We woke up early to pack our bags and enjoy breakfast with the most stunning views one last time. Our hotel has really been a great escape from the hustle and bustle of our traveling and helped us to appreciate why we travel in the first place.
After hanging around the hotel for a bit and catching up on some blogging, it was around noon and time for us to grab one last meal in Koh Tao. We’ve heard great things about a place called Seafood by Pawn, which is run by Pawn and Fritz, so we decided to ride over and have some fresh fish. When we pulled in, we were the first customers of the day and Fritz was just arriving himself with two freshly caught King Mackerels. He showed them to us and asked if we liked Mackerel. We spoke for a while about where we were from and how the Atlantic Mackerel species differ slightly from the Pacific. He is an Austrian-born man who has been fishing for his entire life and we could sense the passion behind his words. His wife, Pawn, who the restraurant is named after, helms the kitchen and does a fantastic job. We ordered the fresh mackerel fried with a side of fried potatoes, and mango salad.
After we had lunch, we returned briefly to our hotel to get our bags and head back to town to return our scooter. When we arrived at the scooter rental, the owner of RPM asked if we had gotten gas (it’s usually not required to fill up as most places will give you a bike near empty). We agreed upon a price of 300 baht per day for the larger engine scooter (125cc is the minimum you should accept in the hilly island of Koh Tao). We said we filled it and there’s still about a half tank left, and he only asked for 500 baht! What a nice guy! We can’t recommend RPM enough for scooter rental in Koh Tao!
After dropping off the bike, we walked back towards Mae Haad Beach where the Lomprayah ferry dock is located. Our high-speed catamaran was set to depart at 3pm, so we checked-in around 2pm for our ride to Koh Samui
The catamaran coming from Chumphon was delayed due to rough seas, so inevitably our departure was delayed as well. We didn’t see the rough seas, as the dock is located in a bit of a cove, but we ended up departing around 4pm and realized where the delays stemmed from when we got to open waters. The boat was rocking and swaying pretty violently and we got to experience why they call this a “high-speed” catamaran. Even though the seas were rough, this boat was still moving extremely fast through the water. The crewmembers immediately starting handing out red bags for seasickness as soon as we left the dock and dozens of people were putting them to good use. (Tip: if you get seasick easily, you should consider the daily sea conditions before embarking on a high-speed catamaran because they seem to set sail in pretty rough conditions).
The first stop was Koh Phangan, which is an island situated in between Koh Tao and Koh Samui. About half of the passengers disembarked, some more boarded, and we shipped off once again for our destination of Koh Samui. We arrived around 6pm and were greeted by taxi drivers with laminated sheets that had locations on the island with associated fares to get you there…laminated sheets are never a good sign (no pun intended).
We decided to wait a bit to see if the craziness would die down and we could negotiate a fare to nearby Fisherman Village where we will be staying for the next two nights. We still needed to book our final ferry to Surat Thani, so we decided it would be a good time to do that while we were here.
No taxi drives budged from the 450 baht laminated price, and we got a few offers for 300 baht from motorcycle drivers, but that’s never a good choice, so we reluctantly settled on the shared shuttle that Lomprayah offers for 300 baht. Shared shuttles are never ideal because you have multiple passengers with multiple destinations…everyone pays a fixed price no matter where you are going on the island, so there are pros and cons. If you are staying close to the ferry docks, you overpay, but are one of the first passengers to be dropped off. If you are staying on the opposite side of the island, you get a great deal, but will be the last one dropped off. It’s not really ideal for anyone, but it seemed better than overpaying a fixed price on a laminated sheet…if there’s one thing we hate about Southeast Asia, it’s laminated taxi sheets.
We’re staying right on the eastern edge of Fisherman Village, which is one of the best places to stay in our opinion. You’re not next to McDonalds and Burger Kings on the untz untz infested beaches of Chaweng and still have cool night markets and food options on the quieter northern shore. We checked into our hotel in Fisherman Village and immediately went out to get some dinner. We hadn’t eaten since lunch (probably a good thing in hindsight taking that crazy catamaran ride into account) and it was almost 7pm, so we dropped our bags off and headed out.
We’re staying right next to one of the best restaurants we’ve eaten at in Thailand. It’s called the Hut Café and they had some of the best curry we’ve tasted here. Joey almost ordered a second bowl, but settled on drinking the rest like milk from a cereal bowl. Slightly embarrassing, but he couldn’t be stopped.
After dinner, we walked around the night market of Fisherman Village and got a few souvenirs to take home, one of which is the perfect fish-shaped dish for the new sauce recipes from our cooking class in Hanoi.
After some shopping, we headed back to our hotel. We didn’t have a long day of traveling, but that catamaran ride kicked our butts. We need the rest anyway because tomorrow we plan to rent a scooter and explore the entire island, so stay posted!