With Samui’s rainy season on the doorstep, it’s best to be armed with a few bad weather alternatives — even if they are not exactly authentically Thai — for when the heavens open up. Samui does not have big malls like Phuket, but a few indoor entertainment options offer some family fun. Samui is home … read the full post

Thinking of a beach wedding? Ko Samui has a selection of professional wedding planners you can turn to for all the organising, and with postcard-view beach backdrops, it makes an ideal wedding location. If you’re coming here from the West, in general favourable currency exchanges — in Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia — mean … read the full post

Exploring Ko Samui’s beaches, towns and interior makes for uncovering quite a few out-of-the-ordinary sights. Here we showcase a selection of the type of things you might see while tripping around — go on, snap more than the usual holiday pictures while you’re here. Above you see a pig-tailed macau monkey, used as a coconut … read the full post

A funky new yoga studio-cum-cafe has opened down a quiet back street of Ko Samui’s cosmopolitan Fisherman’s Village. The village is known for its east-meets-the-Med appeal, where trendy coffee shops bump shoulders with upmarket boutiques, and bars and restaurants trade from old Chinese shophouses. The effect is eclectic and charming, making a perfect location for … read the full post

A big red head. That’s what you see poking through the top of a building when driving along Ko Samui‘s ring road in Hua Thanon, just south of Lamai. So what is it? Virach Pongchababnapa, an islander of Chinese decent, aims to build a 16-metre tall bronze statue of Guan Yu, valued at 20 million … read the full post

My house is perfectly positioned to appreciate Samui’s sunsets, and it seems as though each night — insert your favourite deity here, perhaps the Goddess Ra — tries to outdo her sunset creation from the previous evening. Sometimes they are a pretty pastel pink with soft wispy clouds looking like cotton candy. Other evenings present … read the full post

Walking down Plai Laem’s main road and hearing sultry sounds winding through the palms and banana trees, it would be easy to forget the location and imagine you were in Cuba or perhaps Columbia. But no, Ko Samui has quite the active salsa scene – the dancing, not the sauce that is.  Here we give … read the full post

Garra rufa fish spas have been used in the Middle East for centuries but Southeast Asia has fairly recently jumped on the bandwagon and you’ll find them right across the region, including in Thailand. These little freshwater fish originate from the river basins of several Middle Eastern countries; they also go by the name of … read the full post

Na Muang One Waterfall at Baan Thurian, about 10 kilometres south of Nathon, is a popular tourist attraction on Ko Samui that can easily be reached by vehicle. The turnoff is well signposted along the 4169 Ring Road, and from the parking lot, it’s only a walk of a few hundred metres to get there. … read the full post

Learning a new language is hard enough at the best of times and Thai is so different from English and the Romance languages that for a farang (Westerner), learning Thai can seem a little overwhelming. Anyone wanting to stay in the country for more than a few months however would be wise to pick up … read the full post