Click photo to enlarge
Boats transport visitors to small offshore islands for
exploration, swimming and snorkelling. Photo by Amazing
Thailand.
The flash resorts have moved into Koh Samui but the main
attraction is still the island itself, reports James Shrimpton,
of AAP.
Shattering the calm of a warm afternoon in the Samui township
of Lamai, two vans prowl the streets with loudspeakers
espousing the delights of two beach parties organised by the
rival Ark and Reggae clubs, promising music and fun lasting
until 2am.
It's a reminder that while Koh Samui in recent years has
climbed to the top end of Thailand's tourism market, it still
caters to the backpackers and budget travellers who in the
1970s first "discovered" the then-undeveloped island, on the
Gulf of Thailand 700km south of Bangkok.
Non-fancy accommodation is still available around Samui from
about 400 baht ($NZ17.30) a night, but on and around the
cliffs overlooking the sea is now a growing warren of resorts
with matchless views, five-star furnishings, exquisite
cuisines and infinity swimming pools - at umpteen times the
cost.
And these deluxe havens of privacy are attracting more and
more attention from the ranks of the rich and famous.
American singer Britney Spears was reported staying at one of
the newer resorts during our visit, and we were told that
British football star David Beckham had invested in a
million-dollar villa here.
We took a look at half-a-dozen of them and stayed a couple of
nights at two: the Baan Taling Ngam Resort and Spa (70
villas, suites and rooms) on an old coconut plantation on the
west or so-called Virgin Coast, and the Silavadee Pool Spa
Resort (55 villas, suites and rooms) near Lemai in the
southeast.
Both have spacious reception areas atop cliffs 110m or so
above the gulf, and both use golf carts to ferry guests from
their tiered rooms to the white-sand beaches below, from
which boats can take them on excursions to small offshore
islands for exploration, swimming and snorkelling.
The immaculately-furnished guest rooms all have stunning sea
views, as do diners in the outdoor/indoor restaurants.
Samui itself is Thailand's third- largest island with an area
of 228.7sq km, roughly the same shape as Tasmania but about
300 times smaller.
The weather is tropically warm all year, with an average high
of 30degC; September and October are the rainy months.
Tourism has become the number-one industry on Koh Samui.
First settled some 1500 years ago by fishermen from the Malay
Peninsula, the island was known as a grower and exporter of
kapok cotton and coconut products before the backpackers
began arriving 25 years ago.
A trickle soon became a stream as mostly young people from
Europe and elsewhere in the West came to enjoy cheap holidays
in the sun - not totally unlike (at least geographically) the
island of Phi Phi Le featured in the Leonardo DiCaprio movie
The Beach, released in 2000.
The stream became a flood in the 1990s as the choice of
resorts grew, offering enjoyment to holidaymakers of all ages
from Europe, the Pacific, Asia and North America.
Around the most popular beach areas grew the townships of
Chaweng, Lemai, Taling Ngam and the capital, Nathon.
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