August 25-28: It’s obvious that we’ve come away from the jungle. There are people everywhere, loud and a completely different pace. The prices and choice of restaurants pleasantly surprise us, at least at the local restaurants that we like to eat at. This accommodation also has a kitchen, which means we cook lunch at home. Since we have school for the children in the mornings, it’s nice to be able to throw something together at the accommodation and not have to go out and look for food in the middle of the day when it’s at its hottest.

The beach here is beautiful, but after seeing Bottle Beach, it doesn’t impress. Thongson Beach is more of a tourist beach. There are boats and jet skis for rent. On the beaches, hotels have set up tables and chairs for their guests. There are sun loungers behind barriers. This doesn’t feel like a place where you just go down and take a dip in the sea, but more like a place for consumption, where you have to buy something to dip your toes in the water. Of course, that’s not the case and we swim for free, but the feeling still remains. We miss Bottle Beach’s unprestigious beach a little bit.

But in the absence of the beach environment we wished for, the pool is used all the more, to the delight of the children. If there is one thing that our children return to, it is the wish that the accommodation we book has a pool. However, the choice of accommodation usually does not fall on those with a pool, partly because of price and partly because of location. So when the opportunity is there, we take advantage of it! However, we notice quite quickly that there is a minus with the pool here, the floor has very sharp edges. Johannes manages to cut his feet a couple of times in just one evening. The swimming shoes we brought with us come in handy, which we didn’t think we would need in a hotel pool.

What we enjoy perhaps even more than the pool are our evening walks. Everyone in the family seems to like strolling around, checking out the shops and maybe buying something good to eat or drink along the way. Among other things, we find the cardgame UNO, which can be good for a rainy day, delicious smoothies and various other treats. We usually also find a local restaurant to have dinner at. We consciously choose not to eat at restaurants that feel “touristy” and “fancy” and go to those that feel local and more “authentic”. Both the flavors and prices are significantly better than at Bottle beach and all the people we order from are incredibly nice and hospitable. However, it is a bit of a lottery every time, it is not always easy to know what we order due to our poor Thai😅.

During our evening walks we also find lots of delicious fruits, some that we have tried before and some that we have never seen before. We buy watermelon, mango, peaches and small bananas to take home with us. And a fruit we have never seen before, mangosteen. Mangosteen looks a bit like a garlic on the inside but tastes sweet and sour, very tasty!

We have booked three nights at Chor Chang Villa Resort and they go by quickly. We have realized that in the future we will probably need to book a few more nights per place, because it feels a bit choppy to already pack up and move on. However, we have booked the next accommodation for a week, which gives us a little more peace and quiet. The next accommodation is a Tiny house, which is located right on the beach at the other end of Koh Samui.

//Sabdreasworld