yorkie100

That is one way to look at it 'insert'. Another way is to  ........

.......drop out of the rat race. Find a quiet location with some of the best views in the world. Enjoy hot to warm weather for 350 days of the year (the other 15 are cool days). Enjoy sunshine and calm seas for 10 months of the year.

Fabulous beaches, warm sea, great food (compared to most places in the UK) cold beer and lovely people that smile at you when you say hello.

A shxtty day here is still far better than an average day in lots of other places. It depends on your outlook to life. Positive outlook, positive life. I earn a fraction of the money that I did in the real world, but Disneyland still looks good when it looks like tropical beaches, warm weather and fabulous views.

I worked for 34 years, eventually enjoying top hotels, flying to different places every week, living in a new country every two/three years, and having a great time eating, drinking and travelling. I met some great people and really enjoyed my job.

I do not miss one single aspect of it now that I have stopped on Samui. (Except maybe a bit more money? )

Every morning I wake up and look at a great view and know that today I will meet and talk to some really nice folks. I will have a great meal and a couple of beers. Perfect. I have been on 'holiday' on samui for 12 years now. It's still PDG.

smokie36, on 2012-05-04 11:14:55, said:

I guess both. Air Asia from BKK to CNX is THB 1750, Thai 2425 and Bangkok Airways 2450. On this basis, I fail to see how PG can suddenly get their price down to 1000 on the USM route. Maybe around 2000 is the breakeven level (bearing in mind all the addtional services like lounge etc). 2500 - 3000 is the price it used to be only a couple of years back which included profit. The only reason we are up to the 5000 level today is because BKK-USM is subsidising the rest of their routes where it has to be competitive and at this price, it enables PG to remain profitable which is no mean achievement for any airline today.

Fascinating.

Not only thinking behind the OP's initial inquiry, but the smattering of fragments that have been thrown back. Mostly (IMHO) they are fair enough but the responses also seem to have been side-tracked by newspaper headlines, which I feel is unfortunate and a bit like giving someone your latest medical reports when they ask - hiya-you OK?

Seems like you're used to Pattaya.

Once you get away from the fact it's the biggest brothel in the known universe, that there is always a series of twofers on a happy hour from 4:00 pm to midnight  somewhere if you plan your schedule, that you can work your way from Soi 7 to BoyzTown on free BBQs and parties, (schedule again), that there are chip shops doing rare grub for 120 baht a plate (if you can stomach the endless re-runs of Fools and Horses), that there are street markets where you can get almost everything for no money, where there are baht buses that go all over for only 10 baht, the fact that it's a proper city with intersections and traffic lights and hi-rise buildings . . . then there's the other things.

As in, Pattaya is a lot more than just the Marine Disco to Soi 8. There's Jontiem and Naklua, too - and all the bits between, right up to Sukhumvit. There is actually a huge area and maybe 70% of it is cheap - housing/rents/food/pub grub/alcohol/girlies/ plus there's 3G for your phone/tablet/ etc. It's a proper city.

To compare a proper city to Samui is a bit like thinking that the clockwork swimming toys that your kid has in the bath are almost like real, somehow. Or that the first Apollo shot actually got to the moon.

Samui is a coconut island that only 2 generations ago didn't have a complete ring-road, a regular ferry service or an airport. Everything here has been patched together and cobbled up bit by bit, mostly over the last decade. Most of the things here don't work so good. Transport (there is no public transport - even the 'baht buses' are comparatively expensive) is hit and miss - and the "meter taxis" here are a national embarrassment.

When it rains the lights go out and your broadband connections cuts. Sometimes (often, actually,) this happens for no reason. (Now and then the only way I know it's raining is when the power goes off.)

The main Chaweng Beach Road has huge 3-metre drainage pipes under it that don't go anywhere as none of the resorts between the road and the sea wanted to be dug up to provide an outlet. (But they do act as a kind of resevoir when it rains.) The rest of the island seems to channel its sewerage into the nearest downhill channel, which mostly seems to surface next to every 7-11 on the ring-road.

Food is comparatively expensive. You won't find a noodle soup for less than 35 baht - but, then, we're talking pennies. Decent and authentic English grub is hard to find for less than around 300 baht a plate.

There are no megastores that have hundreds of clued-in nongs to change your phone settings or print you a copy of your SIM card contacts.

But we do have Tesco, Makro, Boots, McWhatsists and so on . . .

