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Koh Samet:
The island of Koh Samet is a 2 hour drive away from Pattaya. You go south past Rayong and there is a small port town where you take the short ferry to Koh Samet. It was a lovely place. It has lots of small beaches, I only saw four, I think, it might have been three. There was a narrow beach set in a bay with rocky headlands on either side. It was bordered by tall trees and inside the tree line there loads of little huts, they call them bungalows. But they don't look anything like my Auntie Vals' bungalow in Anglesey!! Look at the pictures, you'll see what I mean. There were a lot of little bars and restaurants along the edge of the beach. You could hire speed boats and ride big bananas. I didn't do either though. I just went for a wander through the trees and there was another smaller beach with one person on it. So I laid out my towel and got burnt. That was where I took the picture of me on the swing, self timer job. Then I went back to the first beach and went in the other direction. There was another beach on the other side called Candlelight Bay. That was where I met the lizard. I got a bit lost then but found myself back on the first beach. So I had a little sleep in a deck chair. It's a hard life!!
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This is the second beach I went to. The almost deserted one. It is called Ao Cho. God knows what it means but to me it meant "Relax" |
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Whilst this may look like I am just swinging around, it took three attempts to get on the swing. The self timer on the camera was ticking down and I was rushing to get on the swing before it went off. The local people were watching and laughing at this stupid English bloke running around, trying to get on a swing and failing before his camera went "click". |
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I was sweating like a very sweaty thing that was sitting in a sauna for two hours when I took this. The shine from the top of my head is not a reflection from my scalp but buckets of perspiration. My head is very red today but after sun cream is helping. |
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This is the beach where the boat dropped us off. It looks completely different from alternative angles. Which confused me as I discovered it twice without realising. The second time I thought it was a new beach. It looked fantastic. Then when I tried to go back to the other beach I realised it was the same one. Like I said it confused me and I felt like I was in "The Twilight Zone" |
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This lizard seemed like it was posing for me. It sat on the rock while I got my camera out. Waited till I had taken the picture then walked off. |
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This is the entrance to Candlelight Bay. It has about 20 bungalows scattered in the trees, a small restaurant and boasts "electricity all night". Which must mean it has none during the day. |
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This is one of the alternative views of the beach we landed on. It looked completely different, I just hope the picture shows it. |
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Here's a selection of accommodation on the first beach. The name of the beach was Ao Wong Deuan where Ao means Bay. I don't know what the rest of it means. |
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Some more accommodation on Ao Wong Deuan. |
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Yet another alternative view across the same bay, God it was nice. |
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And a final view across the bay. |
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And finally here is a huge Buddha made in gold on the side of a mountain. We stopped here for a pee on the way back to Pattaya. The toilets were secondary, it was very impressive. The place itself is called Nong Nook National Park and is only 15 minutes from Pattaya. When I come back from my home leave I will go back for a proper visit. |