Citrus and I are back in Bangkok, returning earlier than planned from a camping trip to Candlelight Beach. Roman candles that lit up the sky during our first night in the tent on the beach, the small waves of the Gulf of Thailand drowned out by the DJ playing techno music long after there was anyone else around to party.
I did not expect a remote island paradise but one night was enough. Last Saturday we shared a ride with Elysia to the airport and she flew to Indonesia while we flew to Bangkok.
After our experience in Jakarta several weeks ago it did not seem likely that the second largest city in Indonesia would offer much for us to do, while Thailand was unchartered territory. I looked for something my daughter and I could do close to Bangkok, not wanting to spend most of our limited time going far south to the beaches of Phuket or north to Chiang Mai. I settled on Ko Samet.
Ko Samet is an island very popular with Thais looking to get out of the city for a day or two. Bangkok’s Jersey Shore. Thirteen years ago — when my outdated guide book was written — it still had several quiet beaches, south of a big party scene. No more, at least as far as I could tell.
Technically the island is a National Park. A National Park that collects an entrance fee but has done little to restrict or guide development. After all, if one beach cafe and blaring dance music is good, ten of them lined side by side on every beach must be much better. Almost every area of the beach not covered by water during high tide had beach chairs except for one little patch in front of the parks office. That is where we pitched our tent.
Since it is a National Park you are supposed to be allowed to camp on any beach. Just do not try telling that to the park ranger or the resort owner. I have had the same experience in Costa Rica where all beaches are public. You can do it but you will not sleep very well inside your tent. I always imagine that someone is going to unleash the dogs.
As the sun set we crawled inside the tent bringing with us some of the finest sand in Thailand and a few giant mosquitoes. Monster mosquitoes. But still this was better than a bungalow where you probably have no chance of eliminating the flow of incoming bugs. Citrus fell asleep after a heated discussion of whether she or Tigress (from Kung Fu Panda) would be stronger when fighting Tai Lung, the bad guy.
A sealed environment meant that we were sleeping in our own private sweat lodge. Like Singapore, the temperature did not drop below 85 degrees. It was very very hot until the rain on my face woke me up and I scrambled outside at 2 a.m. to strap down the rain cover.
I did not sleep very well with laundry and my digital camera as my pillow but Citrus did okay. In the morning she wanted to spend two more days camping and was disappointed when I told her we were heading back to a hotel.
It just was not going to get better in that tent. We rode the ferry back to the main land and caught a minivan back to Bangkok.
[Only pictures from the ferry. I had to keep the camera packed or else it and the zoom lens would have been destroyed by the sand.]
Pier at the ferry to Ko Samet
Waiting for the ferry to Ko Samet
Ferry to Ko Samet
