We pictured ourselves on day one in Thailand lying on Ko Samui’s white sandy beaches, relaxing by the pool, and soaking up the sun. Instead, we spent day one at the Marriott in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia because we missed our connecting flight. Apparently, there are two airports in Kuala Lumpur – which seems to be the best kept secret in Southeast Asia. One day and four plane tickets to Ko Samui later, we were on our new flight.
There’s something special about small open air island airports. Tensions disappear when you feel the warm ocean breeze while clearing customs, surrounded by vacationers and their tropical button down shirts and flip flops. We were already feeling more relaxed as we pulled up to our hotel.
We set out for the Angthong Marine Park and Mu Ko Angthong National Park off the coast of Ko Samui. We took a speed boat ride to the Marine Park and spent hours snorkeling, where we swam with schools of fish, through caves, and over coral reef. After snorkeling, we cruised through clear turquoise waters, stunning limestone rock formations, and quiet islands. We had delicious Thai curry for lunch on a beach, hiked to a lookout to admire the marine park and Emerald Lake, watched monkeys play in trees, and spotted dolphins in the ocean.
[Photos: Angthong Marine Park]
Dining on the island was unbelievable. We have dined all over the world, spending countless hours searching for the perfect restaurant – the restaurant with not only delicious food, but a place on the water with sunset views, excellent service, and affordable prices. It turns out we were looking for the restaurants on Ko Samui.
Our first night on the island, we had dinner at Address in Fisherman’s Cove. The streets were bustling and lined with food carts and souvenir shops; we had stumbled upon Fisherman Cove’s Friday night market. We left the noisy streets behind and took a seat at a table on the beach, ate dinner with our feet in the sand, and watched the sky turn red above the ocean as the sunset. If there’s a restaurant that can compete with this dining experience, it’s Dr. Frogs, where we had dinner the next night. In an open air cliffside dining room with sweeping views of the ocean, we had course after course of homemade pasta under a beautiful full moon. Rockpool’s expansive seaside deck was the perfect setting for our final meal on the island. Although the service was not quite what we were used to, the views were nothing short of spectacular.
[Photos from top to bottom: The group dining on the beach at address, Dean & me at Address, the group dining at Dr. Frogs, Deck at Rockpool]
Our culinary tour continued in Chiang Mai. We spent four nights in Thailand’s second largest city and had incredible Thai dinners for about the equivalent of $15 USD each. Our favorite places to dine in Chiang Mai were Paak Dang, situated on the edge of the Mae Ping River and the Dash Teak House, a restaurant in a two-story open air wooden house. We also took a cooking class and had our own turn in the kitchen. With the assistance of a skillful chef, we made spicy soup with sweet basil, pad see ew, pad thai, sweet and sour vegetables, red curry with eggplant, and northern thai-style pumpkin curry.
[Photos: Dinner at Paak Dang, Cooking Class]
Between meals, we enjoyed riding Tuk Tuks (motorized rick shaws) through Chiang Mai and visiting the night bizarre – an outdoor market extending for blocks, full of clothes, jewelry, and various Thai products.
[Photos from top to bottom: Night Bizarre, food markets]
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