Trip to Samui Island

Today is Sunday and it is our third day on Samui. It is very beautiful here and lots of fun. We came on Thursday night and it was quite the adventure getting here. We started at 5pm by catching a cab to the train station. Everyone thought we should leave very early for our 7:30pm train because traffic can be so bad in Bangkok. We left at 5 and arrived at 5:15. So much for bad traffic! On the up side, we had plenty of time to eat and then we got on to our train about 10min before 7. We had a 1st class cabin with 2 beds and then we got another bed in the 2nd class car as well. We all stayed in the cabin until it was time for bed. The porter came and made up the beds and then Isabella went to sleep on the top bunk and Liza and Zach slept on the bottom. They locked the door and I went to sleep in the car with 19 other people. It was actually quite nice, but I slept better knowing that all our stuff and Liza and kids were safely locked up.

Zach and Belle looking out the window as the train started to move. They were so excited to be on a real train.
Belle slept on the top bunk.

I stayed until lights out then went out to the other car.

We got up around 6AM and had breakfast. The train arrived in Surat Thani (said Sur-at Ta-nee) at about 7am. We then got on a bus to take us to the ferry. That was a 2 hour ride in perhaps the slowest bus ever with pretty bad A/C... but there was a little French girl that had toys and played with Isabella and Zach.
We finally got to the ferry and loaded up.

Isabella was equally excited to be on a "big boat."

The Thai flag was flying on the bow. This was just as we were pulling out to go to the Island.

This part of the trip was about an hour and a half, so we explored the boat and tried to keep the kids busy.

We spent most of the time in a cabin with a random Thai TV show going. The kids don't understand a thing, but are still glued to the TV. I don't understand it. :-)
When we got to the island, it was another 30min taxi ride to the hotel. We were SO ready to be there. We were not disappointed with the hotel that Liza had found on the internet. It is really beautiful and has a beautiful beach.

Here is one view down the beach right by our hotel. You can see the palm tree covered mountains that wrap around the cove.

Our hotel looks like a boat. We are in the room at the top in what looks like the wheel house. It gives us 2 balconies and lots of extra space for the crib that the hotel provided for Zach.

Here are Isabella, Zach and I at the beach on the second morning. The kids LOVE the beach.

Zach had a blast playing in the sand.

Here is the view down the other side of the beach. Big beautiful rocks go out in to the green and blue crystal clear water. We saw lots of fish swimming by as we waded out in to the water.

More to come... Too bad we couldn't be HERE for 5 weeks!