Dr(Arm)as and Thailand

I am now back from my holiday and sat in a delightful London cafe sipping away at an oat flat white. My plan after the holiday was to write a day-by-day itinerary of places that we’ve been to, things that were good and bad, and places that we’ve eaten, so that if anyone wanted to go to Thailand they might seek recommendations of do’s and don't’s. That was the plan. But on day 6 of 15, I fell down a hole (this would be on my list of don’t’s). I will still do the day-by-day itinerary which would be ideal for you if you have an injury that you are not allowed to get wet (no swimming, no snorkelling, no waterfalls, no easy showers), but first here’s the story:

There are parts of Thailand that aren’t completely full of pavements that don’t have holes in, cracks, spikes jutting out of them. I didn’t know this at the time. We were walking back from a great day out feeding elephants (see day 5), and a car was gently coming towards us. I stand on the pavement, facing the road, back to the unknown. The road was a little narrower for the car than I anticipated, so I took a step back, and dissappeared down this hole.

My leg slipped all the way inside up to my groin. I smacked my head on a rock, and my arm on the ground. Remarkably, my leg was fine, I had a bit of a bump on my ear (Molly had to pull a twig out of my ear that had penetrated it!), but my main issue was my arm. Luckily there was just a cut on my arm, but boy, this could have been so much worse.

The cut was nasty, and pretty big (I have photos, but they are properly rank! If you want to see them, email me the code words “appetite spoilers”). We made an effort to clean it, and bandage it up, but we’re not doctors (spoiler alert). A few days passed and we decided to head to the medical centre where I had a minor operation, and they removed 3 rocks from my arm but my wound was infected. They said if we had left it any longer the infection would’ve started to eat my arm muscles, which is not the ideal situation for a juggler. I was put on some antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, and I then had to go to the medical centre each day for the rest of the holiday (this was also not on our Thailand to-do list) so that they could clean, re-dress, remove dead skin (sorry!), and basically assess the wound. I’m telling you all of this for a few reasons:

If you have an injury abroad, and you are in doubt about what you should do, get it checked by a pro.
This is the reason the below itinerary has no wet activities in it.

Nonetheless, we did everything that we could to make the holiday good despite the inconveniences, and we are already planning a trip next year to go back to Koh Samui and do it properly (without falling in a hole).

Regrettably, this injury has meant that I can’t juggle properly at the moment, and has caused me to cancel my contract on P&O Britannia next week. But I have every intention of getting myself sorted quickly, but most importantly, correctly. No short cuts, just healing time. Also, I have to say that my wife Molly has earned extra super-wife points over the holiday. She was an absolute trooper in not only dealing with the situation, but remaining positive and making the most of the cards we were dealt.

Ok, now you know all the ins and outs, here is what we got up to.

Day 1

Arrived in Bangkok and headed to Anantara Riverside Resort.

We absolutely loved this hotel. It felt proper posh. We only had a few nights here before we flew to Koh Samui, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. We were pretty exhausted from the travel day so we had a Pad Thai in the hotel and a few beers. I would say that despite the hotel being perfect, meals there were quite expensive.

Day 2

Started the day with coffee on the balcony. This is something that Molly and I love to do on every holiday. It’s genuinely one of the things I look forward to most. We were quite jet-lagged, so we were up before the sun. We booked ourselves a vegan food tour with Taste of Thailand. This was the perfect thing to do on our first day out, as we had no idea how to navigate Bangkok, and also didn’t have 100% confidence that we’d find it easy to eat vegan out here. This tour blew our minds and we ate like royalty! Firstly we visited Khun Churn in White and had Khao Soi.

Then went to Mae Varee and had Mango and Sticky rice. This was a dish I was very excited about as I am a bit of a mango fiend.

Then we went to Broccoli Revolution for a Thai green curry that blew my head clean off. Next we went onto Vistro-Vegan Cafe and Restuarant for Papaya Salad, and finished the day at Veganarie Massaman Curry with fried Roti.

Our tour guide Sally was amazing. I cannot recommend this tour enough. Vegan or not, you will not be disappointed.

Then we had a delightful coffee at Halo Koffee before heading back to the hotel and crashing for the night.

Day 3

We took the ferry from the hotel to Salthorn and then another from Salthorn to Tah Tian, to visit the The Grand Palace. Before we entered the grand palace we had breakfast at the local Veganarie and then coffee at Jiwakiat Coffee.

