Waking up on the opposite side of the planet is an irreplaceable feeling. For me, it’s a necessity. A jolt to the senses. The air is different. The smells are different. So are the sights and sounds, and of course, the language, too. Waking up to a pink-hued sunrise on Koh Samui, the sun’s pastel orb rising above the ocean that stretches to the horizon from the vantage of your expansive villa’s pool, is priceless. The azure seas of the gulf of Thailand, the lush, verdant green of the surrounding hills. A day of excellent eating with bold flavors meshing spicy, sour, salty and sweet into one cohesive, palate-awakening whole, and basking in the sun, awaits. Another day in paradise. If this isn’t worth traveling around the world for, then what is?
Those villa vibes are coming from The Ritz-Carlton, Koh Samui, a resort that’s all about the views and the blues. Oh, those blues. A vibrant spectrum of turquoise shades creating a striated, blue-tinted rainbow.
The Ritz boasts a large infinity pool atop a crescent of beach in a secluded bay, an abundance of dining and drinking venues worth exploring, and an enormous Spa Village compound incorporating treatment villas set amid a garden and a separate relaxation pool.
That luxe villa life is just one of the ways you should consider spending your time during a trip. There’s snorkeling and jet skiing, and there’s Buddhist statues and temples. There are food markets and cooking classes, Muay Thai stadiums, ATVs and elephants — but don’t ride ’em, folks, never ride the elephants — and scenic sights and waterfalls. There are boundless beautiful beaches and endless night time festivities, and yes, the ability to live it up from your villa’s deck for days on end without ever needing or caring to leave.
What’s New on Koh Samui?
Koh Samui may seem as if it’s always been a fully-formed traveler’s wonderland, but it’s also not stuck in stasis. It has continued to evolve, and as with most vacation-centric destinations, the pandemic has played a role with that. The most striking example of what’s changed is the legalization of cannabis and the scores of shops which have proliferated across the island. Strips of shops in busy tourist stretches such as Chaweng Beach are lined with them. Vendors have stalls in the night markets alongside purveyors of satay and mango sticky rice.
“Once they legalized it, half of the stores that closed during the pandemic became cannabis shops instead,” says a hotel manager at one of the properties I stayed at who preferred to remain anonymous on the subject. “Everybody’s very curious. Even the people living here, considering that it’s almost cheaper than beer. You can buy one smoke for 200 baht (about $6) versus a handful of drinks for the same type of effect.”
And if you haven’t been to Koh Samui in as long as I have — seven years, what was I thinking? — then you’ll notice that getting around is easier than ever thanks to the ubiquity of Southeast Asia’s do-it-all Grab app.
There’s also been a slate of recent high-end hotel openings. The Centara Reserve Samui opened in December 2021 after the renovation of a prior property under the Centara umbrella. The new outpost is its first Reserve, and takes advantage of a prime locale in the center of Chaweng Beach. “Chaweng is like the center of Koh Samui,” says Peter, a driver taking me to the hotel. “All the action is there. Nightlife, partying if you like. In the daytime, people are at the beach. At night, they come to the bars.”
The Centara Reserve showcases 184 ocean-facing rooms spread across a series of interconnected four-story buildings, the ground floor of which offer direct pool access. There are two main resort pools along its beachfront, one sporting a swim-up bar, and the other a see-through sidewall.
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Instead of trying to do everything on the island, pick a locale and a lane, like soThe hotel is striving to be plastic free, and operates an organic spa with treatment materials sourced from an on-site herb garden. At Centara’s Gin Run bar, three dozen house-infused gins even incorporate ingredients stemming from that garden.
But get this, the hotel offers guests a Surprise of the Day that can be requested by pressing a dedicated “surprise” button on your room’s phone. Dial her up, and you’ll be answered with “Sawadee ka, the surprise of the day is on the way.” And 10 minutes later, you’ll get a plate of sweet treats delivered to you. How fun is that? Rooms include a complimentary minibar replete with three mini decanters of spirits that are refilled daily.
The Kimpton Katalay Samui also made its debut in December 2021, calling Choengmon Beach on the northeast coast home. Katalay can be translated to “a song from the sea,” and the property draws inspiration from the nearby Fisherman’s Village in terms of its architecture and design. The spa has its own signature scent — salt and patchouli — found in bespoke Harnn products across the property.
There are 21 beachfront pool villas, with its remaining 117 rooms spread across six buildings. Rooms on the ground floor have swimout access to their building’s pool, while the resort’s main pool serves as the center and showpiece of the property. There’s a bar, an ice cream stand and a pool table in the pool, among other diversions.
