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Koh Samui: For sale and gathering dust - island that catered to foreigners is completely deserted


rooster59

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1 hour ago, ayahuasca said:

I agree with most of the negative comments. For those who have seen Samui over the past 10-20 years, the current Samui is a bombed out Beirut. I’ve been visiting for the past 15 years, and the trend was for rich thai corps to buy out small resorts, rebuild, and triple prices. (And also for foreign "developers" to come in and plant overpriced “villas” all over pristine hillsides). There seems to be no control on building, and there are at least 3 times the amount of abandoned, decrepit buildings than buildings that seem to actually have someone attending to them. Currently, it seems that 80% of the businesses are currently closed.

 

Currently, I go to a Samui beach every day with my father and his assistant, whether it’s bang rak, maenam, or bang po, and I seldom see more than 20 people on the entire beach over an hour period.  Chaweng and Lamai are more populated but still very sparse. Bantai and Bang Po remain very nice beaches but the water is much less clear than it was years ago -- fish / shrimp farms? general pollution?. (Don’t believe the tourist photos, they are ALL photoshopped). 

 

For anyone who has traveled the world, there are at least a hundred islands that are better than samui for living or visiting; many of those are in the Caribbean. What Samui does still have are some nice thai people, and their thai culture, modest prices (e.g. bangkok prices) AND very good weather (for Thailand) 10 months of the year. But it’s sad to see what wanton development has done to the place. A lot of the wiser folks have moved on. 

 

HOWEVER, speaking of “wanton” or “wonton” rather, compare Koh Samui to most Chinese cities and it’s a paradise. So one possibility is that the mainland Chinese will come in and buy things up and make it their own, complete with new security laws….haha (not!).

 

PS: any other recommendations? I was in Phu Quoc last year, and it was 1/2 the price of Thailand and there were some very nice beaches, however, wanton development is occurring there too, to a bizarre extreme. 

modest prices?you having a giraffe?

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7 hours ago, Enoon said:

It may be an overpriced and spoiled/soiled place.

 

But many of the posts here seem to imply that the reason it's deserted is somehow because of that, and that it's doom is guaranteed because of that.

 

It's deserted, temporarily, because of COVID.......that's all.

 

 

I understand that, but I'm just happy that the greedies are getting it bad, even if only for a year or so. It'll never go back to what it was the first time I walked on Chaweng sand, but nature lovers lost because of greed. If they go broke it's entirely deserved, IMO.

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