Brief Geography, History of Koh Samui. How did people culturally used to life here in the prevoius century.

Kho Samui a resort island in the Gulf of Thailand located in the southern region.

It is the third biggest island of Thailand from Phuket and Ko Chang.

Ko Samui is a part of the province Surat Thani but tourists around the world don’t the name Sura Thani but Ko Samui.

Although Ko Samui and the other island near Ko Samui are administratively a part of Sura Thani province,

The geographic theory says that  Ko Samui and the other islands around are on top of the mountain range of Nakhon Sri Thammarat, a neighboring province of Surat Thani.

This part of the Nakhon Sri Thammarat mountain is lower than the seawater, but there are some tops of the mountain that are over the water

and became the best island in the Gulf of Thailand welcoming 2 million worldwide travelers annually.

This group of islands consists of well-known islands like Ko Samui, Ko Phangan, Ang Thong National Marine Park, Ko Tao, and Ko Nag Yuan.

 

The middle area/land of each of these Islands mostly is mountains.

The mountains are mostly covered with Pantages and forests. It is quite difficult to build infrastructure, village, town and entertainment center or shops here.

The forest in Ko Samui is large enough to generate water streams, The streams have been used to be water sources distrusting to villages,

for houses and hotels (Today, due to the fast growth of buildings, especially resorts and hotels.

The water from the forests/mountains is not enough anymore, Ko Samui needs to receive water from the mainland, Surat Thani. There is a water pipe lying in the ocean)

Some of the forest water streams flow through high cliffs becoming waterfalls, for example, Na Muang waterfalls. Na Muang Waterfall 1, Na Muang Waterfall 2, and Tan Sadat Waterfall

are the significant destinations in Ko Samui that people use to visit when coming to Ko Samui.

There are many viewpoints on the mountains in Ko Samui, there you will panoramically see the view of the island surrounded by sea.

Many viewpoints are built on top of mountains in the way of café as well, offering you drinks with incredible bird’s eye views of the island and sea. 

The biggest Islands in the Gulf of Thailand are Koh Samui, Ko Phangan, and Ko Tao respectively (ranked by area and population).

Traditionally, most of the population has settled in the flat area, also the outer ring area of the islands in order to do farming,

we know, the best area to build farms is the flat one. While those population who live near the beaches are fishermen.

The main industry in Ko Samui was agriculture, coconut farming, and fishing.

Since 20 years ago, the main industry has been transforming from agriculture to tourism.

Some farmers and fishermen have been reforming themselves to tourism.

At that time, many of them still had their main career in agriculture and take a part-time job in tourism.

Koh Samui has the beautiful, longest beaches in the eastern called Chaweng Beach and Lamai Beach and Maenam, the top destinations here in Samui.

In the south, there are for example  Hoa Tanon, and Thaling Ngam beaches, which are not suit to swim because it full of submerged rocks and wreckage coral that remain on the beaches.

Therefore less hotels in these areas. But there is an advantage, the less beauty, the quieter is it for relaxation.

As you know Koh Samui is not alone there, there are other 58 islands surrounding by.

There is a beautiful neighboring island group namely the group of islands named Ang Thong National Marine Park.

We can get there by boat from Nathon and Bangrak pier but only by tour program since there is still no public transport provided. Because it is a national park.

The common activities at Ang Thong Island are snorkeling, kayaking, and hiking.

The biggest islands and most visited in the park are Wua Ta Lap Island and Mae Koh Islands.

Wua Ta Lap island provides tourists the excellent activities such as hiking and sea view from the top of the mountain, Here you can see many islands beautifully located in the emerald sea.

Mae Koh island has an incredible landmark called Talay Nai. It is a big saltwater lake surprisingly in the middle of the island.

It occurred through the subsiding of the rock (rock is the main material of the island) over a million years.

Another Samui neighbor is Ko Phangan (Full Moon Party Island), which is the biggest island next to Ko Samui.

Since Kho Phangan is an island containing population, villages, resorts, and hotels, has basic infrastructure like roads,

also is a district like Ko Samui, you can get there by public ferry and boats without any experts with you or buying a tour package like Ang Thong national marine park. 

Ko Phangan has beautiful bays like Thong Nai Pan Bay located on the eastern and Sri Thanu on the western.

Most of the western beaches of Ko Phangan have mud and sludge beach, some and may be full of rocks alone on the beach.

The most beautiful beach called Rin, is located southeast of the island, where the world-famous party called the full moon party takes place one time a month.

From the north of Ko Phangan is the middle size next to Ko Pfagan called Ko Tao, although it also gets much attention from tourist there are still more plentiful forests than Ko Phangan and Ko Samui.

There are still not too many buildings there that suit travelers who want to take scuba diving.

Moving next northern from Kho Tao, there is a wonderful island called Ko Nang Yuan.

Why is it wonderful?

They are small three islands connected to each other by the sand ridge.

People can walk on the sand ridge to each of these islands.

It has a super white beach and clear water providing snorkeling activity to watch coral and fish near the beaches.

In the north of Ko Phangan and Ko Tao, there are plenty of corals, some time they look like a pile of stones with red and green color.

It is considered to be the most important scuba driving point of the Gulf of Thailand.