Trip to the Sky (and, unfortunately, the ground)

Koh Samui is a beautiful tropical island – white-sand beaches, turquoise water, all that sort of thing. But, it is consequently an international tourist destination and no more exotic or other-worldly than Hawaii. So, a few days spent here with the wedding crew has been pleasant—but hardly adventurous.

That is until Bob and I took off on our own, on our $5-per-day rented mopeds, to explore the remoter parts of the island. Our free tourist map (perhaps not a good sign) showed a series of dirt roads crisscrossing the mountainous, uninhabited interior of the island – which promised to offer some fantastic views. We figured to spend the morning in the hills … and the afternoon at the beach.

Turns out that dirt “roads” may be impassable or not exist at all. Also turns out that the combination of: steep, gravelly and/or rocky, and deeply rutted is not a good one if a person’s purpose is scootering. …We repeatedly attacked the side of the island’s biggest mountain (map in hand), only to be forced to turn back. Our first reversal of fortune was our most absurd, entertaining, and injurious, so I’ll share a little detail.

As the photo shows, a ridiculously steep paved road (anyone ever hear of “switchbacks”) turned to a dirt trail. It APPEARED that if we could somehow get our bikes past the most difficult first few hundred yards, things would level out a bit. So, we rode, pushed, dragged, carried 2 scooters a quarter-mile up the mountain (mostly we carried) to where we could again ride … for a few hundred feet. Then, the road really ended. “Learnings”: (1) some roads should not even be attempted, (2) coming back down is much faster if more than commensurately more dangerous. We took a few spills but survived (scrapes and bruises only).



Eventually, we found an alternate route to the summit of the island’s highest peak (about 600 meters). One could say the “views were worth it” – but in fact, it was the beating the crap out of ourselves but ultimately getting up some truly gnarly byways not meant for scooters that was itself the biggest reward. Our pre-swim “ride” turned out to be 10+ hours of self abuse (and, to a lesser degree, scooter abuse) … but that somehow added up to the absolute best day on Koh Samui. I highly recommend it – for any who read this and still want to give it a go.