But time to move on. As I have had a nice restful time at the Florist Resort I have decided to move to party central for 10 days, Chewang. There are beaches all around the island, each with their own style, some quiet, some isolated, some local, some six star. Chewang is the mad one, lots of bars, restaurants and shops. I am at the Briza Beach which is about a 10 minute walk to the start of the Chewang "strip" so I can safely say I can avoid the party but it will be nice to have a change of scene and a bigger choice of places to eat. And more importantly I am within a twenty minute walk of Tropical Murphy's and today is Sunday.... Roast dinner here I come!
The hotel is an interesting one. Most rooms here are built in blocks of two, one upstairs and one downstairs. Each is like a stand alone villa with big bedroom, indoor and outdoor bathroom, huge open air living room with daybeds, a plunge pool and even a separate outside loo. But it's a bit weird having one villa on top of the other! I am on the top floor so even manage a bit of a sea view. The rooms would have been the very latest in chic boutique hotel fashion at one time but now are slightly on the tired side, lots of dark wood and sandstone square sinks. But I had, after all those weeks in the Florist, forgotten the joy of hot water in the hand basin... One website describes the Briza as "One of the earliest fine design boutique resorts in Koh Samui, built in 2006." Damned by faint praise?
But it is so nice, even though I had pool access at the Florist, to have my own pool. No nappy less babies in this one.....
But I am being a bit picky here, had it retained its former glory I may be paying a bit more... I've got acres of my own space with sunny bits and shady bits and it's really quiet.
But why oh why do hotels still not provide decent wifi. The one here is a nuisance, if you don't use it for a while it goes off and you have to faff around logging in again which is never straight forward and can take ages. You can only have two logins at any one time so have to juggle between laptop, phone and iPads and i Touch. And the signal is so low most of the time as to be useless. One of these days they might realise that the background niggle you get from this messing about leaves a nasty taste and puts you off booking here again. Especially as the smallest little bars and restaurants have much faster much simpler access. It will all be on Tripadvisor...
Anyway, rant over!
Chaweng is a bit of a plane spotters paradise though, and as the odd American might ask "why did they put such a nice beach so close to an airport?". In the mornings it's like a ghost town. Mae Nam even at 8am was bustling with all the little food stalls open for business. Here everything is shut after their late night partying. Can't imagine the planes taking off every so often can be that welcome! Over the main beach they look so low sometimes.
But I can see why this beach was the first to be developed, it's a long sweeping, sheltered bay with fine powder white sand and shallow seas. The turquoise water makes it look postcard pretty. There are local women in the water quite a way out, waist deep with fishing rods catching someone's dinner. It is pretty well developed although most resorts are hidden by the palm trees and unlike other parts of Thailand such as Pattya and Phuket they are not allowed to build any tall buildings so it hasn't suffered the same "let's build ugly condo's for the Russians" development.
It's been interesting going on my morning walk as there is less easy access here to the green back roads and hills as there was in Mae Nam, they're all a bit further away. So my walks tend to be past closed shops and restaurants until I go up the back streets where all the local Thai population live and work with local shops and markets - they at least are open early morning.
The shops are all still here, very good fake designer bags, trainers, DVD's, you name it but now with a Central Department store in a sparkly new, surprisingly well designed for the environment shopping mall, everyone now has access to the real designer stuff as well as the fake... But there is always the delight of the 100 Baht (£2) shop for new togs...
Not everyone here is as hangover free as me though in this party town, this little fellow looks either spaced out or just dead as I nearly tread on him at 8.15 am just a little way along from Tropical Murphy's in the Main Street...
And my plans for partying every night won't be fulfilled today (4 March) - it's one of those Buddha Days today when no alcohol is available, could be a quiet night...
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