Koh Samui History

Until the late 1800s nobody had even heard of Koh Samui - not even the majority of the Thai people themselves! Although there have been relics discovered on the island that date back more than 1,000 years, the system of recording history in Thailand a century or more ago was entirely in the hands (literally) of the Royal Court and the scribes it deployed.

It was Thailand's most popular King, Rama V, His Majesty King Chulalongkorn, who put Koh Samui on the map, locally, if not world-wide. Thailand is a proud and insular country, and one of only three countries in the Northern Hemisphere never to have been conquered or colonised. Administratively it viewed foreigners with distrust and was at pains to insulate the Thai people and culture from "corrupting and diluting influences".

But Rama V was more outgoing - he travelled extensively throughout the world, and, on his return from his lengthy travels abroad, he visited Koh Samui - briefly - on his way to Koh Phangan for some R'n R! But in those days all that there was on Koh Samui was coconuts and fish. Incidentally Rama V was the same Thai monarch to be portrayed by Yul Brunner in the movie "The King and I". Most Thai's were shocked by the portrayal of their revered nineteenth-century king, in the musical The King and I, due to historical inaccuracies.

Chinese traders and sailors had already been visiting Koh Samui since the middle of the 17th century, and many had settled locally, injecting the local culture with a striking infusion of Chinese culture beliefs and ... food. But, if we picture Thailand after the Second World War and Koh Samui in the ‘60s and ‘70s, then a very different picture from today's tourist paradise emerges. There were no roads at all on Koh Samui and if you wanted to get to the next bay you could walk, plod on the back of a buffalo, or go there by boat ... which everybody did.

Long stretches of irregular dirt and mud became worn through the jungle joining the buildings and huts of each clan. And some of these even became joined together where the coastal areas were flat. Nathon was one of the first established communities, but similar villages emerged in places we know as Lipa Noi, Mae Nam, Bo Phut, Chaweng and Lamai - none of them connected by land.

But it was the coming of the ‘60s with the hippy trail to Kathmandu and the "seeking of enlightenment"  that first exposed Koh Samui to young, white adventurers in the ‘70s. A road project had already begun in 1967, and by 1973 the impassable hilly bits near to Nathon and between Chaweng and Lamai had been dynamited and concreted.

Word was spreading about this "little piece of paradise" and the 1980s saw more regular visitors to Samui. The influx of "farangs" (foreigners) led to local entrepreneurs building wooden huts to accommodate them. Whole patches of these began to spring up everywhere and the local people suddenly started to generate more income from these than from their coconuts.

(It was traditional on Samui for the father to deliberately bestow the worst coconut-growing land to his most rebellious sons, thus commenting on and punishing them for their attitude and behaviour. The worst land was on the beach - coconut trees grow poorly in sand and next to the salty air by the sea. Ironically, a generation later in the ‘90s and in the new Millennium, this is exactly the real estate that has made fortunes for the “bad boys” of a decade or so before.)

Fortunately today people have become more aware and the situation is being rapidly redressed, with many Thai owners of big resorts educating their children in Europe and America and reaping the benefits of a more cosmopolitan outlook. Today's resort owners and property developers are now keenly aware of their future and have come to realise that once the golden goose has died, there will be no more golden eggs!

Today's Samui is a pleasant and well-organised community with local associations and business people, both Thai and Western, working together to conserve and improve what still remains a delightful environment. Today, Koh Samui is a beautiful tropical island where you can now enjoy the best of both worlds. The quality of the service in most places is now second to none - Samui is one of the few successful destinations in the world where there is no high-rise development and the quaint and the luxurious exist side by side.