Some of our trip has deviated from my parents and some of it we copied directly—like going to Koh Samui. My parents ended up on the island 40 years ago by doing the crossing from mainland Thailand in a leaky boat. The boat was multiple floors and the staff had blocked off the bottom floor—“because of the water”.
Koh Samui was simpler in the 80s. My parents took a bus from the port, ended up staying in some beach shacks on the beach, and enjoyed the sun. My dad soon had the worst sunburn of his life and my mom had to cover him in both of their sleeping bags to stop his shaking.
While my dad was recovering my mom made it to Wat Phra Yai and saw the Big Buddha temple, my dad never did. 40 years later he told me I must got. That when he healed there were too many distractions, but that he’d wish he would have made it.
H and I spent around five days in Koh Samui. It rained most of that time, but we found a break in the clouds and made it over to the Big Buddha.
Our favorite place in Thailand—“our Koh Samui”—was Ko Lanta. Some friends were made in a parking lot in Florence recommended we stop there and we’d bookmarked it as a maybe.
We spent 10 nights there, a new record for this trip! We motored around the island to beaches and ate some of the best Thai food of our life. The island is beautiful and not very built up—there’s a huge national park on one end. One of my favorite times of day was the pre sunset rush. Everyone would motor around trying to find the best view to take it in.
Thailand but Ko Lanta specifically has become one of our favorite stops on the trip.
