Picasa Web Albums - Marie - Thailand 2006

KOH PHANGAN (Santhiya): I was nervous about this place as it is newly built and had some mixed reviews. Again we loved it. The location is incredible tucked away in a small bay overlooking Thong Nai Pan’s two white sand beaches. Santhiya offered a free land and boat pick up from Samui. It took about 35minutes by speed boat from a pier in the North of Samui to the resort. There have been lots of complaints about service at the Santhiya. We did not have this problem but then there were very few guests only about 20. We got upgraded to a Sea View Villa as work was still continuing on the hotel area. This was lucky however we had a look at the hotel area before leaving and both agreed the rooms and views are stunning. It is however a bit of a walk up to the back of the resort. They do offer golf cart transfers but we never used them as we were close to the restaurant and main walkway. The resort overall is stunning. We were in a teak bungalow with an outdoor bathroom. We have no complaints about the rooms, as they were so unique. The restaurant has amazing views and was pricey for the area but I think well priced for a resort of its standard. The pool was huge with a waterfall running into it. Yes there is still construction going on but it was no bother to us. In fact we heard more construction noise from the bay next door. I think people should remember that Santhiya has just opened it is not yet the well-oiled machine that large resorts are. It will be one day. It never ceases to amaze me that people complain about poor English as bad service. English is not Thailand’s language so of course there is going to be issues in this regard. The trainee managers spoke perfect English and were always on hand should a problem arise. Even though this resort is quite remote there is a path around the rocks to the next bay (a 5 minute walk) that allowed eating at local restaurants and other resorts. Our favourite was the Panburi Bungalow restaurant well priced with good atmosphere and service. One day we found ourselves eating at a place called Again & Again on the road. The coffee menu had drawn T’s attention. A fellow tourist said the food was great. He was right the food was great and cheap. The setting left a little bit to be desired, a dirt floor no walls with 2 chickens and two dogs competing for any crumbs. Apart from the general look of the place I would recommend a meal here if anyone happens that way. Overall we had an excellent time at Santhiya I would not hesitate to recommend it as a quiet few days away. We braved the roads on a scooter over to Thong Sala and Haad Rin. We saw nothing of interest at either place and realised we made the right decision in staying at a remote area. It was a nice place to laze away the days. We had a nice birthday dinner for T in the restaurant. They had offered to set us up a table and chairs on the beach on our own but T would not wear this he wanted no fuss. We had a corner of the restaurant to ourselves with nice candles etc. The restaurant phoned ahead to see if we wanted to pre order our meal so there would be no wait. I thought this was a nice touch however we were happy to draw the evening out with cocktails and staring at the stunning view from the restaurant. They did a surprise birthday cake and song for T which embarrassed him he he!!! We would return to this resort.

KHAO LAK (Le Meridien): The Meridien arranged a pick up from the airport for us. It was pricey but worth the hassle free on arrival especially as our plane was late. Le Meridien is in a stunning setting about 10km outside Khao Lak. It is somewhat isolated in that there is not a lot around it. It is really a place to relax and rest. We had a scooter for the whole stay. My only criticism is that the food outside the wonderful breakfast buffet which was included seemed overpriced even for a resort. I guess they have a bit of monopoly as there is not a lot of local food nearby so unless you caught the shuttle 200 baht round trip per person into town you were stuck eating at the resort. The Similana is a walk away but if the tide is too high at night you could get caught out. We loved the food at Similana. It was about 2/3 the price of the Meridien. Around the headland past the Similana is three small local restaurants. These were our daily favourites with 70 baht main meals. We did eat a couple of times in Khao Lak at Jai, nice food well priced and The Viking average food and over priced. Overall we loved our stay at the Le Meridien. It is a beautiful resort, huge with wonderful pools. The beach water was a bit churned up during our stay due to bad weather but I can imagine the beach and sea would be stunning in high season. Our luck ran out this year during rainy season. In years gone by we have missed out on big storms this time however we ran into a 5 day straight storm with very little let up. I think this was the tail end of the Vietnam typhoon. We then had another day or two of mostly rain. We gutsed it out and scootered rain and all in our ponchos. There is not a great deal to see in this area but it is generally pretty and the locals are crying out for the tourists to return. To be honest we did not see much evidence of the tsunami but then again we had not been there before. Occasionally on our bike trips we would follow a sign to a resort to either find nothing or a shell left over. It was sad to see. We went north of Khao lak and found a fishing village and a small town. We also went to the end of Bangsak beach and found a nice strip of restaurants and a paved eating area above the beach. A new resort had just been completed Hashorn (sp???) which looked nice. We went south as far as the pier to Simillian Islands but due to the weather boats were not running. Our hotel room was fine what you would expect of a Le Meridien. We did have some noise issues as we had been given an adjoining room but this was eventually sorted. We were put in the family wing as the spa wing was being renovated. I think the hotel was gearing up for high season. What I really liked about the Le Meridien was the fact you could choose to be involved in activities such as pool polo, volleyball etc or choose to be lazy. The pools were huge and fantastic. There was a penguin club for kids that ran daily and was free. We would not return to this resort only because with 13 nights we felt we had seen what we wanted to see in the area. In saying this we could be tempted back if a good deal was offered. We had the opportunity to spend some time in an ocean front pool villa. Very nice if you can afford to spend the extra. Even with the rain we did not spend a lot of time in our room. The hotel has a nice foyer lounge area that overlooks the resort that is nice to read, play games or mingle with other guests.

We enjoyed our third trip to Thailand immensely and we will be back sometime again in the future maybe next year……..