Ko Samui and An Thong Marine Park

So we took a overnight train/bus/boat from Bangkok to Ko Samui on 3/11. This was fine, except I would recommend earplugs for the train and take something to knock yourself out- it's a pretty bumpy ride. Using the squat toilet on a moving train was a little bit of a challenge, but there is also a toilet (which i discovered later) in the opposite stall. While on Ko Samui, we stayed on Bophut Beach at the Sandy Resort (see tip 8 below.) We did go to the Fisherman's Village for a night and had dinner at Baia which was good- thin crust pizza and gelato- mmm....
We pretty much layed around and worked on our tans, or in Jim's case- a burn that is bringing out more freckles- but we did make it out to An Thong Marine Park for a day- which I recommend. An Thong is made up of I think 42 Islands and is about 1.5 hours by boat from Na Thon. We went with High Seas Highway Travel which was a good company. We kayaked, snorkels, and did a couple hikes to see some things- a cave and the Emerald Lake. Very pretty area.
Also, I HIGHLY recommend splurging and having dinner at Zazen- this was one of the best meals I've had. It was more expensive- I had the Goat Cheese Salad- which had lavender and blueberry dressing- SO GOOD!! Dessert was unbelievable- I should have taken a picture- I had the Vulcano Chocolate Fondant- basically a small chocolate lava cake and violet ice cream (YUM!) and some fancy chocolate swirl pieces and sugar work and a truffle and some kind of sauce- I'm still thinking about it obviously. Jim had some kind of Thia dish that was minced chicken and slightly spicy and then creme brulee- also both very good.

Travel Tip #7: Songserm was the company that did the bus/boat portion of our trip- they were very efficient and I'd recommend them. They had a few guides on the bus that met us at the train terminal and told us which bus to load on, they then explained where we were going and how long the individual portions of the trip would be. They can arrange transport once you reach Na Thon in Ko Samui as well to your individual accommodations for 150 baht on a minibus which I think is one of the cheaper ways to go and you can avoid any of the hassle of dealing with the taxi drivers at the pier.

Travel Tip# 8: We stayed at a Sandy Resort, which is right on the beach, they have a decent restaurant and the bungalows with A/C were a good deal- the bathrooms are older tile, and there are ants- but from what I can figure you'd probably have ants anywhere. We sprayed them down in the bathroom and that seemed to eliminate most of them. You can stay in more expensive places and they are probably nicer, but you'll get what you pay for for the most part. Oma at the front desk is very helpful- they can book pretty much anything you need- she took care of our An Thong tour as well as our boat tickets from Ko Samui to Ko Tao.