Twelve Years Later – Part 6: A Return to Koh Samui, The Activities

Previous Trip Notes:
Twelve Years Later – Part 5: A Return to Koh Samui, The Food
Twelve Years Later – Part 4: A Return to Koh Samui, Hyatt Regency Resort
Twelve Years Later – Part 3: A Return to Koh Samui, Hyatt Regency Suite & Day 1
Twelve Years Later – Part 2: A Return to Koh Samui, The Trip There & Night 1
Twelve Years Later – Part 1: A Return to Koh Samui, The Setup

There’s no shortage of things to do on Koh Samui. We had a list when we embarked on the trip and worked our way through most of it. The Koh Samui Holiday Tips Facebook group was hugely helpful – from recommending restaurants and activities to suggesting what bug spray to buy at 7-11. Crowdsourcing real reviews helped to find authentic feedback on different options.

NSPpeanut and NSPpeanutToo are both fish. They love the water. While there is a bit of trepidation surrounding sharks in the ocean, they try to spend as much vacation time as possible in some type of water. The Hyatt Regency main pool was a large attraction for them.

Hyatt Regency Koh Samui – Pool

While the splash pad and kids water slide held little interest for them, the water scooters became a new favorite toy (and I must admit, even for me and NSPwife).

Our initial intention was to spend a lot of the days on the popular Chaweng Beach, but we found Cheomong Beach to be much closer and easier to visit. Not only was the beach quiet and easy to grab a beer at a quiet beach bar (and thus have access to beach chairs), all of the stops you would want were within a couple minute walk. Add in the fact that in rained on 2 of the 6 days, and we collectively had stomach bugs for 3 days, we didn’t even spend a single day lounging on Chaweng Beach!

Choengmon Beach – Koh Samui

Given the rain, we took full advantage of foot and back massages on most days:

Foot Massage – Koh Samui

The girls also opted for hair extensions on the last day:

There were shops to buy clothing, beach toys, and anything else you might want. Mini-marts. ATMS. And, of course, many different restaurants.

Watching the sunrise over the Gulf of Thailand was fantastic. Thailand sunrises just hit differently:

Koh Samui, Thailand – Sunrise

There are tons of ways to interact with elephants throughout Thailand. Many claim they are “ethical.” But in reality, ethical elephant businesses, who usually save elephants from pretty terrible service lives, are few and far between. Luckily there are two on Koh Samui, and we opted for the Samui Elephant Haven. The girls had a blast:

Samui Elephant Haven – Koh Samui

Fire shows are fairly common, and we opted to go to The Elephant Bar. The two main options we were looking at were Elephant Bar and ARKbar, and the Elephant Bar just happened to be a bit closer. We got there around 8:30pm, and there were still seats right on the beach. So not only did we get a close-up view, but NSPpeanuts got to participate:

I really wanted to charter a catamaran. I love sailing and found a company who was decently priced with availability during our week there. While we didn’t sail far, we had a nice half day on the water, just relaxing. The weather was perfect. We swam a bit, rode around on a large tube, and had a nice lunch. We booked through Samui Sail, which was about half the price of any other private catamaran I could find, and I would definitely recommend them:

Catamaran Charter – Koh Samui

Catamaran Charter – Koh Samui

Lastly, we decided to get some professional family photos. Given the currency exchange rate, and the fact that we find it impossible to get a good photo of ourselves on vacation (due to skill and discipline), it seemed like a no-brainer. Our photographer was great, and we lucked out with the weather (after having to change the date the first time due to rain):