The Grand Palace was pretty cool!

Then lunch Began Vegan and coffee at Orin Coffee Roaster, followed by our first Thai massage at the “home of thai massage”.

We finished the evening with dinner at Aksorn which was a Michelin star restaurnat with a plant based tasting menu. It was nice. If I am being honest, for the price we paid, it wasn’t that worth it. It was nice enough, but didn’t blow us away. It wasn’t in the top 5 meals of the holiday, let’s put it that way!

Day 4

We leave Bangkok and fly to Koh Samui. In the airport lounges at Bangkok airport, I loved that they had people offering complimentary Thai Massages. When we landed we picked up hire car from Coconut Island Rentals (I highly recommend this company. Very easy and professional and reasonable prices). Drive to our first accommodation in Koh Samui, Kapuhala, where we would spend the next 7 nights. Kapuhala was an interesting place. We booked it because it was meant to be some of the best vegan food on the island, and this is true. We did have a few issues with the place that didn’t quite fit what we were looking for:

They only served Italian food, which was fantastic by the way, but we would’ve eaten there a lot more if they mixed the menu up a bit. At the end fo the day, we didn’ go to Thailand to eat Italian food.
The website boasted that they have yoga classes, ice bath classes etc. We asked about classes on day 1 and they said “it’s kind of when the owner feels like it”. For the entire week we were there, as far as we knew, no classes happened.
We stayed in the tented accommodation. It’s not a tent in the traditional sense. It was a huge room, that had tented sides that you had to unzip to get in. This meant that there was obviously no way to lock the room. This made us feel a little uneasy.
It felt quite understaffed. There were many steps and ramps to get to our room so when we arrived we had to ask about how we get our bags to the room and also when we left, someone came to help us with our bags once we had already lugged them to the top of the ramp. Then the person working there said, “ok we can send someone to get your bags”. What?! We didn’t know that was an option. Drenched with sweat, we kindly said that the bags were already in the car. It just felt like there was no communication and lack of people to ask
Our biggest annoyance with Kapuhala was that the last order for dinner was at 7pm, and breakfast wasn’t served until 9am. This was to encourage a fasting lifestyle. I’m sure this is good for you, but boy, I’m on holiday, I didn’t want to fast! So as good as the food was, we chose to eat else where.

Day 5

Started the day with our morning coffee on balcony.

We then visited Vikasa for lunch, which would soon become one of our favourites. Great food, loads of vegan options, and cracking views.

A friend of mine recommended that I go to Skandi Collection which is a very good local tailor. I ordered a couple of very nice tailored suits for an incredible price. Then another massage in Lamai, a beer by the beach then back to Kapuhala for an incredibly early dinner (it’s a good job we were jet-lagged!).

Day 6

We really wanted to see some elephants in Thailand, but we were aware that a lot of places are quite unethical and give the elephants a bit of a rough time. After a little research we found Samui Elephant Sanctuary, which is an ethical elephant sanctuary that rescue and care for ill-treated elephants. We were blown away by this place. There were no elephant rides, and we never saw any signs of anything other than love and care for the animals. We got to prepare their food, and then feed them. No elephants were locked up, no chains, no nothing. It was incredible. As part of the tour, they then served us food at the end and it was way better than it had to be. We talked about that particular massaman curry for the entire trip.

Then I fell down a hole (see above story).

Day 7

Headed into Chaweng to get some bits from the pharmacy to patch up the arm. We had lunch at Vegan Khunnay. This place was incredible. It was an all you can eat Thai vegan buffet for about £3.00, however if you leave any food on your plate at the end there is a fine of 100THB (£2.33). A good system I think.

Once fed, we popped over to Flo Central Samui for coffee.

Then a walk on Chaweng Beach, another massage (we honestly couldn’t get enough), and then rounded off the day at Lamai Night Market and had Pad Thai.

Day 8

Saw a snake! If you know me, you’ll know I get very excited about things like this. It was a Golden Tree Snake, and boy, what a stunner.

Lunch today was at a recommended resort called Beach Republic where we had Pad Krapow and of course coconuts.

We also experimented with the cling film method of keeping my arm dry. At this point, we didn’t know it was already infected and that there were 3 rocks in my arm! The method worked well actually, but if we knew what we knew now, we probably shouldn’t have done that!

This is what DIY Doctoring looks like. I honestly cannot recommend this.

Finished the day with a curry in a coconut at our favourite Vikasa!

