About Koh Samui

People first settled in Koh Samui around 1500 years ago. The first inhabitants were fisherman seeking shelter from the wind in the calm waters of Bohput bay, in the North of Koh Samui. They were quick to take advantage of the rich waters offering a plentiful supply of ink-fishes and other sea-food along with the fertile land. Small villages developed and the island population started to grow.

The tropical island of Koh Samui is located 560 kms south of Bangkok and 80 kms off the coast of Surat Thani. Koh Samui is 280 km2 and measures 21 kilometers at its widest point and 25 kilometers at its longest.

The local population is only 34,000 is mainly Buddhist and very friendly. Until the recent increase of tourism coconut farming and fishing were the main sources of income. The island still exports around 2 million coconuts per month, most of which are picked by trained monkeys.

Samui also has numerous modern, well equipped hospitals and clinics.

The island is quite mountainous with a ridge running east to west. Pristine tropical rain-forest still covers the most of the interior of the island. The coastline comprises numerous palm fringed powdery wide sand beaches with crystal clear sapphire waters. Access to the beaches is very easy as a 50 km ring road skirts the coast line. Samui offers a wealth diversity of landscape, vistas, flora and fauna for such a small island.

Koh Samui was discovered by backpackers in the 70’s and until this time had remained relatively untouched. Since then it has developed into up-market holiday destination renowned throughout the world as a lush tropical paradise offering just about everything. Real estate prices continue to rise rapidly offering exciting investment opportunities in an idyllic setting and Samui has now been given special development status by the Thai government.

The island also has excellent infrastructure with its own power and water supplies and billing rates are reasonable, similar to Bangkok.

Getting to Koh Samui

The quickest and easiest way to reach Koh Samui is by air, it is about 80 mins from Bangkok by plane with 12 flights daily departing between 07:30 and 20:10. You can also fly direct to Samui from Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Phuket and Singapore.

Read more about Koh Samui Airport by clicking here.

Climate

Koh Samui is warm throughout the year with the temperature normally ranging between 21-35 degrees Celsius.

• January - February is the cool season with temperatures averaging 79 F, 26 C.
• March - May is normally hot and dry, temperatures can reach 40 C.
• June - September are mostly dry with the temperature dropping somewhat.
• October - December are the wettest months but the rain usually only lasts a few hours before clearing up.

Main Beaches and Towns of Koh Samui

The most developed town and by far the busiest tourist area is Chaweng on the east coast which also has very large powdery white beach with water-sports etc. After Chaweng, Lamai, also on the east coast, is the next busiest town and beach. The Lamai beach is much smaller than Chaweng and slopes steeper into the sea. A vast majority of the islands discos, bars and restaurants are also within Chaweng or Lamai. Other popular and fairly developed beaches/towns include Maenam on the north coast and Bohput and Cheong Mon on the north east, these towns are much quieter and smaller than Chaweng and Lamai. On the west coast, Taling Ngam, Phang Ka and Thong Krut and Bang Kao on the south coast are likely to be developed soon. There are also about 16 other quiet beaches spread around the island.

Samui’s business and administrative center is the town of town of Nathon to the west. This a reasonable size and meets the requirements of a modern business with business banking facilities, etc.

Attractions:

Samui boasts an amazing number and variety of natural and man made attractions for such relatively small island. Here we have only listed some of them:

The Big Buddha is the islands most popular attraction. This is 15 meters tall and was built in 1972 by locals to allow visitors to pay respects to The Lord Buddha. This impressive landmark is on the North coast close to the airport.

The two Namuang Water Falls, Na Muang one and Na Muang two, are located 10 km south of Nathon at Ban Thurian and are the most scenic waterfalls on Samui.

Na Muang one is 18 meters high and can be reached by vehicle. Na Muang two is 80 meters high but can only be reached by a 30 min walk.

Hin Lad Water Fall is 2 km south of Nathon town and is reached by a 3-4 km walk along a jungle path. The waterfall cascades down several levels into a large pool amidst lush tropical rain-forest.

Hin Ta - Hin Yai are two rock formations at south Lamai known as grandfather and grandmother rocks. Their strange shape is explained by a local tale about an old couple ship-wrecked in the bay whose bodies were washed up to create the formations.

The Magic Buddha Garden is located in the hills of Samui. It comprises several statues, temples and waterfalls built by one man in the last 20 years.

The Ancient House is made of teak without any nails and is located at Ban Thale. It is the oldest house on Samui, built 150 years ago, with beautiful wood carvings.

The Butterfly Garden is found at he bottom of the hill south of the T island near Hua Thanon. Numerous species of butterfly can be seen amongst its 2,800 sqm. The garden also contains a bee house and an insect museum with rare insects from Thailand.

The Snake Farm, located at Taling Ngnam, features snakes indigenous to Samui along with scorpions and centipedes.

Samui Crocodile Farm can easily be found near the airport. Over the area of 7000 sqm you can see around 100 animals of various kinds can be found including Siam Crocodiles, Saltwater Crocodiles, Caimans, snakes, monkeys and lizards.

There numerous scuba diving schools around Samui which is a popular dive training center for SE Asia. Along with Kao Tao, Samui offers a range of diving opportunities for all levels. A number of reefs are found off Samui’s shores. Two of the most popular sites for advanced divers are Sail Rock and Angthong National Marine Park.

There is also an 18 hole championship golf course recently opened at the Santiburi Country Club. This is a beautiful course, set into the hillside, meeting international standards attracting golf enthusiasts.

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