It’s an exceedingly pet-friendly property, with in-room amenities, an outdoor pet run and other pooch perks. Additional offerings designed to help make guests feel at home include nightly social hours with complimentary cocktails and canapes, complimentary yoga classes and minibars stocked with cocktail ingredients, tools and books.
Other new offerings abound, along with the big-name luxury brands which have been mainstays. Hopping between two or three different outposts allows you to enjoy different sides of the island, not only geographically, but also in terms of the type of experience. For instance, while the Ritz is in its own swanky enclave and is built for pure R&R, and the Centara Reserve places you amid the bumping nightlife and busy beach scene of Chaweng, the Kimpton’s location is somewhat of a cross between the two, found amid a small strip of adjacent hotels, restaurants and bars.
Muay Thai & Food Markets
Back at The Ritz-Carlton, there’s a full-size Muay Thai ring from which instructors offer tutorials. I signed up for a session from a former professional fighter who goes by Q. He had about 350 pro fights but couldn’t tell you his exact record. “I fought too much, sometimes three times per week,” he tells me, with the circuit taking him from the mainland to Samui, and up to the big leagues in Bangkok. Q stopped fighting after he tore up his knee in a motorbike accident, an omnipresent risk around these parts. “This happens too often in Thailand,” he says.
The ring is housed under an open air pavilion with a view of those brilliant ocean blues, the serenity of which is at once within reach but yet firmly out of grasp. Access to that tranquil turquoise can now only be unlocked with pain, with your hard-earned blood, sweat and tears. Or at least a lot of sweat, and hopefully no blood or tears.
I boxed in my younger days, and my background in that discipline gives me a foundation for throwing strikes with my fists. But I do everything else wrong. I move the wrong way, I threaten to break my own toes with the way I point my feet as I kick, and I give Q fits as I keep on making the same mistakes. “We’re not boxing!” he shouts at me with a smile as I step left after throwing a jab, out of reach of my nonexistent boxing foe’s fists, but straight into my very much existent Muay Thai opponent Q’s right kick instead. I have good power, “too much power, it’s hard to hold your mitts,” but am a pure liability when needing to throw and defend against kicks and knees.
After enrolling in several other sessions during my time on Koh Samui, I came away pretty sore and slightly more skilled, while becoming wholly aware, more than ever, of how very unskilled I still was. Another of my Muay Thai instructors laughs as he watches me kick. After being impressed with my punches, he observes that my right leg is basically a dead weight when kicking, but my left leg is stronger. I’m a righty boxer and a southpaw kickboxer, apparently.
Maybe spectating is the smarter approach. In Samui you can take in the fights at several stadiums. The incessant advertising for each week’s multiple fight cards — pickup trucks draped with posters and blaring fight announcements from megaphones cruise the popular beach streets day and night — will make it easy for you to track down where and when to go.
My Muay Thai training worked up an appetite and helped me feel less guilty about my nightly noodle forays at the night markets of Thailand, where bliss on a skewer is served up for a few baht. The masses of tourists and locals alike join forces to prowl amid rows of vendors, the same as they were last night and the same as the ones found in those other markets you’ve visited, but still, you must make a few laps rather than snagging the first food you find.
Grab a half dozen satay sticks bundled together in a bag with dipping sauce. Skewers with morsels of meat from the land and sea, the origins of which in some cases are recognizable and in others, not. Gyoza galore. Pad Thai and fried rice and a colorful assortment of curry. Fresh fruit plates and mango sticky rice. Roti dessert pancakes with different fillings and rolled ice cream.
Beware the 99 baht cocktail carts, selling lethal concoctions consisting of sugary neon tinctures and unknown bottom shelf hooch. No, Chang beer is your night market friend. The quintessential humid climate, sweaty afternoon or evening remedy, your go-to while seated upon the plastic chairs of a street vendor. It’ll wash down whatever you’re having with aplomb, all of which is handheld or easily packaged to go, and costs anywhere from maybe 10 to 80 baht, or a maximum of $2.50 for a healthy entree-sized portion of unhealthy fried food. If you spend $5 at a Thai night market and leave hungry, you’ve done something wrong. Maybe you spent your baht at the cannabis vendor.
Waking up to that surreal sunrise from your private villa is absolutely worth traveling for, but only as much as it also puts you into position for something like those night markets. On Koh Samui you can choose your own adventure. Get your butt kicked in a Muay Thai ring, soothe the pain away with a Thai massage, a visit to the beach or an indulgent meal. Ignore the world from your villa, grab dinner for a dollar, don’t forget the Chang, and please, be careful on those scooters. And skip the elephant rides.
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