We stopped over in Chumphon on the way to Koh Samui. We took the train from Bangkok to Chumphon. Tanisa kindly organised a free shuttle from the train station to the resort. The resort is beautiful and the room (for 3 adults) was brilliant. They provided a camper bed for the additional person, and the general design of the room was chic with new fittings. Everything was spotless.
Most impressive was the bathroom, with a large, carved stone bath in addition to the shower. The only issue was that there wasn't actually hot water coming out of the bath taps. I can imagine, however, that in the late winter/summer months one would not need any hot water as it's totally sweltering. We were there in Thai Winter, which was usually above 30 degrees celsius, so we spent a lot of time in the pool.
The pool, surrounded by the chalets, is beautiful. Each chalet has a little balcony that looks over the pool.
In the evening we went to explore Chumphon. The staff at the front desk (although they didn't speak english) happily flagged us down as we were passing and gave us each a bicycle to ride around town. It was brilliant. The town itself is not very vibey, but there are some good restaurants to have a quick, cheap bite.
One member of staff deserves a special mention: Suwatchai. I didn't officially meet her, but I communicated with her before our trip to Thailand. She helped arrange our ferry tickets with Lomprayah Ferries from Chumphon to Koh Samui. I had struggled to book tickets online, and she arranged for tickets and trasfer from the resort to the pier.
As my first trip to Thaliand, I was super-impressed and loved my stay at Tanisa.
