/w-retreat-koh-samui-thailand/travel your dreams in styleSat, 13 Feb 2016 11:02:52 +0000hourly1/w-retreat-koh-samui-thailand/#comment-48192Tue, 27 Jan 2015 13:50:17 +0000/?p=27564#comment-48192If you didn’t get to Ko Samui 10-15 years ago you missed out. Then is was a lovely palm tree fringed island with laid back people and atmosphere and US$ 5 a nite beach front bungalows. Now it is a mass tourism disaster, which hotels like the W continue to exacerbate. Pristine beachfront land is expropriated by the Bangkok based elites who build these monstrosities that are then put up for management by western companies like Starwood so Western hipsters can come for some sort of “authentic” Thai island experience. The local people and environment be damned! All the island in the Gulf of Thailand are severely resource constrained, especially when it comes to water resources and trash disposal and mega-resorts like this just make it worse. Also, don’t forget to come in the rainy season, when all these hotels block the natural drainage of storm water and the sewer systems (such as it is) backs up and floods all over the roads, hotels, and beaches.

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