Thailand, Koh Samui – Neil’s House

Great beach house in the quite village of Taling Ngam on the Western side of the island, away from the crowds and busy tourist spots of Lamai and Chaweng. The nearby beach is beautiful and very quiet; often there weren’t many other people, if any, at the beach with us. The house had everything stated in the listing and was clean and tidy on arrival. Neil, the host, is based in Canada but we still had a good level of communication. For local assistance, their neighbour and friend, Mr Sak is very friendly and helpful and speaks reasonable English.

Koh Samui_Neil's House

Local restaurants we tried –
  • 4 P Restaurant – beachside restaurant, good food & service, dishes starting from around 100 THB/$4 NZD upwards. Beers were 70 THB/$2.80 NZD (small) & 110 THB/$4.40 NZD (large)
  • Jaew Restaurant – across the road, great food & service, dishes were 50-70 THB/$2-2.80 NZD. Open 8am – 4pm.
  • Ban Taling Ngam Restaurant – Lovely lady who cooks in a road front stall with seating up under cover. Large menu, not priced but dishes start from 50 THB/$2 NZD. Ate here twice & got takeaways twice, everything was really good.
  • Mr Sak cooks a few local treats, including deep fried bananas, at the roadside stall, every day except Wednesday.

There was also another stall on the roadside selling sweet treats and another restaurant across the road (don’t think they were open on Wednesdays either) but didn’t try these places.

Distant to:

  • Two roadside stalls and two restaurants – 20m
  • The Elephant Gate – 270m
  • Wat Khiri Wongkaram & Mummified Monk – 650m
  • Ban Taling Ngam Restaurant – 700m
  • Little shop selling neccessities near the beach – 1km
  • The beach & 4 P Restaurant – 1.2km

Koh Samui_Taling Ngam Beach

We hired scooters in Nathon to get around, very easy, didn’t get asked for any driver licences (not sure if this is good or not), just had to leave a passport with them as security. We got 2 scooters & 4 helmets for 5 days and paid a total of 1,500 THB/$60 NZD.

Driver/Taxi costs –

  • Lipa Noi Pier to house (Taling Ngam) (5km) – 400 THB/$16 NZD
  • Taling Ngam to Nathon (10km) – 500 THB/$20 NZD
  • Taling Ngam to Lomprayah Pier (21km) – 800 THB/$32 NZD

Price – $40.85 NZD per night (included a privately arranged rebate, cleaning fee & Airbnb service fees)