Apparently the flight was overbooked, so they were looking for volunteers to take a later flight and receive $1,000 payment. I volunteered and ended up taking a later flight on Delta that took me to Taipei, Taiwan instead. This China Air connecting flight arrived at 1:20 AM. on the 15th, just 15 minutes later than my original arrival time. How lucky is that?
Since the Bangkok airport train and Sky Train were not running that late at night, I took a taxi into town for ฿600 ($17) for the 45 minute drive to my Heaven@4 Hotel at $24/night.
While, I was in Bangkok. I visited the Song Wat area for the first time. It was near the Chinatown area along the Chao Phraya River. I took the Sky Train to the river and then rode the ferry boat for ฿24 to the Rachavongse stop.
The Song Wat area was filled with restaurants and many high-end stores with alleys that led down to the river and were also filled with restaurants and shops.
It had been setting records for rainfall in Bangkok with flooding along several streets, so there were several sandbags still piled up near entrances to the restaurants and shops.
I spent time at several of the amazing malls that were anchored near the Sky Train stops. I also loaded up with about five books from the Dasha used bookstore for my upcoming two-week stay on Ko Samet Island.
After a few days, I headed to Ko Samet on October 18th, and mistakenly bought a mini bus trip there instead of the normal big bus. They had remodeled the Ekkamai Bus Station so I bought the bus ticket for ฿200 ($5) near the place where the big bus ticket booth used to be. After getting the ticket, I saw the big bus ticket booth was across the lobby. The ride was OK, but I prefer a big bus with more steel around me than the mini buses.
On the ride to Ban Phe, where I took the half hour ferry boat ride to Ko Samet Island, I saw several flooded fields and several stores that had leftover-stacks of sandbags around them.
When I bought the round-trip ferry boat ticket for ฿120 ($3), the staff told me to hurry since the boat was getting ready to leave. My transportation luck just keeps continuing.
On the short walk to the Runa Runa guesthouse where I stayed for two weeks, I stopped by the massage shop that Chollada (Da) Naka was building with a planned opening on October 26th.
I first met Da when she was the massage person I had at the Sirion massage shop on Ko Samet beginning in 2022, after several sessions with her, she told me her dream was to open up her own massage shop.
In 2025, she realized her dream by opening up a massage shop over on Ban Phe near where her parents, who were ailing, lived.
Since her mother died early this year and her father is now in an assisted living facility, she has returned home to Ko Samet, and opened up a new massage shop called Aura Laksika Health Massage. She has six massage beds with beautiful silver privacy curtains,Thai patterned fabrics covering the beds, and four foot-massage chairs while beautiful music and rich fragrances fill the air. She now has a staff of four massage therapists.
While I stayed there, I had a pretty regular routine of having a breakfast of two eggs that cost ฿30 (under $1 USD), followed by an hour oil massage.
I then stopped by the smoothie shop owned by Wut and his wife, Tut, to get an artistic smoothies. Wut is Da’s brother so it seems that entrepreneurship runs in the family.
I took my daily suntanning and 3 mile walk along the white sandy beaches on the east side of Ko Samet.
During a few days while I was there, we experienced a king tide that inundated some of the lounging areas, especially when a few storms blew through.
After my walks, I enjoyed relaxing on one of the many lounge chairs under umbrellas and cooling off in the Gulf of Thailand.
I could tell tourism was down because so many of the lounge chairs were empty.
Some of the restaurants staff mentioned there are a lot fewer Chinese and European visitors than before Covid. They have also seen more Indians and Russians post Covid, they don’t make up for the loss of the other tourists.
Most of the time the heavy rains would come late in the evening or very early in the morning. Usually when it rains here, it pours.
One evening, the thunder and lightning was so loud and so near that it knocked out the electricity on the entire island for four hours before it was restored. Without air conditioning or fans, the heat was really brutal, so much so I started getting prickly itches all along my legs and arms. The showers didn’t work because the water needed pumps to operate. I guess I could’ve just walked out in the rain to cool off.
On another time, it thundered and lightning, with a prolonged downpour earlier in the evening, so many people were drenched as they hurried back to their hotels or guest houses.
Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, and other cities in Thailand reported record flooding.
In addition to cheap breakfasts, I enjoyed equally cheap— usually under $10 – and delicious Thai food at many of the restaurants.
Pad Krapow-minced pork with basil
I also enjoyed two return visits to the Reef Restaurant, which is the site of the beachside Ao Pudsa Bungalows I used to stay at for ฿700 ($20) per night. (Rooms at the replacement Tamarind Resort are over $200 per night). Although the Reef has a varied Thai and Western menu, I always order the medium-rare Australian filet mignon, surrounded by three types of mushrooms, baby onions, roasted garlic, and roasted potato wedges at a cost of just ฿550 ($15).
I was the only diner at 6 PM, and there were few diners at the other restaurants.
On October 27th, the residents of Ko Samet celebrated OK Phonsa, the end of the Buddhist lent period by having this parade to the temple. The women and girls danced along the parade route to the beat of drums and music.
On November 1st, I took the big ferry at 11 AM to Ban Phe and arrived at 11:30 AM. I planned to catch the 2 PM mini bus to Pattaya for ฿300 ($8). After I paid for the ride, the ticket taker asked me if I wanted to immediately ride in a taxi along with a Frenchman that it was also going there for just ฿50 more—$10 total. We both agreed, and found ourselves in a very nice air-conditioned SUV for the hour and a half drive to our hotels in Pattaya. Plus, we arrived there 2 1/2 hours earlier than the mini bus we had paid to take.
I stayed here for a week at the Sunshine Hotel that has three swimming pools with full regular or vegetarian breakfast buffets included at a cost of $22 per night. That ride worked out really well— continued transportation luck.
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