a Japanese-Thai couple, move me to a A/C room so the nightly room cost us now $22 per night. With more tourist, visiting Thailand, now, including the return of the Chinese tourist, it seems like all prices have increased for lodging, food, entertainment, and tourist attractions.
I have been visiting this island since 2004 and stayed at the Ao Pudsa bungalows which were torn down during COVID-19 and now replaced by a luxury resort called Samed Tamarind Beach Resort. Here I used to stay for ฿700 per night and now it is over ฿5,200 per night—$150/night.
When I checked for accommodations on both Agoda and Booking.com, I saw that they had no vacancies during the entire year and the ratings were in the high 90s. It’s quite a spectacular place now. I enjoyed it when it was a simple fan cooled bungalow that faced the beach. Here are some pictures of the bungalows I stayed at in prior years, and now what has replaced them. At least I can spend the day lounging at the beach where the staff remember me from prior years.
I enjoyed my week of relaxation, massages, and exercises to strengthen my left injured knee caused by a careless Uber driver while I was walking in Seattle back in the fall of 2019. I get my daily massages from Da at the Sirion Massage place I enjoyed last year. She is really good. The cost is ฿400 for a one hour oil massage including tip—about $11.
With the full moon on the 25th and 26th of January, we had a king tide here on Ko Samet island inundating some of the beach lounging areas. Here are some pictures in front of the Grandview resort which is the namesake of the condo that I live in back in Seattle.
The groups of Chinese tour folks are back filling up the group restaurants along the White Sand Beach, and as the weekend approaches the people from Bangkok are beginning to appear for lots of partying.
One of the highlights staying here on Ko Samet was to watch the nightly fire show performance at the Ploy Talay restaurant. It was as good as always and ended with a trio of performers go to the shoreline and swing their two steel wool-kerosene saturated bundles around and threw around huge sparks to the delight of the crowd.
In the morning I left Ko Samet by taking the 11 am ferry to Ban Phe.
The new big bus would not be there to return to Bangkok until 2 pm, so I took the minibus at noon which got me to the Ekkamai Bus Terminal by 3 pm. From there, I took the Sky Train to the Asoke Station and took a short walk to the W21 Hotel where I was staying for 3 nights before heading south to Pattaya.