Independent Adventure Travel – With Just a Little Help
Samui Island, Thailand
Having strayed from the tourist path on numerous occasions during previous travels, this time I wanted to try a safer option whilst still retaining some of my autonomous travel dignity. However, with no time to make any detailed plans, or even a vague itinerary, I decided to get a flight ticket to Thailand and take it from there. I was not looking for the extremities of adventures depicted in hit travel movie The Beach, nor was I looking for a soul-destroying travel package on one of the well known party islands that regularly spill over with hedonistic travellers looking for a good time. I was simply looking for something that entailed a little more than lying on a beach for a couple of weeks. I touched down and after a few hours studying my treasured Lonely Planet guidebook in a rundown and overpriced hotel I found in Bangkok, I decided to catch a bus south and east, to a ferry port that takes you to the Island of Samui.
Elephant Trekking For more information about Ko Samui, visit www.samui.org/, www.samuiwestcoast.de/, or the gateway at www.thaipro.com/, which has numerous links. Alternatively, there is an excellent section on Ko Samui in the Lonely Planet � Thailand guide that is available from most good bookshops.
