Koh Samed – back on the island again

At the end of March 2026, it was time for another island – one must indulge oneself. I traveled from Pattaya with a driver from Grab, the Southeast Asian equivalent of Uber, down to the coastal town of Ban Phe in Rayong Province. There lies the Nuanthip Pier. From there, ferries and speedboats operate to Na Dan Pier on Koh Samed island. You are greeted by a powerful, bare-breasted figure standing in the water at the docking area. It is Phi Suea Samut, a sea giantess from Thai mythology.

The island is also spelled Koh Samet, which does not change the fact that it is a small paradise that remains relatively untouched by mass tourism because there is no airport where budget airlines can drop off hordes of tourists.

In December 2019, just before Covid, I had spent nearly a month on Koh Samed to finish writing a book – four to five hours of work in the morning, followed by sweet idleness. Now, I was eager to return.

The island is only seven km long and a maximum of two and a half km wide, so it is manageable. It is essentially just a hilly interior traversed by paved roads and a series of beaches with fine white sand and gently sloping seas, separated by rocky land formations. For the beaches, the rule is: The farther south you go, the fewer tourists there are.

On weekends, it can get busier. Bangkok is only about 200 kilometers away by car, which means many city dwellers seek relaxation here.

The entire island is a national park

The entire Samed archipelago, which also includes several smaller islands, was declared a national park in 1981 along with Kao Laem Ya (the “cape of the grass mountains”) and the Mae Ram Phueng beach, both on the opposite mainland. This means that upon arrival, you pay an entrance fee of 200 Baht or about five Euros; in return, there are no massive hotel bunkers, no shopping centers, no cinemas, and – except at Sai Kaew Beach, the main beach, and in a few bars along the road in the island's interior – hardly any nighttime commotion.

I had rented a bungalow at Ao Tubtim in the namesake small resort for about 50 Euros a night. (“Ao” simply means “beach.”) Ao Tubtim is a quiet, crescent-shaped bay about a twenty-minute walk southwest of Sai Kaew. In between are the beaches of Hin Khoh and Phai. On a rocky outcrop stands a more than life-sized bronze figure of a mermaid with a child. (Every time I pass it, I wonder how, from a purely physiological standpoint, a mermaid with her fish-shaped lower body can carry a child?)

Trash – and stray dogs

“Vacation paradise with fantastic beaches in the Gulf of Thailand,” brochures describe the island. However, it still has its problems; tourism does not pass by Koh Samet without leaving traces. While riding a rented motorcycle, you pass several garbage collection points that have a corresponding smell. If you take the wrong turn heading south, you end up at a large landfill.

Although the waste is regularly transported to the mainland for processing, a local bar owner tells me. And the authorities of the national park sporadically conduct clean-up operations. But especially in high season, debris tends to accumulate.

Not everyone is comfortable with the stray dogs. They can be found almost on every beach in Southeast Asia. But here, it seems to me, they are particularly aggressive. I think someone should take action on this issue during a night-time operation while the tourists are sleeping. But of course, I wouldn't voice that out loud.

And then there's the problem of scarce drinking water. Koh Samed has no substantial freshwater sources and no rivers, only smaller local groundwater deposits that can dry up during dry seasons. Therefore, water must be delivered from the mainland by tankers and distributed here by tank trucks. Hotels and private homes store the water in large tanks.

Exploring the island

To explore the island, one rents a bike, provided you are reasonably fit, as the island is, as mentioned, quite hilly. Alternatively, one can hire a longtail boat to hop from beach to beach, which, however, incurs costs that would stretch my budget.

Therefore, I treated myself to a scooter for seven Euros a day including fuel. With this, we head down to the southern tip, where the view stretches far over the sea, then to Ao Prao in the west of the island for sunset. In the evening, the main town has a food court where you can eat excellently and cheaply, for example, delicious fish cooked in herbal broth with garlic and other spices.