Ko Samui - Part 1

A planned break
We haven't had a decent holiday in years.
Our last 'real' road trip was to Las Vegas three years ago.
It took us nearly six months to plan a cycling trip in Ko Samui, Thailand and things started to bear fruit when we managed to score an affordable flight ticket to the island off Surat Thani.
All I need to do, is to book a hotel, get the bikes a set of Dahon Airporter bags to pack the bikes.
As the day drew nearer, I managed to book a hotel in Chaweng, which is pretty near to the airport.
The rest, was packing the bikes, a simple and minimal load of clothing and the essential tools for the bikes..


And the day finally came
The daily flight to Ko Samui via Firefly airlines from the Subang Skypark departs at noon.
To be exact, around 1:35pm.
We got a lift from Michelle's dad and before I left the house, I gave my dogs each a treat.
They have to rough it out on their own for five days. That's how long we are going away.
When we reached the Skypark, we checked-in.
Our baggage were overweight.
But the counter personnel were nice enough to waive 5kgs, the rest, we have to pay.
It was an oversight as the bags and the bikes weighed at 56kgs. That's 16kgs overweight.
Since we were at the beginning of our journey, it was no turning back.
I made mention of this on Facebook and some asshat tried to crack a joke on my expense.
But, well, nothing I couldn't block and delete.
So, there we were, paid the excess baggage, checked-in and we're on the move!

Checking-in

Labeling the bags as 'fragile' helped in getting it over in one piece

Free and easy day
It takes about two hours to reach Ko Samui from Subang Jaya. A little time adjustment was needed to get things going.
I used Expedia.com.my for booking a 5D4N stay at the FX hotel in Chaweng.
A shared taxi ride costs 120baht per person.
When we arrived, everything was in order.
The stay came with meals (Breakfast) and it was a really good deal.
FX hotel is clean and is also equipped with internet access. But you have to pay for it.

The room in Chaweng

Dinner at the Chaweng night market

It took a brief moment for me to set up the bikes. They've arrived without any damage and we were very grateful to the staff of Firefly for this.
If it was any other airline, we would get a lot of fart-faces.
After setting up the bikes, we went out for a walk along Chaweng.
The first order of the day was to look for a meal.
We found it at a hawker centre in town.
A simple meal costs about 280baht (three dishes and rice with some beers).
Our first day in Ko Samui, we took it rather easy.
We rested as the long ride around the island looms ahead...