Day 24 – Conrad Koh Samui On Stilts

I think with all the preceding crazy days and the buildup of various illnesses between Jia and I, we were totally content with just not doing a whole lot.

Last Minute Time in the Water

I requested a late check out of 1PM so after we caught breakfast we sat around on the beach chairs and then decided to roam around the water off the beach by foot.  Thank god we could borrow water shoes though because I didn’t realize how rocky and coral-filled it would be.

Packing up once again, we took Le Meridien’s own van over to the Conrad Koh Samui for 500 baht I believe it was (ridiculous).

Conrad Koh Samui Grand Entrance

Arriving at the Conrad Ko Samui, already you can tell it’s going to be something special.  The top lobby is perched at the top of the mountain and at first glance you get to see the vastness of the sea ahead of you and the dotted 5 islands but then you inch closer to the glass and look down where you can then see all the suites below on stilts.  The check in progress was like most of the others in Southeast Asia where they make you sit down in the lounge and they take care of the paper work at their own desk.  The lemon-grass cold drink they gave us was so good.  You have to realize that each suite is an individual “house” and on stilts against the sloping mountain.  It’s so big in fact that you have to pretty much take a golf cart everywhere you go.  Once all the paper work was done one of the girls got us to hop on a golf cart and then to our suite 315.

The Suite

I think we were both in some state of shock as she walked us through the room.  The pictures below don’t even do it full justice.  The view first of all is spectacular.  The infinity pool is like no other (who needs Marina Bay Sands).  The room is nicely decorated with a mix of traditional accents and modern objects and appliances.  The bathroom is huge and complete with a caldron bath tub and sliding door access to the pool.  The TV is powered by a Mac Mini and movies are FREE (that’s right…FREE..albeit they were all older movies).  Seriously this is the kind of resort where you really don’t need to leave your room.  It has everything you need!

We spent the rest of the afternoon just unpacking and watching the sunset over the five islands.

For dinner we got a hotel transport (500 baht) to TripAdvisor #2 restaurant close by called Nuch’s Green Ta’lay Restaurant which was fantastic.  We had a raw shrimp appetizer, duck curry and stir fried fish.

Tips

• If you’re going to be using hotel points book as early as possible even if just to hold the dates.  With Hilton you can pretty much cancel without consequence up to 24 hours before your arrival date so a trick that I’ve been using is making a few reservations in advance if I’m unsure about the exact dates I want.  The problem that I ran into with Ko Samui was that during the planning we ended up adding an extra Ko Samui date last minute.  When I called Hilton back to make the shift, the hotel had already locked down all the rooms and all the HHonor rooms jumped sky high.  As a result we had to use Jia’s SPG points to save us for that first night.
• If you’re on the south side of Ko Samui definitely check out Nuch’s Green Ta’lay Restaurant.

Itinerary

• Breakfast at Le Meridien Koh Samui
• Chill at the resort
• Transport to the Conrad Koh Samui
• Chill in our suite
• Dinner at Nuch’s Green Ta’lay Restaurant

Check out the Next Day

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Curious what else I did on my trip to Asia?  See the full itinerary and all 89 days.