Housing is actually quite cheap now - if you shop around. Samui has been constructing accommodation at the rate of 24% a year (TAT stats for 2008) whereas the arrivals have been increasing at the rate of between 8% and 10% a year (TAT). There is still a lot of the Thai thinking that goes "oh this house has been empty for a year now so I'd better ask more money to reduce my losses". But if you look around you'll still find a nice 2-bedroomed house (unfurnished) for as little as 6,000B - more usually 9-10 K a month.

Liike-minded chaps? I dunno, as I don't know what your mind is like. There's a ton of English, Germans and Aussies ('n Russkies, too - an ever increasing amount) (in that order?) living here, but very few under the age of 40 or so. It's not a kid's island, despite what you might read.

At one time I used to keep an apartment in Pattaya and a house on Samui. It worked out at the same cost to go to Pattaya for a week every month as it did to stay here full time. But after several years I gave it up.

I liked the slow and stupid life here. I liked being able to see the big blue wet thing all around for most of the time. I liked the fact that, in only ten minutes, I could go from bars and bistros and restaurants right up into the mountains. Or find a beach where there was only me (plus suitable female company - clothes not compulsory and nobody to see or know.)

I liked this rustic, annoying, coconut island.

Try to imagine a great big mansion somewhere made out of bits of tin can and scrap wood, held together with duct tape and superglue, plus the odd nail or two, but connected with wire and string to mains electric, and with a water pipe coming in that's connected to Nam Papa up the mountain somewhere. There are holes in all the windows but it's warm so who cares.

Compare that to a Travel Lodge or the plastic-yet-secure comfort of a motel somewhere.

That's the difference between Samui and Pattaya, as I see it.

Phew.

Finished now.

Rob

yorkie100, on 2012-04-07 09:31:28, said:

Although there is already one on the corner of Soi Thongsai - opposite the other 7/11. (They seem to go round in pairs now! Hmmm)

Yes - bit of a shame that the Post shoppie did not ask the real post office if they were going to open up nearby. They closed as soon as the PO in Choengmon opened.

BTW I like the Laemians bit

BangrakBob, on 2012-04-03 21:11:06, said:

So Beng, if your friends' bar is full of nuts, they should be fine.

I like samui, it is a good place to call home.

A friend of mine has been offered to buy a bar in Bangrak. Lease is reasonable, premises are basic and need work. Good idea ??  Thanks for your comments..

Bangkok

After a year of internal investigations into Bangkok Airways Monopoly Grip on the Island of Koh Samui , The Office of the trade Competition Commission of Thailand has demanded the President of Bangkok Airways Mr. Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth reduced prices  to match competitors prices elsewhere in the Kingdom of Thailand, or face operational suspension within 2 months by the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) if Bangkok Airways do not comply with the order by 2nd May 2012.

The Office of the trade Competition Commission of Thailand, lead by Khun Kittiratt Na-Ranong has outlined the price changes as follows

All route tickets from Bangkok to Samui – 999 THB
All route tickets from Phuket to Samui – 899 THB
All route tickets from Pattaya to Samui – 849 THB
All route tickets from Chaing Mai to Samui –1199 THB

Mr. Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth was unavailable for comment when the International Centre of Aviation tried to contact him this afternoon for comment, but an internal source at Bangkok Airways has reported BKK Air will honor the decision, but Bangkok Airways will be consulting with Udom Tantiprasongchai , former chairman of one 2 go over improvements in revenue and possible cost cutting measures throughout its fleet"



-- www.centreforaviation.com/ 2012-03-31

marstons, on 2012-03-30 11:53:54, said:

With respect, this post is mostly bo**ocks.
The fact that you were in Burger King at all says something.
Do you really think £2.40 is expensive for a breakfast??
Soi Reggae is an 'entertainment street' - if you wanted cheap beer you could have chosen hundreds of other places to drink.
You're moaning about massage places but you were spending time on Soi Reggae??
You're moaning about massage places but then sing Pattaya's praises??
As someone else has pointed out there is extensive road resurfacing going on around the island, including the lake road.
And are you really trying to tell us that you left, and others stay away, because you are disaffected with the way the lake is being dredged?!!
A holiday with you must be a bonanza of fun from beginning to end.

yorkie100, on 2012-03-31 11:11:56, said:

ha ha...............general what? if you're not careful the childrens TV round will come back then we will be scuppered!