Top 10 Things to Do in Koh Samui
The top ten list of activities in Koh Samui according to the Lonely Planet reads quickly as follows:
1) Fishing tour
2) Five islands tour
3) Dog rescue center
4) Samui institute of Thai culinary arts
5) Spa Samui village
6) Kamalaya Spa
7) Yoga Thailand
8) Health Oasis Resort
9) Absolute yoga
10) Dharma healing international
Two things immediately jump out from just the merest glance at this list. Firstly people’s notions of activities when it comes to voting for these lists are strangely inclusive – a place (The Dog Rescue Center) can be an activity. The idea I’m sure is to volunteer to help the dogs and other animals. Also many of the activities mentioned involve the absence of doing – namely meditating and fasting.
The other thing that strikes me about this list is that there is a preponderance of yoga and wellness centers on the list. Are people who practice the holistic arts more inclined to read the LP and be pro-active enough to vote? This is true for the 30 to 38 spots on the list which are nearly exclusively dominated by private airport taxi companies (that really is stretching the meaning of ‘activity’).
The Thai Culinary Arts course teaches you the royal art of carving vegetables and fruit into intricate floral designs. The Five Islands Tour is interesting because they take you to a small group of islands off the coast of Koh Samui which are zealously guarded by Sea Gypsies who make a living climbing precarious arrangements of bamboo poles to get to birds’ nests. These nests are made with the bird spittle that Chinese cuisine values. 1kg of nest goes for as much as $4,000 in Hong Kong. The tour includes snorkeling, visiting caves and of course watching the Sea Gypsies in action. The tour is rounded off with lunch or dinner at the Five Islands Restaurant in Taling Ngam.
The wellness industry is obviously alive and flourishing in Koh Samui. It is a great place to get a colonic irrigation, try far infrared ray saunas and learn everything from Vipassana meditation to Pilates. Of all the places in the list Dharma International Healing Center purports to be the most ‘Buddhist’ and ‘spiritual’. They focus on irrigations and fasting. It reminds me of what George Bernard Shaw said about religion: “An Englishman only feels religious when he is suffering”.
For those people who might get the wrong impression of Koh Samui activities, other worldly but fun activities on the island include: canopy adventures, diving, driving go karts, visiting butterfly gardens, watching lady boy Muay Thai fights, running marathons and swimming in waterfalls. Not to mention sampling the chaotic nightlife of Chaweng and Lamai.
The problem would seem to be the medium of the internet list. They clearly are automated and nothing is done to screen the real reviews from the fake reviews, and if it is then the mediators are proving themselves most fallible. The point can be stretched wider to say that travel review sites are clearly too open to abuse by commentary from people with vested interests in these lists. It is perhaps better to rely on word of mouth recommendations instead.