Santhiya @ Koh Phangan – The Not Good

The issues we had with our stay at Santhiya began almost immediately after we landed at Koh Samui airport. Sigh.

Upon landing at the airport and after clearing customs and collecting our luggage, we headed to the Arrivals pick-up point and waited there stupidly for 45 minutes, before a friendly local who was also waiting for his pick-up gestured that we were supposed to go to the other pick-up point – which I assumed was the Departures drop-off – for our ride to the Koh Samui pier. Yep you’ve guessed it. We had no idea there was this other pick-up point that while was just a few minutes away, was not within eye-shot. We were thus late for our pick-up for our scheduled speedboat transfer to the resort’s pier. Not that our late arrival mattered, since the choppy waters meant that the speedboat could not directly transfer us to the resort’s pier, but instead brought us to the back-up location – Baan Tai pier, which was on the opposite end of the island. The boat ride in choppy waters was terrifying for Hannah and Peter, but there was more to come. Between the pier and the resort were winding roads up and down hills, and a very bumpy stretch of muddy road where our 4×4 vehicle had to inch forwards trying to navigate the path.

Thing is; I’d read a lot about the transportation options getting to the resort, and opted specifically for the direct speedboat transfer from Koh Samui to the resort as I wasn’t sure how the kids would handle bumpy rides. I also checked my correspondence with the resort to see if they said anything about the other pick-up point. Nothing on that end either. When I pointed this out to the Guest Relations Officer at the Resort, all I got was an apologetic reply that the choppy waters meant that the speedboat could not bring us to the Resort’s pier, but there was no offer of a refund or even partial discount off the premium we paid for it.

The unit as I described previously is indeed lovely and well-decorated, but it’s not without its sets of issues. For starters, the teak wood floor base did not seem to absorb vibrations well. In fact they seemed somewhat hollow beneath. While I didn’t for a moment think that the structure was going to collapse under its weight anytime soon, it did mean that we had to tiptoe everywhere we were in the unit, less our foorsteps gave the rest of our family nausea. The problem was less pronounced in the common areas like the main restaurant, presumably because it was less elevated than the villa units, but we had to frequently confine Hannah to her bed when Peter was trying to nap, lest her foot steps around the villa wake him up.

Oddly too, we faced power disruptions several times a day – especially at night. It wasn’t a big thing, since the disruption came back on simultaneously each time, but I observed that their WIFI router reset each time too in these power outages, which meant an inconvenient re-login reconnection back to the router

And talking about Internet access, believe or not – Internet access was better in the toilet end of our villa than the main living/bedroom areas. In fact, WIFI was so spotty in the latter areas that it was practically unusable for a good part of our stay. The Internet access in the main restaurant and concierge areas were much better though, so you’ll want to head there if you have serious work to do.

And the mosquitoes – ugh. We live in the tropics and know more than a thing or two about mosquitoes. But the situation in the Resort can get pretty bad. One evening while waiting for dinner, we hung out at the concierge lobby – and Ling with her eagle-eyes, smacked a total of five critters in the space of 15 minutes. And Hannah got one even. The mosquitoes for the most part didn’t get into our villa, but on the occasion when a couple did one evening, gave all of us bites (excepting Peter who slept in a mosquito net).

Most seriously though was the overall pricing of dining in the Resort. Granted that this is an island, and I guess most fresh produce has to be brought in, but it was hard to believe the dine-in prices at the Resort’s restaurants when a nearby village with numerous street-side restaurants were whipping up local cuisine at a fraction of the price. Stir-fried mixed vegetables for instance cost 330THB in the Resort, and 70THB in the village’s restaurants. I don’t think higher prices for better service standards at least, hygiene probably and culinary quality are unusual, but the price difference was almost 5 times in this case. That’s just too much differential in my opinion.

On the third evening, we had the international buffet at 799THB an adult – and I had food poisoning. Yep, me – a Singaporean who’s used to stomach abuse with all the wildly different food available here at the International crossroads – vomited and stayed sick for the next 2 days, making miserable a good part of my stay. Oh, maybe it had nothing to do with the buffet, but the nausea and vomiting started 30 minutes after we finished. Too close to not draw a relation. Peter didn’t get spared too, picking up a touch of diarrhea at the last few days.

Topping it off; our vacation was at a period when the weather was mostly gloomy. That caught us by surprise, as we’d thought this part of the world wouldn’t be experiencing monsoon. Not at all the fault of the resort of course.

All-in; would I recommend Santhiya? Yes on account of the generally good condition villas and exclusiveness of the Resort – but with caveats. Specifically: be aware of the transportation options and risks, live with the mosquitoes, be prepared to take the 10 minute brisk walk to the nearby village for meals, and bring diarrhea medication – just in case!

Next couple of posts to come on the various other parts of our stay, and additional notes on our stay @ Santhiya.