Idle banter forum

If your gonna complain about uncontrolled development and rubbish then you would have to complain about phi phi and railey as well...

Samet has some nice spots though. Hopefully lipe does as im going in December!

*tries to figure out if there is a hint of sarcasm*

yeah cuz god knows us farangs don't make any noise when we are away on holidays...

What Nationality are you Mac? I find it hard to believe that yours are a quiet people.

I dunno, here in Oz i can here an American from about 10km's away...and that's when they're being quiet! ;)

"I dunno, here in Oz i can here an American from about 10km's away...and that's when they're being quiet! ;)"

Actually I wasn't talking about voice volume, although again the Thais are often super loud there too. I was talking about radios, TVs, clubs, Tuk tuks... my wifes "sleepy little village" is ridiculously loud with kids on motorcycles riding at all hours - they all seem to need new mufflers. The neighbors cranking the stereo at eleven at night, not to mention the dogs and roosters. The place is just loud from about six in the morning until midnight. Contrast that with where I grew up and it's usually pretty quiet all the time. Right now as I sit here and type this someone has hooked up a guitar to an amp and I can hear it quite plainly from three streets away.

No one has mentioned Ko Si Chang south of Pattaya yet - but from what I've read it's no all that gruntling for the average visitor.

Haven't been there yet but of the places I have visited it's hard to say what whelmed me least. Probably the island which offers least in the way of gorgeous beaches and things to do is Ko Siboya, but I found it wonderful and the bungalow place I stayed at was one of the best ever.

I reckon time of visit impacts your appreciation of a place. Just after the start of high season sees lots of islands with wet season junk on the beaches. So we get cries of rubbishy island!
If you go in wet season, particularly to a beach facing the prevailing wind you can have the same problem plus have lots of building activity and building junk as bungalow owners prepare for high season.
And sure, if you hit popular islands in peak you can get overcrowding.
In all my trips to Lipe I've always hit early or late dry season - real relaxed then.

Also important is WHERE you go on an island. Plenty of people think Samet is crap because they never venture past the first 3 beaches on the east coast. Ditto for Chang because they never stay any days other than at White Sand Beach (and even here, they never push north of Rocksand and find the nicest part of the beach).
I avoid Ton Sai when I go to Phi Phi - but I sure do like the east coast. And Long Beach still aint too bad.

Okay, not an island but one I thought jumped the shark some time back because of overcrowding, overbuilding and bungalow/resort owners not putting enough back in infrastructure - Railay.
Despite this I will not advise people who haven't seen it not to visit if they can spare the time - the landscape-seascape it too spectacular.
And I myself will go back when I get the chance - just to see the changes.

Ps. "Jumped the shark"? What does that mean? I thought I was clued up to all Aussie lingo!

Think islands can be really bad in many different ways, but my vote goes for opportunity lost goes to Ko Phi Phi

It had such an amazing opportunity to "reinvent" itself out of the tragedy of the tsunami, but instead it reverted to its same self.

Parts of both Samui and Phuket can be pretty dire, but other parts remain lovely. I think it's difficult in most cases to bin an entire island.