Wednesday 12 February 2014

Thailand Travels, Day 16, Koh Samui Beautiful by Day - Seedy by Night

Today was a well needed beach day. After all the travelling we decided that we'd earned a rest. Although our hotel was only 10 minutes from a local beach we decided to catch a taxi to Chaweng beach, just 25 minutes from our hotel, since we'd heard it was a bit of a hot spot.


We made our way out to the main road to flag down a local bus in order to save money, but as it turned out, a bus didn't come along. Several taxies did though and after some hard negotiating we found one that would take us to Chaweng for 600 baht. The only catch was 8 of us had to squeeze into a 5 seater car!!

After a hot and squashed ride we arrived at Chaweng. The town looked like a tourist strip in Spain or Greece but once our feet found the white sands on the beach we knew that we'd made the right decision to come this way.


Throughout the day the beach served as a touting spot for numerous "lookie lookie" beach sellers. The ice cream sellers were useful though, providing me with a constant stream of my new favourite ice cream out here: the strawberry chocolate magnum! However, the other sellers didn't manage to prise any money from me as I knew there wasn't an inch of space left in my backpack!


Right next to our sun loungers there was a luxury resort which Kirsty and I chose to have a spot of lunch. The views were stunning from here and we discovered they did English-style salads! Leafy fresh salad is something we've all been craving, especially with the hotter temperatures down south! Although the portions were quite small and the bill pricey, the chicken and bacon salad was perfect and just what our diets needed.





In the evening we went out for dinner again and I started to notice how seedy Koh Samui was. Every bar had Thai girls dressed provocatively, either sitting on high stools or draped next to poles. Elderly/overweight/balding men hung about these bars drinking and talking to the young beautiful Thai girls. It made me feel really uncomfortable and was a side to Thailand that disgusted me.

I asked Sek a little bit about these women to find out why they would be in this predicament. He explained that girls from the north of Thailand would be sent south for part of the year to make money for their poor families, because in the North they can only harvest for part of the year, and once this is done they must find ways to make money by other means. This made me feel really sad for these women and angry at western men for exploiting these vulnerable girls. Kirsty and Cartsten, like me, didn't fancy drinking in bars around this, so after a late dinner we headed back to the hotel to chill out and get back to bed.

3 comments:

  1. Imagine the top picture of the beach with NO people on it and more sand. That is what it was like in The Gambia when I went with your mum for a camel ride on a day out. Absolutely beautiful. Not to keen on your 'Nuvo Cuisine' as you say not enough. As for the ladies, unfortunately it is a fact of life nowadays, even my brother married a Thai lady

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  2. I've heard Vietnam is supposed to be like the old Thailand... Before Westerners discovered it and it became too touristy! My next stop is Phi Phi in a couple of days... Apparently it has the most beautiful beaches of all! X

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  3. Very nice, I will try to this place.

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