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Sawadee -- Aloha!
Many friends have expressed an interest in visiting Thailand in conversations I’ve had in recent months, and have asked for my recommendations as to the logistics of traveling to and within the country. Hawai`i is my primary and beloved home location (since 1977), but Thailand is one of the other places on the planet I enjoy most. I like the land itself, especially the spectacularly beautiful and paradisiacal island environments in the south, and I also appreciate very much the culture and people of Thailand. It's a Buddhist country (96% of the population are Buddhist), buddha statues are everywhere, from small to colossal, and I appreciate the beautiful reminders of meditation and that inner place of calm watching and witnessing. Meditation is in the atmosphere of Thailand. Most Thai people also love to make things beautiful, and they love to have fun and enjoy life. In the group of southern Thai islands once locally called Muu Koh Samui (Samui Archipelago), about 400 miles south of Bangkok, I've found that the combination of Thailand's meditative, beauty-creating, fun-loving culture and a spectacular tropical island natural environment is highly supportive of my creativity. I easily and naturally get into creating inspired and high-quality works of writing, music, artwork, and more while there. I have also experienced that Muu Koh Samui can be a most lovely, intimate, and fun place to hang out, adventure, and relax with a love partner! The cost of living can be very low compared to North America or Hawai`i or Europe, and if you like Thai cuisine, Thailand is obviously the ultimate place to be for it. Exotic and delightful tropical fruits, especially durian, mangosteen, rambutan, longkong, jackfruit, lychee, chiku, papaya, coconut, banana, and more, are very abundant and inexpensive in the marketplaces, in season. (! ! ! see Chanthaburi Fruit Fair 2000 fantastic parade floats here ) The name "Muu Koh Samui" is rarely used these days; much better known are the names of the three largest inhabited islands of the group, Koh Samui, Koh Pha-Ngan, and Koh Tao, home to about 50,000 residents in total (70% on Samui). In the vicinity, four other very small islands are slightly inhabited, and over 70 tiny, wild, beautiful, uninhabited islands are protected as part of Ang Thong National Marine Park. They're all the peaks of a submerged mountain range that is a side spur of the mountain range that comprises peninsular Thailand and Malaysia. Since 1970, Koh Samui, Koh Pha-Ngan, and Koh Tao have become very popular as inexpensive tropical holiday destinations for foreign tourists. Samui, the largest and most populated, has been developed into a more upscale, sophisticated, yet laidback environment, with an airport that makes access easy and fast. Pha-Ngan, reachable only by ferry from Samui, is smaller, quieter, and less flashily developed, and appeals more to nature-loving backpackers. Little Koh Tao has recently become predominantly a diving and snorkeling resort island; the pristine waters around it are incredibly beautiful and resplendent with marine life. I’ve been to Thailand a total of 20 trips, including the very short ones, and in some ways I know it well, but in other ways I’m very much a novice too. I know Muu Koh Samui, and also Bangkok to some extent, and I’ve been to Chiang Mai, Hat Yai, Ayutthaya, Rayong, and Chanthaburi ... but the vast majority of Thailand’s area I’ve yet to visit. For the places I have been in Thailand, I can share some likely useful tips. These are just my individual preferences, you may or may not like them too, but they’re something to start with, if you've never been in this truly amazing and exotic Kingdom. As my primary home location is Hawai‘i, and many of my friends who are interested in coming to Thailand also call Hawai‘i home, many of these suggestions are oriented to Hawai‘i residents. If you’re not from Hawai‘i please just skip over those parts...
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