Nothing Stays On Samet

Greece is a country steeped in history. Everywhere you step, no matter how insignificant seeming has history to it. Even our beloved Patmos is known for being home to St John the Divine and was was frequented by Artemis who was introduced to Patmos be Selene, the moon goddess. Patmos' tiny neighbor Lipsi was home to Calypso and larger neighbor Samos was birthplace of Dionysus without going into anything modern.

In Thailand, Bangkok is obviously history rich – especially sites like the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and the canals themselves which distinguished Bangkok as "The Venice of the East". In December 2017 we visited Ko Samet's larger neighbor, Ko Chang – known for being part of a battle between Siam and colonial France which lost Ko Chang to the French Empire for 10 years.

Ko Samet, by contrast, has absolutely no history of note perhaps because it is a small, dry island that produces nothing except a very minor amount of coconuts and is covered in tea trees from which no commercial tea tree oil or other products have ever been extracted. For most of its history, the area round Ko Samet was fertile fishing grounds, but the island itself was not populated. In fact, the modern Thai government didn't allow overnight stay on Samet until 1981 which really opened the door to tourism, not to residency. Today, roughly 1800 people actually reside on Ko Samet and the vast majority work here in some fashion – many only staying when they work (frequently seasonally) and still consider their hometowns their real homes.

Ko Samet is so dry by Thai standards that it has had to import all of its potable water until six months ago when it finally got its own municipal water supply and distribution system. Water trucks made deliveries to each of the bungalow operations pouring fresh water into their tanks. Even now, there are still a few water trucks roving around the island to some of the lodgings on more distant beaches. When I frequented Ko Samet 20 years ago – and even 10 years ago when I was last here with Emily – Ko Samet didn't have 24-hour electricity. The power went off at night and many of the bungalow and bar operators turned on generators to keep their businesses going and guests comfortable. Many was the morning I woke up in a complete sweat because the generator stopped and the fan in my bungalow no longer worked while the tropical sun beat down against the roof and walls.

But water and power aren't the only commodities supplied to Ko Samet. Literally everything on this island is brought here by boat. Every bottle of drinking water, bar of soap, piece of furniture, towel, dish, motorcycle, roll of toilet paper and even most of the coconuts arrive by boat. It's kind of an amazing thing when you stop to think about it. The island itself has nothing and all of the tourism with all of the resources used are shipped in. 

Emily and I used to talk about this idea on Patmos which is also small, dry and completely supplied by boat. Only Patmos can be approached by large car ferries and cargo ships. A water tanker regularly pulls up to Patmos and fills its municipal water supply. Giant multi-deck car ferries visit frequently and among other things bring entire grocery trucks to supply the AlphaBeta supermarket, oil tankers to supply the two gas stations, and armored cars to service the three banks and their ATMs.

Ko Samet doesn't have vehicle carrying ferries. The largest boats that approach Samet are large, slow wooden fishing boats. That means Ko Samet's rise has been a boon for Ban Phe and Rayong's fishing fleet – not because of the demand for fish but because their boats help 7-11 put Pringles on the shelves and keep restaurants supplied with enough rice. Even with all of this, the owner of our conda-low told me today how he and his wife make weekly trips to Ban Phe to shop for most of their supplies including toilet paper, linens and cleaning products – which are either not available on the island or not in large and affordable enough supply. After all, unlike Patmos, Ko Samet doesn't have a supermarket or a bank – just a few small dry goods shops, three 7-11's and some ATMs.

Of course this is exactly the charm of Ko Samet – that it has limitations that keep it from overdeveloping. An airport, a bridge or even a car ferry would change Samet radically. Ko Chang's development exploded after car ferry service was added.

Samet is an island that is strictly for recreation. With only one narrow road going down its spine of its T-shape and a one-way loop covering the horizontal axis, most people just walk up and down the beaches, using the backbone road in the few places rocks or high tides block walking between coves. Walking Samet is like passing through a magic wonderland – a place meant only for beauty, relaxation and fun. It's peaceful, easy and has few dangers. There's room to have fun, but it's not a wild party like Ko Phagnan or Ko Phi Phi. With calm waters, mild sunsets, and nothing but restaurants, masseuses, fruit vendors, sarong salesmen and the occasional henna tattoo artist to serve your every need plus a few you may not have – Samet is somehow other-worldly. It's a place where the residents are incidental to the tourism and literally came for the tourism, not the other way around. There is no sense of being here invading the locals' space – quite literally the tourists were here first.

With no history or local culture, Samet has been free to invent itself. What's so interesting is all the things it has chosen not to be. It's tasteful, calm, pleasing, restrained, welcoming, easy, fun – but never crazy, wild, over-the-top or decadent (not that more than a fair share of people have woken up in the morning on the beach). Samet is not the Las Vegas of Thai islands. What happens on Samet does not stay on Samet. In the end, nothing stays on Samet – everyone including the employees eventually go home.

So too must we in another two days. Tomorrow is our last full day on the island. Thursday we cross the water to Ban Phe where a shuttle will take us back to Bangkok for a drive-thru COVID test and one last night before we fly Friday evening. None of us are ready for that. The kids agreed that they would like to stay on Ko Samet. Sennen would like to live here – which I suppose goes along with his new dream of being a fire twirler. There was even some criticism tonight about why more of the trip wasn't here on Ko Samet since it's everyone's (including mine) favorite part of the trip. But of course, if there was only Ko Samet, there would be no Thai culture and if there was no Ko Samet there would be no vacation.

But counting down brings the end before it actually happens. The goal is to make the most of what we have, while we have it. Today we did just that. There were beach chairs, lounging, meals, snacks, drinks, paddle boarding, sand sculpting, swimming, dancing, playing, laughing, massages, fun – and most importantly a HEALTHY BAILEY who was back to her old self. I had to come back to the conda-low earlier than the rest for a work call. When they showed up at 11pm, not only had everyone had a great time together on the beach, but Ailyn was punch drunk with laughter. That's as it should be. There's the rest of the year to get to bed on time, make sure school work is done and live by the schedule and the clock. But on Ko Samet, time is more of a suggestion than a reality and thank God there are places that give us that.