Ko-Samet Trip Photo Gallery
Weather was awesome with little drizzling in the morning when we took off for this amazing Rayong-Ko Samet trip on Saturday 12th April'08. We were two families with three kids including Oshin. Plan was to roam around Rayong province on Saturday and to visit Ko-Samet Island on Sunday. It was not a coincidence that we encountered water splashing incidents on the way as Thailand celebrates their 'Holi'-like beautiful festival of Songkran this week which added lot of fun and frolic to this outing. Songkran is Thai new year celebration which lasts for three days.
Vijay was driving the car, specially availed for this trip to make it more convenient while travelling with so many kids, and he was quite comfortable driving and locating places in this area as this place is also his work location which he visits quite often. Kids were very happy and excited and so were we two couples. Drive was not very tiring as the highways are smooth like butter here in Thailand.
On our way towards Rayong our first destination was 'Tiger Zoo Sriracha' beside the highway few kilometers before reaching Rayong city. Sriracha Tiger Zoo is amazing with tens of huge and healthy tigers and crockodiles within your close proximity. Shooting the tigers (obviously with my cam!) just behind a glass window and feeding the cubs with a milk bottle while holding them on our lap was amazing. Pig mother feeding tiger cubs along with it's own piglets, monks and tigers playing with each other in open, pig dog and tiger playing together, lady hanging tens of deadly scorpions on her abdomin, tens of crocks taking sun-bath, pig race, photo session while holding cubs and crocks, elephant show, crock show, tiger show are some of the other major attractions of this zoo.
Before sun could touch the adjoining sea horizon we reached 'Kantary Bay Sriracha', a premium resort in the town and our night halt destination. We had a good late lunch-cum-dinner at 6 O'clock after we got fresh after an eventful day. Something very interesting happened after we came back from our strawl at the beach and when we were about to call it a day. Ultimately we had to shift to an another nearby hotel, Hotel Botanica, in a jiffy and it was nearly midnight when we actually slipped into our beds.
Hotel Botanica is worth a mention here. It's a moderate sized hotel which has been completely turned into an open botanical lab full of vaious species of plants, trees and other unique shapes and structures. We checked out next day afternoon as we headed todards Ko-Samet island. Water splashing was in full swing when we came out on the main road. We ensured that all the window panes of the car were fully up and doors were locked before facing the Songkran crowd on the roads while going towards the nearest sea shore - Banpae Pier - to visit the island.
Clock struck 2 when we landed in Ko-Samet island, at Nuanthip Pier. We grabbed some drinks and eatables before taking a cab for 'Haad Sai Kaeo' beach - a beautiful white sand beach in this island. Again we met with lot of enthusiasts pouring water from both the sides while our journey, in a open cab, towards Haad Sai Kaeo.
Beach 'Haad Sai Kaeo' is simply amazing with a beautiful giant statue of a mermaid couple at the very entrance of the beach. Clean white sand beach and clean blue waters with hundreds of folks trying different kinds of activities ranging from kids and their parents engaged in making sand castles to enthusiasts trying para-gliding, speed boats and banana rides. Our whole afternoon at the beach was fully fun-filled and we tried almost all the fun activities available out there.
We had to leave as the clock arms became vertical as it was the last ferry trip towards Rayong from there. We wished if we could have stayed overnight there as it's always memorable to sleep on the beach enjoying camp fire at night and enjoy the morning sunrise.
Ko-Samet trip was yet another joyful and adventurous trip to a beach which will be in our memories for long long time to come. I'll come back with yet another episode of my travel to an another destination. See you till then and take good care of yourselves...
Naveen
