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Ko Samui is an island in the Gulf of Thailand, some 700km south of Bangkok and about 80km
from the eastern coastline of Southern Thailand.
An island of great natural beauty and variety, Samui is home to some 50,000 full-time inhabitants.
The palm-fringed shoreline and coconut and fruit cultivation of the coastal lowlands
rise to a central granite massif, the slopes of which are cloaked in *** rainforest.
Samui is the second largest island in Thailand and the largest island in an archipelago of
over 80 islands which form the Ang Thong National Marine Park, a kayaking and snorkelling paradise.
At 25km long and 21km wide, Samui is big enough for serious exploration by the adventurous
and fit, but can be circumnavigated in just a couple of hours by motorbike or car.
The island was probably first inhabited about 15 centuries ago, settled by fishermen from
the Malay Peninsula and south China. Until the late 20th century, Samui was an isolated
self-sufficient community, having little connection with the mainland of Thailand. The island
was even without roads until the early 1970s, and the 15km journey from one side of the
island to the other involved a whole-day trek through the mountainous central jungles.
In the early 1970s the first backpackers travelling on the back of a coconut boat arrived on Ko
Samui. For years after that the island just had a few bungalows and a trickle of travelers.
Things started to change in the early 1990s when tourists started arriving in full boats
and since then the place has grown substantially.