Koh Samui Report: a Thai island 'paradise lost'?

Samui, the south Thailand resort island (Koh Samui) is still a premier Thailand holiday centre and can be recommended, in spite of crimes involving tourists that have made international news in recent times. But crime and risk is pandemic; no one can be guaranteed absolute safety anywhere, especially in these days of international terrorism. Thailand, considering the numbers of its annual tourist arrivals, is no exception but incidents of serious crime are relatively few and there have been no Islamic-inspired activities aimed at tourists. Thailand generally and certainly Samui are great vacation destinations. Facilities and activities for visitors to Koh Samui are wide ranging and plentiful as you can see by reading recent recent traveller reviews about where to stay and what to do on Koh Samui.

However, foreigners with ideas of living, retiring or running a business on Samui Island should be aware of issues that are likely to affect them as they do foreign as well as local Thai residents of this former tropical island paradise. Read on...

Over-development is rapidly ruining Koh Samui

In the past four years, the southern Thailand island resort of Koh Samui (Samui Island) has been virtually 'put up for sale' and many foreigners, known as farang, now own more than one third of the island's real estate and businesses, investing in bars, hotels, restaurants and villas and spas; there's even one specialising in hypnosis. However, according to recent reports, less than one fifth of Samui's island families have benefited from this boom, and this is leading to increasing tensions between rich and poor residents, mainland Thais, and also foreigners. These tensions have triggered a series of violent assaults and robberies, break-ins and acts of vandalism – crimes of opportunity and spite – aimed primarily at tourists. Island families who have done well from the land sell-offs and incoming foreign businessmen have become embroiled in a rats' nest of competing interests.

This isn't Samui – yet! It is Pattaya – former 'beach resort', now fully-fledged Thai city. Not so long ago it was just a beachside village with some bars and brothels servicing mainly US sailors on R&R and some Bangkok residents. Samui is on track to suffer the same fate if the current rate of property development continues.

Reports of violent incidents like rape or murder damage Thailand's important tourist trade. Therefore Thai authorities, the police and mayor's office, and local businesses, both Thai and foreign-owned, all try to maintain the illusion of a pristine and bountiful retreat. When the Samui Express, the local English-language paper debated the murder of British backpacker Katherine Horton by two Thai fishermen, it was harangued by readers who demanded the paper "print something nice" instead. Refusing to be bullied, the same paper then reported that a Thai had raped a second British tourist, Corrie Ann Holt in early 2006. Although this was unconnected to the Horton murder (the two fishermen had quickly been arrested, tried and sentenced to death by the time the second woman was attacked), the similarity of the crimes, within three weeks of each other and on neighbouring beaches, raised questions about the safety of tourists on Samui, the paper suggested. A group of local businessmen calling themselves "the angry residential bar owners" immediately demanded that the paper stop reporting criminal incidents, accusing it of being 'as bad as the rapists' in damaging local business!

The 'rot' seems to have set in soon after the death two years ago of Sombat Phusiriwat (Kamnan Dum). The demise of one of Koh Samui's most influential figures (at 58, reportedly of natural causes) left a power vacuum which has since been filled by a new mafia of both local and overseas gangsters. This is according to Sombat's nephew Somkiat, who maintains that the behaviour of gangsters on the island has changed significantly from when his uncle, known to have links with southern Thai 'hitmen' and involved with crime in other southern Thai towns and resorts like Hat Yai, Hua Hin and Surat Thani, was the 'godfather'. Now people from other parts of Thailand and foreigners, many from former USSR states, are attempting to seek money and power from crime on Samui, he says.

Some local residents turned into influential gangsters after they became rich by selling the family land. Other gangsters were sponsored by foreign property developers, who hired them to look after the business and get rid of their competition said Somkiat, who is also an adviser to a mayor in Koh Samui district. He says the 'charisma' and power of foreign gangsters does not compare with previous generations of influential figures, including his uncle, who had a 'code of conduct' and tended not to harass anyone. When disputes erupted between rival groups, Kamnan Dum, who twice was elected a Surat Thani provincial councillor, would step in to settle them. Somkiat insists his family was never involved in gangland killings on Samui. [Well he would, wouldn't he?]

In an attempt to alleviate Samui's development problems which ultimately affect everyone living on the island, business and community leaders now hold monthly meetings to discuss crime and other issues which are degrading this once idyllic 'tropical paradise' island resort.

Resources and activities on Koh Samui

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