KOH SAMUI, THAILAND
Koh Samui is an island off the east coast of the Kra Isthmus in Thailand and is its third largest island surrounded by about sixty other islands. A mere twenty years ago Koh Samui was visited only by fearlessly adventurous backpackers. Today, however, it is a multinational thriving melting-pot tropical island of communities with welcoming wide-range appeal. Koh Samui is matchless among Thailand’s islands in that it provides a wide range of accommodations, great nightlife, action sports, beautiful scenery and the relaxed atmosphere like no other island can.
The island was most likely first inhabited about 15 centuries ago by fishermen from the Malay Peninsula and Southern China who settle there. It appears on maps of the Ming Dynasty dating back to 1687 at which time it was named Pulo Cornam. It is unclear when the island was renamed Samui nor is it known where the name came from. There are two prevalent theories, however. One surmises that Samui is an extension of the name of one of the native trees, mui. The other theory infers that it could have been a deliberate or an inadvertent corruption of the Chinese word Saboey, meaning “safe haven.”
Samui was a self-sufficient community that was isolated and had little to no connection with the mainland of Thailand until the late twentieth century. Traveling the nine and a half miles (15 kilometers) from one side of the island to the other required a full day’s journey through its uninhabitable mountainous central jungles surrounded by lowland areas because the island had no paved roads until the early 1970s.
Nestled on the southwest coast of the island, Nathon is Samui’s original capital and is still the seat of the regional government. And with its port for fishing and inter-island transportation it is the commercial hub of the locals. Nathon provides a calm charming environment and exotic Chinese history.
Traditionally the island’s economy was based solely on agriculture and fishing but as of the 1980s; tourism has become its biggest and most significant industry. Furthermore, construction of a stable, high-speed Internet connection in the past several years attracted many international IT-based enterprises and investors. At present, Samui boasts population of over forty-five thousand and lives well on a successful tourist industry and IT-based firms on top of exports of coconut and rubber. In spite of the fact that economic growth has brought much prosperity to the island, it continues to retain the unspoiled tropical island image that the public looks for. Most of its visitors are those that are seeking to “get away from it all” and its rural beach communities with their white beaches and clear warm sea readily provides just that. The very beautiful and surprisingly clean Chaweng Beach covers a large portion of the island’s northeast coast, and is by far the most crowded and tourist-flooded region on the island.
With the construction of its own International Samui Airport and owing to the daily flights to and from Bangkok and other major airports in Southeast Asia, access to the island has become quick and easy for every one to enjoy.
