Wild Boat Trip to Koh Samet

We had a restless night since the hotel was quite noisy, and Khao San Road is always buzzing with activity. We wanted to take a trip to an island, but before heading to Jysk Rejsebureau to see what they could offer, we needed to stop by the bank to exchange some money. The exchange rate was terrible, and we lost about 10%. We hadn’t been able to exchange ringgit in Vietnam, so we wanted to convert them to baht. We also had some dong left over but found out that it’s not possible to exchange dong for baht since you can’t take them out of the country—oops! Jysk Rejsebureau recommended Koh Samet, as the trip there is really short, so we decided to go with that, even though we had initially wanted to visit Hua Hin. We could leave the same day, so we hurried to the bus station. It was a 3.5-hour bus ride to the coast, and the ticket was 120 baht per person. The bus ride was very comfortable, and there was service on board. We were served drinks, chips, and cookies—all included in the price! When we arrived at the harbor, we discovered that the boat wouldn’t leave until it was full... So we had to wait for 1.5 hours before we could set off. The round-trip boat ticket cost 100 baht. The boat ride was quite wet and wobbly, and we were soaked by the time we finally arrived on the island. On land, there were several taxi jeeps waiting, charging 20 baht per person, which could fit about 10 people in the back. They drove us around to different hotels, and you could just hop off wherever you liked. We chose Jepp’s Beach, which was right in the middle of the row of hotels along the beach. It cost 500 baht per night, including a fan. We had dinner right by the beach under the palm trees. It was really cozy. Surprisingly, it wasn’t mosquitoes bothering us while we ate... it was dogs. The island is known for its large population of dogs lounging around everywhere. They’re easy to shoo away, and at least they don’t leave you with itchy mosquito bites. It cost 200 baht per person to enter the island, which is a nature reserve.