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Published: February 12th 2010
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Hat Chaweng Beach, Ko Samui
You have to get up pretty early to see the beach this quiet! It's funny how things turn out. I hadn't expected to like Bangkok and saw it as just a stopover to recharge the batteries, acclimatise and see a few of the sights. But I loved it. I've come to this island paradise and, so far, I've been disappointed. The island of Ko Samui is one of the biggest in the Gulf of Thailand about 600km south of Bangkok. Its centre is a mountainous, dense tropical jungle. That terrain falls into the sea along a coastline of craggy rocks and palm-fringed white sands. What's not to like? Well so far I think I've stayed in the wrong parts of the island.
I've spent my day sitting on a beautiful beach, listening to chrystal azure waters lapping lazily at the shore. My beach bungalow behind me, its red, pagoda style roof pointing towards a blue sky. As is often the case with such idyls you are rarely alone. This is Hat Chaweng beach, a very popular tourist beach on the East coast, with beachside vendors passing and plying their various wares at very regular intervals. Nothing comes cheap here as prices have risen in line with its increased popularity. Still, despite the crowds
where I am staying is heaven compared to my experience on my first night on the island. I'll get to that later.
This area is a mix of very plush resort hotels, guesthouse accommodation in the form of beach bungalows which go from basic backpacker places to 4* villas. There's a mix of couples, groups of partying youngsters, families and sex tourists. It's very developed here and all set up to part the hordes of invading tourists from their cash. This kind of place saddens me. I'm sure there's nothing really wrong with it but tourism of this kind rips through the culture of a place and makes all the locals feed from the money making machine. Tourists get a great holiday in a place of breathtaking natural beauty and Thai people make a good living and a better life for themselves and their families. Fantastic. However, the natural beauty gets lost to rampant development and the place inevitably becomes so much less.
I took a short stroll along the beach tonight and took in the sights which included an hilarious performance of covers with interesting lyrical interpretation, fire twirling, backpackers getting busted for not paying their bill,
fireworks and traditional Thai dance. Still by far the spectacle that fascinates me most is the 'East meets West' couplings that are either proof that love is blind or those fat, ugly guys are paying for it.This is not the Thailand I came to see and I'm very happy to be moving on tomorrow to a quieter, less touristed part of Ko Samui. I hope to find a more tranquil and harmonious part of the island on the Northern coast.
So why did I come to Hat Chaweng? Well, as I mentioned earlier my first night on Ko Samui was pretty unpleasant. I arrived at 11pm, to check in to my pre-booked beach hut lodgings. I had an uneasy feeling about the place from word-go. This was definitely in the budget category and without wishing to cast aspersions, the place may have doubled as a brothel judging by the clientele at the bar. I saw my room and had a sinking feeling. But I'd paid my money, it was late and I was tired. I didn't want to head off in the dark to search out something better. I did not sleep all night. Not because of an uncomfortable
More beach vendors.
Much more photogenic than the tourists! bed or rowdy neighbours. I actually consciously stayed awake out of fear of being burgled, raped or murdered or all three. The lock on the main exterior door was like one you would expect to find on a toilet door. I'm not joking! A determined squirrel could have gotten in without even breaking into a sweat. So I kept myself awake until sunrise (and check out) by reading about other places to stay on the island and resolving two things. 1) Never arrange accommodation where you check in (alone) after dark and 2) Always see the room you're going to stay in before parting with any cash.
So I chose Hat Chaweng because of it's high concentration of more upmarket places so I could be assured of a good nights sleep, security and a bit of comfort.
Anyway, I will keep you posted on the next chapter. If the whole island is like this I can just move on to another. I hear Ko Tao, an island north of Samui, may be more my cup of Jasmine tea. Fingers crossed.
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