Bangkok (Lonely Planet) - Andrew Burke [183]
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KO SAMET
The search for sun and sand doesn’t have to involve a big trip down south. Only half a day’s journey from Bangkok, Ko Samet has famously squeaky sand beaches and a range of accommodation to fit any budget. Plus it is a relatively dry island, making it an excellent place to visit during the rainy season when other tropical paradises might be under water. Of course, all of this makes it very popular with everyone – Thais, foreigners and a remarkable number of stray dogs (not really soi dogs; perhaps they’re ‘hat dogs’) – especially on weekends or holidays.
Ko Samet earned a permanent place in Thai literature when classical Thai poet Sunthorn Phu set part of his epic Phra Aphaimani on its shores. The story follows the travails of a prince exiled to an undersea kingdom governed by a lovesick female giant. A mermaid assists the prince in his escape to Ko Samet, where he defeats a giant by playing a magic flute. Today the poem is immortalised on the island by a mermaid statue built on the rocky point separating Ao Hin Khok and Hat Sai Kaew.
In the early 1980s, Ko Samet began receiving its first visitors: young Thais in search of a retreat from city life. It was made a national marine park in 1981 and at that time there were only about 40 houses on the island. Rayong and Bangkok speculators saw the sudden interest in Ko Samet as a chance to cash in on an up-and-coming Phuket and began buying up land along the beaches. No one bothered about the fact that it was a national marine park. When fà·ràng (Westerners) soon followed, spurred on by rumours that Ko Samet was similar to Ko Samui ‘10 years ago’ (one always seems to miss it by a decade), the National Parks Division stepped in and built a visitors’ office on the island, ordered that all bungalows be moved back behind the tree line and started charging admission to the park.
However, the regulating hand of the National Parks Division is almost invisible beyond its revenue-raising role at the admission gate (Hat Sai Kaew; child/adult 100/200B; sunrise-sunset). One successful measure, however, is a ban on new accommodation except where it replaces old sites, ensuring that bungalows remain thinly spread over most of the island. Though as one local told us, this suits existing owners just fine and is the least that could be expected in a national park.
Development is concentrated at the northern end of the island, though compared with Bangkok even this busiest part of Ko Samet seems as sparsely populated as the Australian outback. See Around the Island, below, for more on particular beaches.
Boat trips (per person 400-800B) to the uninhabited islands of Ko Thalu and Ko Kuti, around Ko Samet, or squid fishing after dark can all be easily arranged.
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BEFORE SAMET MEANT ESCAPE
If marketing minds had been involved, Ko Samet would still be known by its old name: Ko Kaew Phitsadan (Vast Jewel Isle), a reference to the abundant white sand. But the island’s first cash cow, the sà·mèt (cajeput) tree, lent its name to the island as this valuable firewood source grew in abundance here. Locally, the sà·mèt tree has also been used in boat building.
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Around the Island
Ko Samet is shaped like a golf tee, with the wide part in the north tapering away along a narrow strip to the south. Most boats from the mainland arrive at Na Dan Pier in the north, which is little more than a transit point for most visitors, though for the many Thais who have come to live and work on Samet, it is home. On the northeastern coast is Hat Sai Kaew (Diamond Beach), the most developed stretch of beaches you'll find on the island and the best place for nightlife. Wealthy Bangkokians file straight into Hat Sai’s air-con bungalows with their designer sunglasses and (small) designer dogs.
Scattered south along the eastern shore are a scruffier set of beaches: Ao Hin Khok, Ao Phai and Ao Phutsa, which were once populated solely by backpackers but are increasingly catering to flashpackers and Bangkok