Samet Island, Hong Kong(1)

I got cheated!

12/2(Thu)	excursion to Samet Island
Lodging	Asia Hotel Bangkok / 1,090B per night
	[booking sites for you / agoda.com Asia Hotels Booking.com Hotel Club venere]
Major expense(s)	admission fee	Samet Island: 200B
	transportation cost	BTS / Ratchathewi-Ekkamai: 30B Bus / Bangkok(Ekkamai)-Rayong: 117B Bus / Banpae-Bangkok(Ekkamai): 124B Taxi / Rayong-Banpae: 150B (negotiable) Chartered Boat/ Banpae-Koh Samet (round trip): 5,000B
Related Sites	General Links - Asia Thailand Bangkok and its surroundings Eastern Thailand
My Advice	Koh Samet (Samet Island) is one of suitable destination for day excursion from Bangkok. The island is worthy to go with early rising because of beautiful beach and clear sea water. Buying a bus ticket, you must say "Koh Samet or Banpae" at the ticket counter. If you say "Rayong," you may be asked "Are you going to Koh Samet?" Actually, I was planning to go shopping in Rayong, I bought a ticket for there. But in terms of results I was taken to chartered boat ticket counter by taxi and got cheated into buying overcharged ticket at Banpae. Hence I strongly think to have not to stop over there. There are many chartered boat ticket counter around the pier of Banpae, possibly taxies from Rayong take you to there. Of course if you go to the island by it, you can stay as long as one wants and go to a kind of private beaches; however, I think it's unnecessary to spend a number of times of regular services.

convenient BTS Sky Train

Thanks to BTS Sky Train, I thought that it's easily accessible to major commercial area than before. At least exploring walkable tourist attractions from the BTS station, it's unnecessary to bother about taxi fare, bargaining with tuktuk drivers and taking local buses. And it's also easily accessible to bus terminals by BTS: Mochit (Northern Bus Terminal) and Ekkamai (Eastern Bus Terminal). If you transfer to the Metro Line, you can go to Hua Lamphone Railway Station. Khon Song Sai Tai (Southern Bus Terminal) along Somdet Phra Pin Klao Road cannot be reached by BTS, you should take a bus No.503 (Zone-1) or No.511 (Zone-3). For further city bus information is BMTA web site.

Ao Wai, Samet Island
Ao Wai is very nice beach and private for tourist like the nature, sea sand and sun. If you like the white sand and good beach for swimming and sunbathe let consider it.

Off-line meeting in Hong Kong - the first day

12/3(Fri)	Bangkok(Don Muang) 10:00-Cathay Pacific Airways(CX)708-13:40 Hong Kong(Chek Lap Kok)
Lodging	Evergreen / HK$400 per night
Lodging	[booking sites for you / agoda.com Asia Hotels Booking.com Hotel Club venere]
Major expense(s)	Taxi / hotel-Don Muang: 700B Airport Tax for International: 500B Octopus Card: HK$150
Related Sites	General Links - Asia Thailand Hong Kong Bangkok and its surroundings

Eating hawker foods in Temple Street

Bo jai faan (a bowl of rice topped with various cooked foods)	Tim ban dim (sweet taste shop)

Our member

Off-line meeting of the traveling circle "Soreyuke (Let's go)" took place in Hong Kong as well as last year. Our member was Mr. Ishikawa, Miss Hirosawa, Mr. Sato and me. We came here several times except Mr. Sato.

I arrived at Evergreen hotel, and then I could only reached Mr. Ishikawa who had a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) style cellular phone. So he loves Mong Kok Computer Centre, of course he took me to there and repeatedly said "Why don't you buy a cellular phone?" Because he explained that these phone can be used in major countries of the world except South Korea and Japan. Actually he was in a good mood because he purchased new cellular phone. But I paused on purchase as I thought cellular phone is seldom used abroad unlike him.

After exploring at Mong Kok Computer Centre, we went to get a massage at Kwong Tai Foot Reflexology Clinic/ address: Room901, 9F, Metropole Building, 57 Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kawloon/ Tel: 2770-1228), which is a member of QTSA/Quality Tourism Services Association. The foot reflexology is great way to pass the time before dinner.

We met Miss Hirosawa at Jordan MTR station at 8 p.m., and then we went to have hawker foods in Temple Street. Acutually she loves hawker foods, so she took us to there without hesitation. The Bo Jai Faan (a bowl of rice topped with various cooked foods) is very nice taste. With the Wan Tan Min (noodle with shrimp dumplings), it's a best combination, I guess. Finally we ate some local sweets. I felt us to be the locals.