Covid Catastrophe: Koh Samui Island, Thailand.

I remember traveling to Thailand for my first time five years ago and was distant for the full-moon party on Koh Phangan Island which is the sister Island to Koh Samui Island, after landing at Koh Samui airport we were taken by mini van to an boat pier for our two ferry journey across the Gulf of Thailand to Koh Phangan Island where we would party for one week solid amongst a crowd of minimum 20,000 people on the beach during this peak season being New Year you could imagine Koh Phangan, it's well known for full-moon parties all year round by many overseas foreigners.

Five years ago I remember driving through Koh Samui Island to the boat pier and this island was pumping with tourist we had to wait nearly two hours at the boat pier before we could jump on a boat to take us across to Koh Phangan Island, I still remember till this day the excitement and adrenaline I was feeling being in Thailand heading to a well known famous party island to party with 20,000 other people just mind blowing.

Revisiting Koh Samui Island after five years was just not the same I was quite sad for the locals and the business people of Koh Samui Island, although I did not spend anytime in Koh Samui five years ago, only drove though the island to get to the boat pier I could seen then that this island was totally packed with tourist and the vibes were great but not today all the tourist are missing, I walked down the main road of Chaweng beach everything was locked up and closed up even Seven Elevens, Family Marts had closed there doors a very sad site to see.

Koh Samui Island an island that solely depended on the millions of overseas tourist is now sadly looking like a ghost island walking along this beautiful fine sand white powered beach was suddenly deserted because of the pandemic I only saw a handful of people and an foreign guy sleeping on his deck chair living his dream.

All along this whole stretch of beach where you will find the most beautiful resorts to suit anyone's budget have had no choice but to close up the lower budget resorts have just been abandon as for the bigger chain resorts have only recently opened their doors since the government announced the reopening of Thailand hoping that some tourist will trickle back to this paradise island.

Chaweng beach the once most popular resort beach on Koh Samui Island which has the longest stretch of white sand 7 km of white pure sand to be exact has been reduced to almost zero tourist I felt like I had the island to myself walking of the beach coming back onto the main road after having walked about 5 km of this beautiful beach was not much better on the main road a couple of restaurants open but no customers in them I couldn't understand the point of them been open but it worked out good for me because I needed some food and a beer after that long walk along the beach front.

Walking along the main road off behind the Chaweng beach from the other end was just as equally deserted Shopping Malls, McDonald's, Burger King, Super Markets, hell everything was barricaded and locked away I really do hope for the sake of this beautiful paradise island that the tourist do return.

At the moment this whole island has a price tag on it their are ridiculously low bargain prices on hotels, villas, land, and more but even at them low prices, it's a gamble who knows the future of this island how long it will take to recover if it recovers but you would certainly be a winner if this paradise island came back to normal overnight, I wouldn't mind buying a beach front villa for a quarter of the original price.

I had seen enough hopefully next time I visit this island, it will be back on it's feet one thing that the island has gained from all this pandemic nature has had a chance to recover the beach was looking very sparkly and clean. Having one more beer at this only pub that's open along this Chaweng beach road then it's home for me to a nice warm bubble bath after my 10 km walk.