Scenes from Samui

The Southern part of Thailand has become a pretty exciting place to visit ever since Thai Airways introduced its latest destination — Koh Samui. Only accessible initially through a local Thai carrier, Thai Airways started flying to the island early this year only. Having explored Krabi and Phuket both on the Andaman Sea, I was thrilled to explore Samui on the other side of the South by the Gulf of Thailand.

Our fun group consisted of Sander and Mons Tantoco, Taguig Mayor Fred and Kaye Tinga, Maurice Arcache, Alex Van Hagen, Anton San Diego and Thai Airways GM Nivat Chantarachoti. Upon arrival in Bangkok, we were billeted at the brand new Centara Grand (www.centarahotelsresorts.com) in Bangkok. Centara Grand at CentralWorld is one of the largest in Asia Pacific featuring 505 luxurious rooms and suites and is located within the central business district. The hotel features nine executive floors including one floor of World Executive Club, nine restaurants and bars including Fifty Five (an outdoor roof top venue with impressive views across the city skyline), and five-star hotel facilities. Central World is a shopping haven and is walking distance from Filipino favorites Siam Paragon and MBK. After a two-day shopping spree in Bangkok, we were set to discover Samui.

The tranquil island of Samui is a 45-minute flight from Bangkok. The blue skies, clear waters and fine sand are an enticing view from the plane. The restaurants and spa guides available in the airport are abundant. Our home in Samui for the next three days was the Imperial Boat House Hotel (www.imperialhotels.com) on the beautiful beach of Cheong Mon.

Jet skiing, skiing, kayaking, sunbathing and snorkeling are among the popular activities one can do in Samui. The most popular activity though is to go island hopping on a boat, checking out the different small islands around the Gulf of Thailand. In between islands, the boat may stop if anyone fancies a dive into the clear blue waters or perhaps feed the fish teeming in the coral reefs. We spent our first day doing exactly that, even having lunch at one of the islands.

Being Filipinos, we obviously still couldn’t get enough of shopping so we were taken to several temples around Samui and we found numerous shops by these temples. Majority of our group took souvenir snapshots of the temples and the giant Buddha then headed straight to the shops. Fine linen and cotton Thai clothing, handicrafts, paintings, souvenirs, bags and trinkets are popular in these shops. The island also has a Tesco Lotus, The Big C and Makro, three huge groceries where our group packed more excess kilos to bring home.

There are also several non-shopping or water-related activities to do in Samui. Cooking classes, elephant rides, even elephant massages are available! We also watched Thai boxing (in a smaller scale from that of Lumphini in Bangkok) and watched monkeys pick coconuts! Apparently, these trained monkeys can harvest more coconuts a day than any human being can. A visit to a cashew farm would be interesting when it is the season. One out-of-the-way trip that is worth doing is to visit Na Muang Falls, the most famous in Samui, though not the biggest or highest. Na Muang is a beautiful sight to see, and apparently, an important sight in Samui since kings from the Chakri dynasty visited this place, as well as the present King and Queen of Thailand.

Samui is filled with spas offering several types of massages and facials, which some people in our group tried and raved about. Some opted for a massage by the beach (a la Boracay) while others continued to shop.

Samui nightlife has a huge night market and several bars and restaurants to choose from. The amazing thing about Samui is so many foreigners have visited and decided to settle here that they opened restaurants offering their native cuisine. Sounds like Boracay again but think of Samui as a Boracay on a grander scale when it comes to restaurants. Some of the best chefs of Thailand have made Samui their home, too. The abundance of seafood in the island has made the prices of food still reasonable. With such competition in this business, restaurants have tried to outdo each other, resulting in excellent food all over the island.

Upon arrival in the airport, get your free guide of Samui dining prepared by the Samui Culinary Circle and the Spa guide of Samui. These books (they are not thin, believe me) are your indispensable guide for the best restaurants and spas on the island. Highly recommended restaurants include The Cliff Bar and Grill, Full Moon if one prefers Italian with an Asian touch, Guilin for Chinese, Padma for Thai fresh market cuisine, Orchidea, Olivio and Rice for Italian, Le café des Arts for French cuisine, The Pier, Sala and Dining on the Rocks for new Asian food. My personal favorite is Dining on the Rocks at the Six Senses Hideaway Samui. Chef Ryan Dadufalza has perfected combining Western ingredients on favorite Thai food. Tom Yam soup with heavy coconut cream with black truffle or smoked salmon with lime and lemongrass flavors with pomegranate caviar, anyone?

We had taken the first flight out of Samui to Bangkok for our connecting flight to Manila. Despite several hours of waiting time, we opted not to go back to the city but to stay in the airport to shop again and eat. I noticed that time quickly passed at the Thai Airways Royal Orchid Spa where we indulged in either a foot massage or a neck and shoulder massage. The Thai Airways lounge made time go so fast with the wide range of food and drinks served, plus free Wi-Fi or use of their computers. The reading materials were quite impressive as well.

Three days seemed pretty short to stay in the paradisiacal island of Samui. With so much to do and so many other places undiscovered, this will be a major tourist destination one day, as it is starting to be. I vow to come back before the world gets to invade this paradise.

(Thai Airways flies to Koh Samui 15 times a week from Bangkok. Call Thai Airways reservations at 812-4744 or visit www.thaiairways.com.ph. Also check out www.tourismthailand.org for activities and events.)