Thailand: Koh Samui - Suanmali Samui Review

Lamai Beach is another happening area of Samui after Chaweng, so you can find all ranges of accommodation in this place. 

Samui wasn't our destination but a transfer point to Koh Toa, so we chose Lamai Beach and aimed a budget one night stay. 

Suanmali, the small family run hotel was our choice, and that was a good choice.  

To save your time, play the clip below for glimpse of the room, if you like it, click here for more information or booking. 

                                        

Why i like Suanmali Samui?

1. Small, so less noise in the hotel and higher chance to know new friends.

2. Clean. You can expect a clean, bright room like 5* hotel. 

3. Convenience. Close to everything you need. 1 to 3 minutes on foot to main street (you can get anything you need), 5 minutes to beach, 5 minutes to night market.

4. Cheap. RM 100 / night is real great deal.  (as in March 2013)

But, you might concert that....

1. No sea view. Its located in an alley of the main street. Far from noise yet close to everything.

2. Small pool. And deep / not kid friendly. 

3. No in-house restaurant but only a bar for snack and drink.

4. No tour / ticket booking service (but tour organizer is just 50 steps away)

Below are some snap shots for your reference. 

the main entrance.

small and deep pool

first floor room view.

bar that selling drink and snack only

2nd floor view from the stair case. Share patio.

our room and i love the door before i go into the room.

medium size bed but comfortable enough. Spacious room. 

from the opposite view.

big toilet + bathroom. 

2 doors to the bathrooms

basin outside of the bathrooms

view outside. No sea view, but thanks God its received enough sunlight.

taken from the entrance of the hotel, this is the distance walk to the main street. 

in the entrance of the alley, family mar is another 20 steps aways.

view of the right hand side, the busiest street of Lamai. 

 Alright i gtg! next will be Koh tao and i will come back quick!










Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
20140518, 0945pm
Rach in stomach pain mood.

Thailand: Koh Samui - How to go Koh Samui and Glimpse of Lamai Beach.

So March 2013 John and I went to Koh Samui, Koh Tao and Koh Phangan, the famous islands in Thailand. 

John loves sea and Koh Tao has the most dive spots among all the islands in Thailand, so we decided to just stay one night in Koh Samui, and transferred to Koh Tao for 4d3n. We took a day for Koh Phangan too. 

So if you're taking Airasia, you will stop in Surathani, the state of Koh Samui.

You will have to take bus to pier and change ferry to reach the island. In short...

How to go Koh Samui from Surathani Airport?

Airasia = Kuala Lumpur - Surathani (bout 1h +)

Bus = Surathani Airport - Pier (1 & half hour, )

Ferry = Pier - Koh Samui DokSak Pier (2 hours)

Don't worry because you're clueless on where to get bus and ferry ticket. 

There are ticket counter for Bus + Ferry ticket sold in Surathani airport, 500bath / way / person (as in March 2013), and bus is waiting right outside of airport to send you to the pier, just hop on the ferry and you'll arrive in Koh Samui in next 3 to 4 hours. 

Alternatively, if you want quicker route, you can take Berjaya Air for direct route from Kuala Lumpur to Koh Samui. So you can save on bus and ferry transfer time. 

And yea, there is an airport in Koh Samui, but its not a busy airport anyway. 

Random on the air pix taken by John

You can see this in the exist of custom in airport.

Pier meeting point.

The ferry.

and there we reach samui.

Alright, Koh Samui is not an big Island, but defo a very developed tourist destination.

There are a few bays in Samui but the most happening aka most tourists bay is Chaweng Beach (refer to map below), you can get almost everything (including airport and pier) in that bay. If you had ever been Phuket, you can expect Chaweng Beach is similar with that.

But John and I both dislike happening place, we prefer small town so that we could real relax.

And for that we choose Lamai Beach for our 1 night stay before transfer to Koh Tao in the next day.

grad from internet.

