About M.C.M – One night last month I was having drinks with my friend Margaret at the Upperhouse (my new favourite place for drinking) and we all came up with an idea that we should take a summer escape together to go somewhere which has a beach and sunshine to have a long girls’ chat while enjoying a coconut drink on the beach. A couple of islands around south Asia came to be on our summer get-away list this time: Bali, Koh Samui or Boracay. We ended up choosing Koh Samui, and another pretty girl named Maggie, a friend of Margaret who was also interested in this trip, therefore, M.C.M Samui Vacation became the group name of this trip.
Hotel – We stayed in Sareeraya Villas & Suites Hotel, which is located in the northern, quieter part of Chaweng Beach. The hotel provides a quality environment and service. It costs around HKD 2,500 per night including tax and service charges for a Jacuzzi Sea View Suite on the dates we stayed in the beginning of September. We booked it on the Agoda which has similar prices compared to other hotel websites, such as booking.com and kosamui.com.
Chef’s table – the restaurant in the hotel that is just near the beach, has a marvellous view of the sea and the beach. You can book in advance for a table on the beach for some tantalizing dining, which is very romantic if you’re a couple staying there on honeymoon. Also, there are two nice bars in the hotel named “Read bar” and “Her bar”, which is supposed to have a chemical reaction when they are read together: yes, Read Her! If that were possible…Her bar is adjacent to the swimming pool so you can order some drinks while you’re swimming and look at the sea – Now that’s life!
Since Margaret had gone back to Hong Kong for work, me and Maggie stayed in Samui Cliff View Resort & Spa for our last night in Samui which is located near to Lamai beach. The price was around 1,100 for a Beachfront Villa. However, I don’t really recommend this resort as you might get bored at night due to the location which is not near either Chaweng or Lamai, but sure, the cliff view was quite special.
Drink Gallery – The Library (RED Closet recommended)
There are only two things we did which I can remember from this vacation except staying in the hotel, which happened in the restaurant and on the way to restaurant. The first restaurant we went to was the extremely chic Drink Gallery at The Library. We saw the recommendations for the restaurant everywhere in the Samui airport and lifestyle magazines, and the food and drinks turned out to be both great in terms of taste and presentation, which are also reasonably priced.
Jarhead (THB 290) / Apple Crumble Martini (THB 290) / A Peach Pit & A Bee (THB 190)
Linguine Chicken Confit with Pink Sause (THB 390) / Spicy Thai Style King Mackerel Salad “Lab Pla” (THB 190) / Crispy Seaweed (THB 350) / Lime Chicken Soup (Tom Kha Gai) (THB 250) / Dark Chocolate Pot De Crème (THB 150)
InterContinental Samui Baan Taling Ngam Resort – Actually, we headed to the resort not for eating but for the spa. Before our appointment for the spa, we popped in to the restaurant for another chat. They serve fushion cuisines, but mostly Thai and Italian. The hotel has a fantastic sea view, so it is a great idea to have afternoon delight and relax there.
The Cliff Bar & Grill – Voted 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011 & 2013 as one of Thailand’s best restaurants. I wasn’t really keen on Mediterranean cuisine there, as I’m a big fan of Thai food, and especially considering I was in Thailand. So why did we still try the restaurant? We just saw its “recommendation” or you might call it “advertisement” anywhere so we got suckered. The weather was partly showers thus I wasn’t much impressed by the cliff view due to the overcast but the food and drinks were still up to the standard.
Radiance Restaurant – The Spa Resort (RED Closet recommended)
Having dinner in the Radiance restaurant wasn’t planned, just the last night we stayed in the Cliff View Resort in Lamai, walking along by the Lamai beach to find a place to eat, and saw the restaurant just there, which looked like a park overgrown with trees inside, so me and Maggie agreed why not give it a try. It turned out to have an extensive vegetarian menu, which is incredibly adventurous and creative, with plenty of raw options and traditional Thai dishes; very refreshing and tasty.
Activities – Sunbathing & Spa – As I mentioned earlier in this post, we only did two things in Samui – eat and travel to eat . Apart from that, sunbathing (only me) and spas were the main activities in the vacation. We went to two different hotels to enjoy spas – one was InterContinental Resort, another was Le Méridien Koh Samui Resort & Spa.
InterContinental spa was superb just as its name, whereas the spa in Le Méridien was so secluded that a Thai girl brought us down to a cellar which looked like an old-basement in an ancient complex as one might see in costume dramas (Ugh…I should’ve taken some pictures there, I just didn’t know what was going on at the time). I would recommend InterContinental as they provided higher quality services and their environment was gorgeous.Spa price ranges (per spa) – InterContinental: from THB 3500 – 5000 (HKD 900 – 1250) / Le Méridien: from THB 2500 – 4000 (HKD 625 – 1000)
Also, people played Kongming lanterns (Chinese Sky Fly Fire Lanterns) on the beach at nights which is actually very dangerous as it might burn the properties or the natural forest when they fall.
Samui international airport – You might like to shop for some souvenirs before you go back home, and just spend any remaining time while you’re waiting for your flight. There are lots of stores just around the corner of the Samui airport where you can buy some Thai accessories and clothes or small souvenirs.
Please also check out the post about our dresses in Koh Samui
More photos on Flickr