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Koh
Samui Hotel and Travel Guide
 Koh
Samui is Thailand's third largest island and the largest
in the south-east of the Gulf of Thailand. Koh in the Thai
language means island and there are around eighty islands
surrounding Samui: Koh Pha Ngan, Koh Tao and Koh Tan are
the closest and also inhabited. Samui is more than 280 sq.
km. in area and has a population of approximately 34,000.
The most popular beaches are Chaweng beach, Lamai beach
, Bophut beach and Maenam beach. The Samui interior is a
tropical jungle with hills up to 600 metres high.
 We
offer list of hotels in Samui Thailand with online booking
system. Find by price, hotel name or location in Koh Samui,
Chaweng Beach , Lamai Beach , Maenam Beach , Bophut Beach
and others
Hotels recommendation in Samui , Le Royal Meridien Baan
Taling Ngam
Central Samui Village , Samui Amanda Resort , Bay View Village
,
Baan Hin Sai Resort , Leam Set Resort & Spa , Napasai
Samui ,Santiburi Dusit Resort , Sea Fan Beach Resort , Buriraya
Resort & Spa ,Pavilion Samui Boutique Resort , Thai
Villas Resort & Spa , Aloha Resort, Samui Yacht Club
, Samui Orchid Resort , Samui Beach Resort ,Samui Bay View
Villa & Resort , Samui Peninsula Spa & Resort and
Samui Honey Cottages
History
Perhaps you have friends or family who have visited Thailand
and told you of their experiences. If Samui will be your
introduction to the Kingdom, bear in mind there are some
similarities and some differences between islanders and
city folk. To compare residents of Bangkok with those of
Samui would be like comparing big city dwellers from any
country in the world with those in the villages.
Samui is home to about 40,000 full-time inhabitants. Like
the surrounding islands, it was first settled by ethnic
Malay fishermen from the mainland, as well as immigrants
from Southern China; at a time when the surrounding waters
teemed with fish. Maps dating as far back as 1687 have the
island identified as "Pulo Cornam," from the Malay.
Little written history of the island exists, and most of
the knowledge we have has been passed down through generations.
There are two theories as to how the island was named. The
first suggests that the name of a commonly-found tree called
"mui" was lengthened at some point. The second,
and probably more likely notion, is that "Saboey"
which is a Chinese word for safe haven (certainly an apt
description of the island's largely protected waters) was
adopted by Chinese fishermen, and later become the name
we use today.
Vestiges of the once thriving fishing communities can still
be seen in villages such as Nathon and Maenam. Lucrative
coconut and rubber farming industries also developed, and
harvesting of these crops still takes place in the hills
of the island's interior. Samui is home to more varieties
of coconut palms than any other place on earth.
Until not much more than a decade ago, folks on Samui had
scarcely seen foreigners. With the influx of tourists an
industry sprung up, and thousands of jobs were created.
Foreign currency flowed in, benefiting many. These former
fishermen and farmers now suddenly competed to fulfill Western
tastes and demands. But the well-known patient and adaptable
nature of Thais, and the new opportunities that tourism
represented, made it easy for them to accept the oddities
of their new visitors with mostly good grace. Their entrepreneurial
spirit helped compensate for their limited knowledge of
other cultures, and many have succeeded remarkably well.
Most Thais are Buddhist, though a small percentage of the
population is Muslim. You may wonder about the role religion
plays here. In fact, the philosophy of Buddhist thought
is more significant in the life of the average Thai than
is the dogma of the religion. Most people don't allow themselves
to get too worked up over the problems and minor inconveniences
of this life, after all, it is only a passage into another
one! Consider this, and the island's benign climate, its
history of bountiful harvests from the land and sea, and
the almost complete absence of the kind of strife that has
devastated so many of the world's peoples, and it becomes
easier to understand the "take life as it comes"
approach which continues to astonish and perplex visitors.
Weather
December to February (main season) it can get up to 30C(86F).
Sometimes brief tropical rain, mostly in December.
March to June, it becomes very hot, up to 40C (114F), rarely
raining.
July to September (main season) is hot, but some days it
also rains.
June, October, November are rainy seasons, but it does not
generally rain every day. In contrast to other regions of
Thailand, Samui does not really have a well defined rainy
season but sometimes there are sunless periods of 2 or 3
days, especially during November (monsoon).
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