How Chaweng Has Changed

Thursday 7 September

After the thunderstorm and rain in the night, we awoke in the morning to cloudy skies with some small breaks for the sun to peep through, but still hot and humid.

When I had first calculated, I thought Juz and Dave arrived today, but wrong again, it isn’t till tomorrow evening. We decided therefore it was time to go and explore a little further on our own. After dropping the laundry at a shop in the village – wash and iron 100 bahts or 1.60 GBP, we persuaded a taxi driver to take us to Chaweng for 200 bahts, just over 3.00 GBP. He wasn’t too happy – he wanted 300 bahts, but everyone here knows ‘the English have no money’ (see later), and he finally agreed. From memory it was just a short distance from Bophut to Chaweng, but in fact, it was much further and took about twenty minutes. We were dropped at one end of the main street and began our wander. By now it is about midday, but still most of the shops were not open – many had signs saying “Open at 3.00”, and I guess a lot don’t come to life before the evening. Also there were hardly any people about, just a few opening clothes shops and stalls. We had not visited this part of the town before and didn’t realize just how long the main street was. It took us about an hour, just wandering, to get to “Poppies Restaurant”, a landmark we recognized, but still not at the far end of town.

Chaweng is very different from a year ago – it has become much more commercialized with lots of new buildings – mainly smart shops and glitzy hotels or apartments, the pavements are now properly built up, and it’s much cleaner. There is even a large plaza-like area with seating for watching the world go by while having a drink. Not that there is any shortage of bars and restaurants – they still abound, from the very smart and quite expensive to the cheaper market stalls along the roadside, cooking seafood and kebabs, mainly for the locals,. We had been warned that prices in Chaweng had increased madly, but on the whole restaurants were slightly cheaper than you get in Bophut for the same standard – and of course, you have to add the taxi fare. There were definitely a few that we fancied trying.

There are still some areas of temporary shops and in one part of the street, what had probably been a dozen or so ‘market shops’ (tarpaulin covered frames, each about 15ft x 10ft) had been burnt down in a major fire, probably the night before as the ashes were still smoldering. Several traders were picking through the remains of bent and twisted metal frames, a burnt out motorbike and a chair frame – but not a lot else was left. (Sorry Alex, we missed the fire engines!) Whether this fire was the result of a lightning strike during the storm last night, or other causes, we were not sure, but the amount of water that fell at Bophut makes it amazing that so much damage could be done. Later on our way back, they were cordoning the area off with lethal-looking barbed wire.

Another new experience in Koh Samui is the number of times you are stopped by people offering time-shares. I don’t remember any on our last visit, but now, young men ride up to you on their motor bikes and ask if you would like a scratch card. I took two cards the other day from one young man, before I realized it was for time-share. He explained it helped him with his bonus, and of course, we won. But today, we were stopped many times along the road – and when we said “No” and they found out we were English, they said they understood the “English have no money” (I suppose the English have been tempted too often in Spain and the like to be interested here, which isn’t just a quick flight away from home) - interestingly they were looking for Scandinavians.

We found a place to have lunch – a sarnie, chips and a beer – and sat and watched as more and more people seemed to be on the move – the number of small motor cycles is amazing – never ending streams of them chuffing up the road, some with as many as four people aboard. Crossing the road here is difficult purely because the traffic is non-stop. There were not many put-puts around, but maybe it was still too early – we saw Maccy Ds opening soon after 15.00 – breakfast time out here. When we revisit with Juz and Dave – they are bound to want to shop – we will have to go in the evening, when I am sure the town will be buzzing with life. In the daytime, Chaweng seems to have lost some of its charm and indigenous characteristics which we loved, but I am sure it will be better after dark.

We managed to hail one of the few put-puts to take us back to Bophut, but only to the entrance of the village – again he thought about it – but a fare is a fare. As we neared the village the rain suddenly dropped out of the sky again. When the driver stopped at the start of the village – about a quarter of a mile away from Smile, we were soaked before we had even paid him. We hopped over the puddles at first, but then as the rain continued incessantly and the road flooded, we gave in to being thoroughly wet. Once back at the bungalow I went in the pool while the rain continued – it probably rained for about half an hour in total – and then the sun shone warmly again and everything started to dry.

In the evening we went for the obligatory cocktails at the Frog and Gecko – why hadn’t we been at the Quiz the previous evening? – slapped wrists – and the Beatles Bar, before deciding on the covered part of the Happy Elephant for dinner, which specializes in Thai food. We both chose soup to start – Colin had coconut milk and chicken and I had a spicy Tom Yum with shrimps (they are large prawns to us) followed for Colin by sweet and sour shrimps, garlic rice and baby corn, and for me shrimps with cashews and vegetable noodles. The Thai food here is not as hot spicy as we get at home – perhaps visitors in the past have complained it’s too hot and they have tempered it down. We finished with more cocktails and tea to compliment the meal. Another contented evening at the Happy Elephant.

Hopefully the weather will be bright and sunny again tomorrow so we can sit around the pool all day and prepare ourselves for Juz and Dave’s arrival in the evening.