It was easier leaving Koh Lanta this year because we weren’t going home, we were moving on to another island: Koh Samui.
When I first started thinking about traveling to Thailand a decade ago, Koh Samui was my first target destination. No surprise there: Koh Samui is the second biggest island in Thailand and attracts 2.7 million tourists every year. Koh Samui’s two sister islands, Koh Pha-Ngan and Koh Tao, are also very popular. Koh Pha-Ngan and Koh Samui are both known as party islands, while Koh Tao is smaller and mellower. The trio of islands is connected by an efficient ferry system.
In January 2018, I envisioned myself staying in a beach bungalow on Koh Samui’s Mae Nam Beach and I actually looked into making a solo trip happen. The timing wasn’t right though and the backpacker allure of a beach bungalow faded. In the years since, I’ve lost interest in party islands and became less convinced that I’d find what I was looking for on Koh Samui.
Koh Tao, on the other hand, has always interested me because it’s one of the best places to snorkel in Thailand. When booking transportation within Thailand for this trip, I found that conflicting flight/ferry schedules to get us to Koh Tao presented us with a quandary: we’d have to stay on Koh Samui for one night. That sounded like a hassle so instead we looked at it as an opportunity to stay longer on Koh Samui and we settled on five nights. I already knew where I wanted to stay: Mae Nam Beach.
Beach of Three Rivers
Mae means “mother” and Nam means “water”. Together, Mae Nam means “river”. Mae Nam Beach has three rivers that flow into it, cutting the beach into distinct sections: the Bang Miang enters at the Santiburi resort to the west, the Maenam marks the public part of the beach in the middle, and the Wat Thale rushes in at Nana’s Beach Restaurant, cutting off the eastern part of Mae Nam Beach until low tide.
We chose an adults-only resort that has beachfront private pool rooms. The room itself was small in contrast to our sprawling 2-bedroom villa on Koh Lanta, but it was very clean with a modern aesthetic, had excellent AC, and the private deck and pool were perfect. The walkways around the resort are beautiful with thick, jungle-like plants growing prodigiously. The breakfast spread was also excellent, with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, smoked salmon and cheeses, and Thai staples like Som Tam Thai papaya salad and Panang curry.
Waking up on Koh Samui for the first time, I had one thing on my mind: beach walk! I accepted the fact that the beach was going to be nothing like expansive Khlong Dao, and I set out to discover its charms. I confidently strode through the resort, barefoot with my Chao Ley scarf tied on my head, and descended the stairs to the beach to find… no beach! In recent years, Mae Nam Beach has been damaged by cyclones and parts of the beach have eroded. Waves were lapping at the bottom step and beyond it were sand bags arranged to form faux steps into the water. Looking to the east, I could see about 300 metres of knee- to waist-high water before sand entered my view. The west part of the beach looked more promising so I waded in. After about 15 metres of water, I stepped onto the sand. Sabai sabai! No problem, all good. Then I came upon the Wat Thale cutting the beach in two. It was waist deep with steep sides, and the sandy bottom seemed to fall away from me with each step. Swimming around it would have taken me too far out, so I carefully waded across, then parkoured over the breakwater to emerge on to the western side of Mae Nam Beach. I walked all the way to Pralarn Pier and then turned around and walked back. It took me an hour and 45 minutes. Total distance: about 7km. (I wound up doing this walk twice, plus a shorter walk of about 4km to the eastern part of Mae Nam Beach.)
There are sections of Mae Nam Beach that are very walk-able with some firm sand, while other parts have deeper or coarser sand requiring a more technical approach to exercise. The beach is also quite sloped. There are fewer restaurants and beach bars on Mae Nam than I thought there would be and the loss of contiguous beach means that access to some restaurants is dependent on the tide (by foot at least.) Overall, it’s a lovely beach and I found my sweet spot at Jamaica Restaurant. It’s just 350 meters from where we stayed, with bamboo tables and chairs in the sand. It was a great spot to enjoy a couple of cold Changs while watching the sun set. We enjoyed good meals here and also ate at Nana’s Beach, Treehouse and Nature Bar. They all served good Thai food at decent prices.
No Tuk-Tuks!
Other than the beach, there’s something else really different about Koh Samui compared to Koh Lanta: no tuk-tuks! To get around Koh Samui you need to rent a scooter, hire a taxi or hail one of the public songthaews. I didn’t intend to go far though, I just wanted to cross the main road and walk the five minutes or so to the local dispensary and Topps market. Easier said than done! The road behind Mae Nam Beach is super busy and has no crosswalks. It was fruitless to wait for a break in traffic on both sides of the road so I waited until my side of the road was clear and bee-lined it in flip flops to the middle of the road. I briefly waited there, with chaotic traffic rushing by me on both sides, then zipped over to the narrow sidewalk. Not for the faint of heart but an essential skill to master in Southeast Asia!
My original backpacker vision of staying on Koh Samui had morphed into something decidedly more luxurious but our stay still had the barefoot beach bar aesthetic that I crave. In that sense, I did find what I was looking for on Koh Samui!
