Wednesday Sept 26

We finally arrived at the Conrad on Koh Samui at 8pm after the trip from hell travelling from Siem Reap to USM via HCMC.  It was pouring rain and we were exhausted and quite hungry as we had not had dinner the night before or lunch on the Wednesday.  We decide to dine at the hotel's Azure restaurant - a poolside very casual venue which was not the best location considering the rain. Nevertheless we had a pretty good dinner then hit the sack.

Thursday Sept 27

After a great well-deserved sleep-in we awoke to a cloudy day - we had a swim in our villa's private pool then went to Zest (the Conrad's all-day dining restaurant) for breakfast. After brekkie, we lazed about then had a great swim at the main hotel pool where we had a light lunch - just as another rain storm moved in.  Due to the rain we hung around our villa in the avro but went out to another resort, Elements, which was only a 5 minute drive away, for dinner. Elements provided return transport for 200 THB - it's 30THB to the AUD. The dinner at Elements was so-so.

Friday Sept 28

I started out the day with a 'private' 1-hour tai chi lesson at 7:30am - as I was the only guest who showed up. Dieter had a swim in our private pool - we had breakfast then spoke to the F&B manager from Austria who made some recommendations on what to do in and around KS. Thai Hire Car delivered our car around 11am and by the time we had completed all the formalities we set out around 11:45 for our first drive.  We drove to Lamai Beach where we had lunch at the famous Cliff restaurant then generally just got the lay of the land so to say.  We got a little lost trying to find our way back to the Conrad as it is on a cliff side, up a very steep switchback road and not sign posted at all; however, we finally made it. For dinner, we ate at Zest, the all-day dining restaurant at the the Conrad where we were the only customers.

Saturday Sept 29

We drove to Chewang - the real hip hip and happening backpacker area. One visit to Chewang in one's lifetime is sufficient but certainly not necessary. We stopped at the Drink Gallery for a drink then took a beach walk before having lunch at the Page, the beach front restaurant of the Library Hotel. Then it was back to the hotel for swimming etc. We had dinner at Azure, Conrad's pool-side restaurant.

Sunday Sept 30

More driving around - stopping for lunch at the Intercontinental which is only about 7 k's from the Conrad. We had dinner at the Five Islands Restaurant also relatively closely - they provided return transport for a reasonable fee. We had their special menu which was part of Koh Samui Fine Dining Festival which was running with many upmarket restaurants participating.

Monday Oct 1

Moving day - we moved from the Conrad to Infinity Residences near Mae Nam.  What a day - we had trouble finding the place due to a total lack of signage then our small Honda Brio could not make it up the extremely steep driveway - I had to walk up the steepest part to lighten the load. After checking-in we realised our apartment did not have a dishwasher so we complained. We went shopping at Tesco where we bought some grog to avoid the 2pm liquor sales shutdown then had lunch at the Anantara resort. We set off for the airport so we could change our car to a more powerful model - we got lost several times so the whole operation took 2 hours. It was now close to 5pm so we went back to Tesco and bought the minimum supplies for a cold cut dinner and fruit breakfast. Back at Infinity - the manager (John) told us we could move to a different (2-bed) unit which had a dishwasher - by the time this was all done we were ready for a drink and and early night.

Tuesday Oct 2

We re-traced our path to the airport to make sure we would be able to find it on Saturday. Then we did more shopping and went back to the hotel to put our stuff away. From here we went to the Four Seasons for lunch. Back at home we had a swim etc and a pasta dinner.

Wednesday Oct 3

After brekkie on our terrace we met our neighbours, Etienne and Ann who moved here from Belgium and own their apartment. We heard the amazing story of the history of the resort.  We then went to the Hin Lat Waterfall - and did the 1.5 hour trek but there was not really much water. From there we went to the Nikki Beach Club for lunch then back home.  For dinner we went to Zazen Restaurant - John provided transfer over and Alex, the owner / manager of Zazen gave us a ride home.

Thursday Oct 4

Another great fruit brekkie on our terrace and a beaut day - clearly the first couple of rainy days were not the norm. We setoff to drive up to a farm and mountain view point with a restaurant only to find at a military checkpoint that the road was closed. So we did some grog shopping for dinner then drove to the Six Senses resort at the tip of Bophut - we planned to have lunch there but changed our mind as it did not look very inviting - we then tried the O2 Beach Club next door where Dieter pranged our hire car - the O2 was totally empty so we headed over to Fisherman's village where we had lunch at the H Bistro (as recommended by John) at the Hansar Resort - right on the Bophut beach. Lunch was excellent - we walked around Fisherman's Village afterwards then headed back to our apartment for our now regular afternoon rest / swim before fives with Etienne and Ann, followed by dinner at home.

Friday Oct 5

Last full day on KS - breakfast on our terrace with a swim in our pool then we had a another stab at finding an alternate route to the Paradise Farm and mountain view point. We were successful but other than a fantastic view Paradise Farm was a total tourist ripoff (800 THB entry for 2 persons with a kids play ground with a few birds and animals). We decided to finish off with a late lunch at the W resort which had a great setting overlooking Bophut beach. Then it was back to the apartment to pack up etc. Our neighbours came over for drinks at 6:30pm then we had a few left overs for dinner.

Saturday Oct 6

Up early for our 9:30am flight to BKK - we arrived at our hotel, the Shangri La around 11:00am and by the time we checked-in and settled in it was time for lunch at the pool side restaurant.  We essentially had a lazy afternoon before having dinner at the Shangri La's Italian restaurant.

Sunday Oct 7

Another very early start to catch our 8:00am TG flight back home to Sydney. TG pulled a dirty trick on us and substituted the usual 747 configuration with a very old one - recliner seats in business class. Nevertheless we made it home and were in the house around 10:00am due to the +4 hour times difference as Sydney had just gone onto daylight saving time.