 Hike to Sai Kaew |
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On this page I'll show you a little hike that I took from Ao Wong Duan to
Hat Sai Keaw. It may look far on the map at the left, but you can probably walk it
in 30 minutes or so. For those who would prefer not to hike, there is a dirt road that
parallels the shore, and pickup truck taxis will take you there. |
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Hey, get up out of that lounge chair. There's a head land at the north of Wong Duan, but don't climb over it. Just head left at the end of the beach, before the fried rice stand and you'll walk across Ao Cho. Ao Cho is a pretty depressing place that has seen better days, but then at the end of that begins a path that takes the high ground above the Ao Nuan. It's a nice hike with lots of tree roots to use as steps. While you're hiking, you'll probably cross some ant trails, like the one on the bottom half of the composite. Yes, that line is made of live ants. Probably boring if you live in the tropics, but interesting for a city boy like me. |
| As I said, you're up above the beaches now, so you get some pretty nice vistas. There are some nice outlying islands, and you can charter a boat to take you out to them, as we did. We paid 250 baht each for about a three-hour excursion. |  |
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Since the ferry doesn't give access to these beaches you'll find along the hiking
trail, the bungalows and restaurants are on a small scale. Here, the lady in the
pink on the left was the waitress. She had a seat at the table with the guests to
take their order. Inland from the hiking trail is a wider path that the taxis can
navigate, as I mentioned above. You don't actually need to hike if you want to visit or
stay at these intervening beaches.
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| Next we come to Ao Phai, the first large beach north of Wong Duan. This picture is looking back to the south. Lots of soccer being played here as well. |  |
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OK, we made it up to Hat Sai Kaew, a truly expansive beach that continues all the way
to that point you can see. If you take another look at the map at the top of this
page you can see that it all ends at that point. There is also beach on the
northeastern shore of the island, though, as I noticed when I was taking the ferry back to
the mainland later.
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| We saw a sign for a snorkeling trip and island cruise, and decided to go for it. No long tail boats on Samet; all I saw were speed boats and ferries. Don't know what the name of this island was, but the snorkeling was OK, and the speed boat ride was thrilling. The spray created nice rainbows, one of which I caught here. Remember your super strength sun block when down here - you can do yourself in in a hurry. |  |
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Although they resisted, I was able to talk the family into hiking with me to where we found the speed boat. It didn't take us back down to our beach, though, and we had a good hike waiting for us back to the hotel at the end of the day. Here dad follows mom and the kids as we pass through Ao Cho. Son Casey, takes a look back to see what's keeping me. |
| The second hotel we stayed at was the Malibu Garden Resort. It was the biggest operation on Ao Wong Duan, with a Minimart. Personally, I thought it was overpriced at 1,400 baht since the rooms were quite small, but they were clean. The price included a full breakfast, though. The contact number I have is (038) 651292. |  |
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In front of the Malibu I caught this scene. You can see the empty raft that brings in the passengers from the ferry. A Bon Voyage sign sends you off back to the Thai mainland to catch your bus back to Bangkok, or wherever you may be headed next. |
In sum, Koh Samet is a nice Thai island that will
cost you a lot less than places such as Phuket. Just realize that you'll probably
lose one travel day flying to Bangkok, and then one more getting to Koh Samet if you take
the bus -- four lost days in total. We were only there for three days, and I wanted
to stay on to explore it further. I guess that gives us an excuse to go back and
visit again someday. Koh Samet gets a thumbs up from me, and you may enjoy it, too. |
Arrival from Bangkok (page one) | Wong Duan (page two) | Glenn's Home Page
 Tokyo, Japan April 5, 1999 "Made on a Computer" © Glennsworld, 1999 All rights reserved.
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