Half day Tour in Samui Island

Our second and last day in Samui was fun. After eating breakfast and checking out of our hotel, we hopped on to the mini van our tour company set for us to have a half day city tour.

I found out about this tour from the internet and booked with them through a phone call. Payment for the tour was 400 THB per person and  pick up time was set at 9am. The driver arrived promptly at our hotel. There were only 4 of us initially and we were again happy for such a small group.

The first site we visited was called Leam Suwanaram Temple. This Buddhist Temple features a white 18-arm image of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy and Compassion. A long white bridge leads you into the the temple and closer to the image since it is located in the center of a pond.

Next up was the Big Buddha. This was quite near from the first temple we visited and is locally known as Wat Phra Yai. Sources say that this was built in 1972 and is on a small island connected to Koh Samui by a causeway.

Our footwear was required to be taken off when alighting the stairs. Thankfully, there was a big sign saying that the colored tiles are not that hot. Good tip!

We were also taken to the view point. They said that this is the best view of the sea in a panoramic view. The path at my back leads to the sea shore. I bet the place would be a nice venue to view sunrise and sunset.

The tour included a visit to the Mummified Monk Temple. As the name implies, it features a mummified monk enclosed in a glass for display. This is the body of Koh Samui's most famous monk, Loung Pordaeng. He died in 1973 while meditating. A sunglass is put in place because the sight of the dried eyeballs may be disturbing to some.

Another site we visited is the Namuang Falls. We were offered 2 choices to get to the falls. First was through elephant trekking which will take about 30 minutes and walking will take about 5 minutes. We chose to walk to the falls and it was a good choice. It didn't cost an additional fee to walk towards the falls and we even saw several stalls along the way selling Samui shirts and souvenirs.

The falls has a pool for its bottom and some rock formations that creates a steep stairway and yet very useful for some nice shots. I am currently not brave enough to walk near falls or any stones near a body of water due to the accident I had in Trang. I mustered enough courage to have this photo taken.

To entertain tourists, we were ushered to watch a monkey show. We have known that in Samui, monkeys are very useful as they do the hardest work such as climbing trees and picking ripe coconuts. We saw how one monkey was able to climb up and send some coconuts to the ground. Wincee did not miss to take a photo of this star picker.

The last site we visited was the Grandmother and Grandfather Rock. These are rocks that respectively look like the male and female genitalia. This titillating site has drawn a lot of laughs from the tourists that are brought here by tour companies.

There are also other spectacular views around this rock formation as well as the coastal line of Samui. Entry to where the rocks is free of charge. A lot of stalls are also built to provide tourists some souvenirs, food and refreshments.

It was a fast and breezy half day tour. We asked our driver to drop us off at the airport instead of at the hotel. We were just in time to catch our flight back to Phuket.

Thank you for your time. 'Til my next blog :)