Thailand has, over the past 10-15 years, become almost as popular a tourist destination among Finns as the Canary Islands or the south of Spain. Which is probably one of the reasons I have never been there before. Well, not quite, because I have been in Bangkok. But not in any one of the the resorts.
Now this has changed. Malin wanted me to go with her to a yoga resort on Koh Samui, and then we both wanted to go diving.
So first we went to Samahita, on the south end of Koh Samui.
Samahita is a truly lovely place. Friendly, nice surroundings, good food, excellent yoga teachers who come from all over the world, and generally very nice people. We enjoyed three days of early mornings and late afternoons with yoga, cycling and core training. Not much time for sightseeing, but I did walk to the closest temple on the southernmost tip of the island.
And then we left and flew to Phuket, where a speedboat took us to Zeavola on Kho Phi Phi. The speedboat takes an hour, and then the last part of the trip is not so fast – a tractor pulls both people and luggage ashore.
Zeavola is one of four hotels on the same long beach on the northern tip of Kho Phi Phi. Since this is an hours ride with a fast speedboat from both Phuket and Krabi, the beaches are fairly empty – not very many others than hotel guests. Very pleasant.
Our main goal was to dive, and Zeavola has a very good Padi diving center, with very friendly and professional diving instructors.
The diving sites are spectacular, both above water and under. Not as many brightcoloured corals as in Fiji, but a lot of fish and partly very clear waters.
O S M A F Frankenhaeuser 