Chaweng Beach is Samui's biggest and busiest, home to the lion's share of hotels and resorts on the island. The beach itself is majestic 9-kilometer crescent of fine white sand in a bay bordered by rocky headlands and lush green hills. A multitude of resorts offering a bery wide range of accommodation nestles amongst the coconut palms that hug the beach-prices on Chaweng run from THB200 to 10,000 with every imaginable option between. The beach rarely fails to impress and it really is a picture-perfect tropical beach.

There is also a reef just fifty meters from the shore running along approximately half its length. It is hardly surprising that the biggest, most beautiful beach on the island has become the center for most of its development and in 15 short years Chaweng has been transformed from an almost deserted stretch of sand, frequented by a handful of fishermen and visited by a few adventurous backpackers, into a vibrant cosmopolitan resort town. It now boasts a diverse selection of accommodation, shops, bars, night-sport and restaurants attracting visitors from all over the world.

 

The road that runs parallel to the beach is packed to overflowing with all kinds of businesses catering to the toursists, and recently plazas and sub-sois(lanse) are being added at many points to cater for the demand for premises. There are shops ranging from supermarkets to designer clothes stores, literally hundreds of bars and restaurants and four huge nightclubs. Most of the nightlife is concentrated around the middle of the beach and anyone hoping to get a quiet night's sleep should stay away from this area.

 

The northern section is protected by a long reef that runs all the way to Matlang Island, the elevated clump of coconuts sitting jut off shore at the far end of the beach. The water here is very shallow and at low tide becomes a lagoon, making it free from noisy jet-skis and the safest place to take children swimming. There is a good mix of accommodation available with superior sesorts (Amari and Blue Lagoon) and some old favorite budget accommodation(Venum and Marine Bungalows) sitting side by side. There seems to be the slight hint of a trend towards the avant garde at this end and some interesting beach bars and resorts have sprung up lately-notably Muang Kulaypan, Lazy Wave and Corto Maltese.

 

The middle section-the elbow of the bay-is the busiest section and in high season it can be hard to find space to put a towel down. There are still a few of the budget bungalows that made Chaweng a cheap paradise for cash strapped travelers (see Charlies Hut, Viking and Dewdrop), surviving alongside the new resorts and there are plenty of beach bars that spillout onto the sands, many of them playing music at fullblast. This is the  stronghold of the young, or young at heart and party lovers from all over the world hang out to be seen and to see what's going on. There are volley ball nets and jetskis, paradailing and waterskiing-it is brash and busy and not for those seeking peace and quiet. One disconcertion factor is that many resorts and restaurants put their tables, chairs and signpostsout onto the sand making it difficult to walk along at high tide. This practice seems to go unregulated for a while until it gets ridiculous and the beach is impassable at points, and then the police come down and put some limits into place.

 

The southern end of the beach is the most open to the ocean and better for swimming, and has wide-open sands so there is always plenty of room for sunbathers. The accommodation here edges towards the up-market and it is hard to find anywhere under THB1,000 a night, but if you are willing to splash out there is plenty of choice and some excellent resorts to stay in-particularly Poppise and the Chaweng Resort. This end is probably the mot tranquil, with the exception of the area around the huge Central Hotel where an absurd amount of hawkers congregate.

 

WATHER PORTS

Windsurf boards and Hobie cats can be rented from Central Resort or Outside Seaside Bungalows. Instructors are also available. Wind surfboards are available for rent from Samui Ocean club outside Chaweng Regent resort. Windsurfers and kayaks can be hired from out side the Blue lagoon Hotel, south Chaweng. Prices seem to be the same everywhere at THB300 for a windsurfer and THB800 for a hobie cat. Discovery Water sports at the Amari resort also has kayaks and water-skiing. Jet Skis and available from various points along the beach, the going rate seems to be THB500 for 15 minutes. There are also always one or two parasailing and water-ski operations, that although they move around are always very visible-a short parasailing trip around the bay will cost around THB800 and waterskiing is THB400 for one run.

 

SHOPPING

Shopping options in Chaweng are becoming increasingly varied and new options are opening all the time. There are a number of tailors shops (even on the beach), jewelry shops, options, antiques and handicraft stores, dozens of t-shirt stores and Nike and Adidas both have outlets. There are of course plenty of souvenir shops and fake designer labels on sale and some designer boutiques and fashionable clothes stores. For the deckchair shopper there is a fair amount available on the beach as hawkers walk up and down selling sarongs, T-shirts, shorts and cheap clothes, fake watches and other oddments. Prices are of course negotiable and you can often knock them down by as much as 50% (thry will start much higher if you are outside one of the more expensive resorts).There seems to be a supermarket very 50-meters where you can get much of what is available on the beach but with fixed prices and there and even a couple of minimarts on the beach (at Chaweng Gardens and the Island). Outdoor shopping plazas are popping up making it easier to shop-malibu plaza (near Maliby resort), Blue Wave City, Centerpoint (in front of the Club) are presently the three main ones, but there will be another big plaza opposite Long Beach, one next to Malibu Resort and one nearly opposite Central Samui Beach Resort is taking shape.

 

LAEM DIN MARKET

This large outdoor market is 300 meters up the road that starts opposite Central Bay Resort leading away from the beach. It started life as the Lao market, where migrant labourers and other workers from Isaan in northeastern Thailand would congregate to sell their special food and items. It quickly became a popular focal point for many Chaweng residents and graduated to a fruit and vegetable market before being taken over by Chaweng natives and turned into a commercial market (Samui Style). Now you will find everything from buffalo offal to fake jeans and saucepans to Swiss army knives. The best thing is that there are dozens of interestion eating opportunities for those with the stomach for it, as well as many bargains.

 

NIGHT LIVE

Chaweng is the undisputed nightlive center of Koh Samui, there is something for all creatures of the night. It is a 24 hour resort and it is not uncommon to see weary and drunken revelers staggering home at a time when most people are already on the beach. There are four big night clubs, outdoor theatres, transvestite cabaret shows, beach bars, girlie bars, pool bars, nooker halls, video parlours, British, American and European style pubs and clubs. Most of the action occurs in the center of town where a definite strip has developed running from the Reggae Pub Bridge to The Club.Later on partygoers move across the lake to the reggae Pub itself and the collection of bars and clubs adjacent to it or to the imposing Sante Fe towards the southern end of town.

 

RESTAURANT

Chaweng Beach is a gastronomic delight with food available 24 hours a day at literally hundreds of restaurants serving up every kind of cuisine you can imageine. Every resort also has a restaurant attached, usually serving standard Thai and western fare (although some have been rented out to more imaginative poerators). The standards as well as choice of cuisine has been driven up by the extra competition and prices have remained low, so visitors to Samui are now rewarded with high quality restaurants at reasonable prices. Many of the newcomers are foreigners whose restaurants represent their origins, which is why there are so many German, Italian, Brilish and Swiss establishment. Although Thai food is still well represented, many restaurants have diluted their dishes to suit the tastes of foreigners, so if you want to sample the pleasures(and pain)of real Thai food you will have to venture to the outskirts of town.

 

 

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