For my birthday, my Dad Kline surprised me by flying in and waking me up with breakfast in bed. Talk about a birthday surprise! My wonderful wife and Dad colluded to pull it off and planned several great activities while he was here. Probably the best birthday I’ve ever had.
Day 1
I took off a few days of work and we drove down to Koh Samet, an island about 2.5 hours south of central Bangkok. The drive was longer than expected with us living north of downtown, traffic, ferry wait, and rest stops, so I’d guess 6 hours door to “door.” There was a fair amount of wind and the ferry ride was really bumpy.
At first, the kids loved the up and down (about 6 feet vertical lifts and drops up top) and were giggling and laughing. After 30 minutes, some started turning a bit green (glad we gave motion sick pills to half the family before hand). Our second son got seasick but was a good sport about not complaining or dwelling on how awful it was (if you’ve never been seasick, you have no idea how horrible it can be).
We were excited as our ferry pulled into our small bay and we hopped on a small flat boat to carry us the rest of the way in. We were dropped off about 5 feet from shore (wet shoes anyone??) and hauled our stuff and kiddos about 150 meters down the sandy beach to our hotel. Quite the arrival!
Our hotel was literally ON the beach, with waves at high tide about 5 feet from the entrance. The setting was really great and our side of the bay was nice and quiet. We quickly changed into our swimsuits and enjoyed an afternoon of swimming in the choppy water, lots of laughter, and time together. Papa Kline taught the kids how to ride in on the waves, which they loved. We saw a school of flying fish jump out of the water not far from us while swimming and that was pretty neat.
That evening we had a fabulous dinner on some rocks where the waves were breaking. The setting was great, food was good, and the company wonderful!
We grabbed one of our favorite treats here (Rotti!) and enjoyed a short stroll back to the hotel.
Most everyone was exhausted and went to bed, so I walked the beach at night and took in the beautiful stars, moon, smells, and sounds. It was great – and so was the 500 baht massage I got!
Day 2
Most everyone was up fairly early to enjoy the beach. The sun was fully out today and the water much more calm, blue, and beautiful! We decided to try snorkeling about 20 meters from the beach and LOVED what we saw: schools of tropical fish, skates, beautifully colored coral (best I’ve ever seen), crabs and much more.
A few hours into it, the wind picked up and the water got more murky, so we spent time playing in the sand, on the tree swing, and reading books.
We had a great lunch overlooking the bay and took some short naps.
When I woke up from a short nap, I saw our youngest (5 years old) enthusiastically snorkeling with Candace. It was pretty impressive to see him throw his head into the water, look around for 10 seconds, and come up thrilled with what he saw.
We left around 4pm and had a fairly uneventful drive home. Candace read more to us from Wonder (which we LOVE) and it made the time fly by. GREAT trip and I hope to go back once more before we leave.
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