It seems remarkable but we have already been on Koh Samui for nearly two weeks and not blogged anything about the place! Our journey here from Nang Yuan started in typical Thai style with a delayed catamaran ferry and assurances that it would be here within the hour . About two hours later there was sudden flurry of activity and we were ushered unceremoniously onto one of the day tripper boats and told they were taking us to Koh Tao and we would meet the ferry there. The day trippers were somewhat nonplussed as we climbed aboard with all our luggage (for which of course there was no room on a boat primarily designed to take a gang of people off for the day).

On arrival at Koh Tao it was clear that there was considerable backlog and the terminal building (a pretty rough and ready shelter at the best of times) was full to overflowing. No one, of course, had any real idea of what was happening and we were all forced to hang around, fearing we‘d miss something important if we went down the road for a beer. Suddenly a tannoy announcement sent us all outside and we had to queue up on one side of the jetty in the blazing sunshine with no shade. Needless to say there was no immediate sign of the ferry but presumably this preparation was to try to catch up time when it finally made an appearance . At last it came and, because we were going the whole way to Koh Samui, we were directed to the very back of the boat to go aboard. Once on board we were directed to walk back all the way through to the front of the boat to deposit our luggage! However we were eventually ensconced in relative comfort with a cooling drink.

Halfway through the journey we stopped at Koh Pha Ngan for those leaving and joining the party island. The windows in the catamaran were tinted glass but it still looked a bit grey, even when looking through the entrances. During the second part of the crossing the wind whipped up, the rain began lashing down and the trip began to get decidedly lumpy! We arrived at Samui at a very unprepossessing jetty, no more than a few planks laid out from the beach into the bay, in the fading light and in the midst of torrential rain. The roads around this jetty were merely mud and sand so huge puddles were building up and we began squelching around to get our transfer to our lodgings . Although there was a sense of organisation (all the ferry company people and the ‘taxi’ drivers had printouts of the passenger names and their destinations) in reality none of this information was accurate. Combining this with everyone’s hazy knowledge of English numbers above two, we were sent to three different taxis. ‘Go to number 11’ - ‘no I am not going to Mae Nam, try number 18’ - ‘No you must see the girl to find out your taxi’ etc. Eventually Jen lost her rag and with her best English Grand Dame voice loudly declared to the ferry representative, ‘we have already been sent to three different taxis and all of them say they are not ours so you must sort it out now!’

It was immediately sorted (they knew instinctively not to cross Jen) and we got into a minibus. A couple of guys already on the bus were Koh Tao dive instructors who make the journey frequently and they said that the jetty we arrived at was not the usual one and there must be some sort of problem or perhaps the weather meant the usual jetty was not usable . Anyway, we were conveyed through the dark and rainy night with no idea where we were and dumped on the doorstep of Save House (we still don’t know why it is Save and not Safe, but all the signs are consistent). It took a while to find someone but when we found the restaurant area we were quite bowled over. Even in the rain it was a peaceful and attractive area by the side of a lake, surrounded by plants and furnished in rustic Thai style. There was a sign to the swimming pool and they were serving cool drinks and spicy food. We were sure that we could put up with this for another month, even if it carried on raining! We were shown to our bungalow which is spacious (arge kitchen/lounge, separate bedroom and bathroom) and appears to have all we would really need to survive.All the bungalows are set in delightful gardens with mature palms, bamboos and flowering shrubs. Although it is close to the 'main' road, it seems quiet, except for the inevitable nightly racket of crickets, frogs and geckos!