Day 9

Went for a great coffee at Drip indeed, where we were greeted by the ferocious guard dog.

Followed by an amazing lunch at The Sunset. This was the best Kao Soi I’ve ever had, and it was overlooking a beautiful beach too. Very cool place.

Then we went to visit the Big Buddha. This was quite a strange experience, because some parts of it looked great like this…

But then other parts were covered in litter and very unkept. Like this…

Personally I wouldn’t really recommend this. If you are passing through, sure, pop in. But I wouldn’t suggest going out of your way for it.

Then things got a little gnarly as we decided to head to the medical centre and get my arm seen to by pros. This included arm surgery and the removal of rocks, not ideal, but essential.

Day 10

We went for coconuts at Tree House. This place looked great, and if we had more time we would’ve loved to have gone back and visited for lunch, or even stay the night.

For lunch and coffee we went to Baannairai Farm House. The best Thai green curry I’ve ever had.

Second visit to medical centre followed by Fishermans Village Night Market. We didn’t have a great time at the night market to be honest. It didn’t appear very vegan friendly so we had a curry in a side restaurant and then headed back to the hotel.

Day 11

We finished our stay at Kapuhala and moved ourselves down to The Lamai Samui. This place was super posh and we liked it a lot! This is one of the places we are considering going back to if we plan on returning to Koh Samui next year. We had a very nice lunch at Kawin’s Kitchen where we had yet another Kao Soi. Another visit to the lovely medical centre. Then back to the hotel for the evening for Mango Coladas and dinner.

Day 12

Initially we wanted to do a tour to Pig Island and then go snorkelling. But as this was now not an option, we decided to plan our own trip to Pig Island and save the snorkeling for a time when I’m allowed to wet myself. We took a longtail boat to Pig Island thinking that it’d be a gentle ride. Luckily, just before we set off, we took precautions and wrapped my arm in cling film to prevent any light splashes of water. It’s a good job we did this because 10 seconds into the boat trip we were both soaked.

Pig Island was a bit odd if I’m honest. It’s a tropical island that is full of free roaming pigs, as you’d expect. But it didn’t seem the most ethical. When we arrived we were given bottles of water which we assumed was for us, but then we noticed that the second you opened the water, pigs surrounded you and wanted to drink it! After we quenched their thirsts, we saw a few pigs fighting, and some with quite bad wounds, and even one foaming at the mouth. Then we noticed that in the beach bar their menu was predominantly pork based. I think we accidentally found ourselves on a pig farm! Once this penny drop, we boated out of there, and grabbed a vegan burger at Annie’s which was delicious. Another trip to the clinic and then dinner at the hotel. Even though Pig Island wasn’t what we had expected, it still felt nice to get out on a trip. I think we were both feeling a little trapped cos of my arm, but this day really perked us up.

Day 13

Breakfast at Pure Vegan Heaven. Boy, this place is good. If you are a vegan in Koh Samui, promise me you’ll go here. Go on. Promise me! We had a cracking breakfast here, and then popped just across the road to Inner Massage where for just £7 you can get professionally beat up by a Thai woman. Fantastic.

Then lunch at Beach Republic. The Daily Clinic. And then dinner at Wild Tribe. If I’m honest, we didn’t have the nicest meal here. I’m not sure if it’s because our other meals have been so good, but this one felt particularly bland.

Day 14

Pure Vegan Heaven for breakfast again! Then a massage, again. Then the clinic, once again! We had great coffee at our new local Shade. And then dinner and cocktails at hotel.

Day 15

The last day visiting the clinic. I cannot recommend Dr Health Wound Care enough if you have any issues in Koh Samui. The team there sorted me right out, and without them, I’d be pretty screwed. So thank you to everyone there!

A final lunch at Vikasa. A final massage. Then off to the airport to fly back to ol’ blighty.

So that’s it! Apologies for it being a long blog this week, but if it has helped any of you with suggestions of what to do (go to Koh Samui) or what not to do (fall down a hole), then that’s great. If you’ve managed to get this far in the blog, well done! You are part of the commited elite Jon Udry Fans. The Udricorns if you like (it needs work). Udrymers (like “You Dreamers”)?! I’m recovering well. In fact today, in about 3 hours time, I am going to go a try and juggle for the first time in 2 weeks. My wound is still very big, but it’s less sore. So let’s see what happens!

Take care of yourself, and stay out of unwelcome holes. Bye!

The Hopping