We have a few bars that we frequent along one beach of the island. Ao Phai beach is the party beach, whereas other beaches are a lot quieter and probably more for families. On Koh Samet we stay at Tok's Hut, which has bungalows, a restaurant and a bar. We usually stay with friends, but most of them live in bungalows at Tok's. We spend most of our day sitting at the bar with Geng, bartender, entertainer and Stef's boyfriend. However, the bar is getting a makeover at the moment, so it will be quite interesting to see the changes over the next few weeks! At the moment, Tok's is a quiet, small bar, but the plan is for it to become a bit bigger and get more business, which should be good! We also spend a lot of time at Naga Bar, where we know all of the bartenders quite well. Naga is usually quieter than the other bar we go to, Silver Sand, although there are usually quite a number of people, they just don't dance that much. As for our lot, we're usually the first to be up on the dance floor! Naga also has a pool table which helps get people in and a T.V. with cable, so they play a lot of the soccer games. I like the music at Naga better than what they play at Silver Sand. Naga has more poppy songs, stuff you can dance too and sing as well. Silver Sand plays more dance music, which I'm not really a fan of. However, we usually do make it down to Silver Sand during the night, where they have mats laid out on the beach for people to sit on. Naga sometimes does this, but because it is kind of on a cliff you have to walk down stairs to get to the beach (not all that good for drunks!) whereas Silver Sand is quite flat and open. We know some of the bar boys at Silver Sand, but not as well as those that we know at Naga. Silver Sand is usually packed, I think because of the nightclub atmosphere, although it is said to be "the new Naga Bar", so obviously Naga was once like this as well.
Sometimes during the day we'll be active and go for a swim. The water is usually really calm, although in the holidays there were waves for a few days, which was quite impressive. Usually the water is warm, but it has been a bit cold lately! It's still beautiful though. We've also been on a few fishing trips which are great fun. The first time Stef and I went with Lung, Joe and Geng to the north western end of the island to one of the quiet beaches. The trip there and back was hilarious with five of us on a motorbike with a side car trailer thing. The bike, known as the 'family car' struggled quite a bit with all of us going on the washed out dirt roads up and down hills! Stef and I were in tears! The fishing part was also heaps of fun, as was jumping off the jetty when we got tired of fishing! Occasionally we go to the village on Koh Samet, but usually just to go to 7-11 or the internet place. Although, the Blue Bar is also there, which is pretty funky. It's run by two English guys who are really friendly and remember us each time we visit. We've also been to Mook Samet floating restaurant, which is past the peir, for dinner. The restaurant is out in the ocean and they bring a little barge across to pick you up from the mainland! It's really quite cute. They have glass topped tables and no floor under the table so that you hang your feet downover the water. The food is really good too, and pretty reasonably priced.
So, that's basically Koh Samet - my other home in Thailand! There seems to be an ongoing joke with the staff about gappies and Koh Samet, but we love it!!! I'm going to miss going to a tropical island every weekend!