Its take half hour from DokSak Pier to Lamai Beach, there are plenty of minivan waiting in the pier so nothing to worry bout.

Just to remind you, some hotel do provide pier pick up service with minimal cost or free if you stay with them, so check with hotel before spend extra for taking transport. 

Lamai Beach has shorter bay but less happening, suitable for those who want a relax holiday.

Yet Lamai is handy enough even there are only one main street. You can get convenience store, McDonald, a right size of night market aka hawker center, tour center, budget to luxury accommodation in this place.

quite street in the late afternoon

started to see crowd and road block for night market later.

went for a short walk in the beach, thru this public road.

thanks for the great evening.

can you see the blue sea and sky?

Don't worry on restaurant and food in Lamai, wide range of restaurants in the place, you can choose a sea side restaurant for a romantic dinner date, you spend minimal bucks for maximum street foods in night market.

And we choose the latter.

Totally different with what we seen in the day time. 

hawker center is not huge but full of food!

the eating area 

John's fave pork

stir fried rice, noodle, meat and vege.

we couldn't get a table so we packed some food and had it in our hotel room. 

The next day, we went to a seaside hotel for buffet breakfast (our hotel doesn't provide breakfast), and enjoy our last few hours in Samui before depart to Koh Tao.

we came here for the view but not food.

nice and comfortable.

average foods though.

but the atmosphere worth it all. 

Ok now you may ask, how to go Koh Tao from Koh Samui?

There are plenty of tour center organize ferry / speed boat ticket to and from Koh Tao, 2 trips in a day and plenty of seats, so you have nothing to worry about even you book it one day before depart.

There are 2 ship companies organize the transfer trip:
1. Seatran
2. Lamprayah.

Both companies have same schedule, which is 8am and 130pm, both 750/way/person including hotel transfer to the pier.

We choose 130pm and minivan pick up in hotel between 11.30am to 12nn.

last but not least, my best travel partner and I.

Alright next post will be Samui hotel review. 

I promise i will pick up blog post as fast as i can ok! I putting effort la you see? this is the 3rd post of the month le!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kthxbye!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
20140514, 1111am
Rach in prepare to work mood and yea my working hour start by 1230nn lalalalalalalal.

Nepal: Pokhara - World Peace Pagoda

The most obvious route up to the pagoda begins on the south bank of Fewa Lake, behind the Fewa Resort.

Boatmen will drop you in the lakeside and the path leads straight up the hillside on cut stone steps. 

easy path.

reminder.

a little bit tough after you walk into jungle.

1st stop point aka the Fewa Resort that i mentioned earlier. 

We had whole day for the pagoda so we take our american time to enjoy the scenery.

We stopped by for more than an hour, had our late morning tea and snack with the following wonderful scenery. 

I feel like never want to leave this place. 

oversea the Annapurna 

great weather indeed.

and you can see the old town of Pokhara from here. 

on the roof top of Fewa Resort. 

another leisure hiking from the stop point to the Pagoda.

Be respect

opening and closing time.

and ta-da, the beautiful white pagoda.

in memory of one of the founder. 

fats and i.

 We took another route to got back from pagoda and that is our biggest regret to did so!

We refer to Lonely Planet, The Scenic Route (2h) and that route is actually having road construction, we were walking on the edge of the mountain when huge truck passing by.

this is how our feet look like after the "scenic route".  

Alright this is the quick one, and this mark the end of my Nepal trip.

Yea yea yea i know i mentioned to write some restaurant review in Pokhara but i got no nice picture to show (its either too dark because of current cut off or blur), so i will just skip that.

Next will be hmmm.... Koh Samui & Koh Tao, Thailand, which we paid the visit in March 2013.

And yea again i know has been delay for more than a year, i will pick it up ok!

Do come back and visit me often.

By the way if you have any question on Nepal or other trips, please do not hesitate to ask me!








Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
140503, 1115am
Rach in rushing out mood.