They also brought Buddhism with them, which eventually became the island’s main religion, as well as a small and industrious Muslim population. Prior to these developments, the islanders mainly worshipped various ghost like spirits.
One of many theories regarding the naming of the Island, is that the word “Samui” is a derivative of the Chinese word “Saboey”, which translates to “safe haven”, and is why the original seafaring Hainanese came to the Island.
Samui remained a remote trading outpost for many years, over time, dirt paths became worn and connected some of the seaside towns, one by one, via local clans or family settlements. These tracks were not maintained and were used by locals travelling on foot or on the back of buffalo. The tracks to any of the huts and settlements in the mountainous centre of the island were even worse and more difficult to traverse.
As all the main towns were, and still are, located along the coastline, the preferred and main method of transportation was by sea, on long tail boats.
Nathon, being the closest settlement to the mainland, was the fastest growing and quickly became the transportation and commercial hub of Samui. Eventually, Nathon became the Capital City of Samui, and also the centre of all the local government administration.
The local industries, tropical fruit, bamboo,
coconut and
fishingcontinued to grow, as did the small coastal villages of Lipa Noi, Maenam, Bophut, Chaweng and Lamai.
In the 1960’s and 70’s, when love and peace perfumed the air, thousands of free souls made their way from Europe to Asia spreading flower power wherever they went.
These travel scouts, posing as backpackers, were roughly following segments of the Silk Road, an ancient trading network that had spread from Europe all the way to China.
As technology boomed, the speed and volume of information available combined with affordable air-travel led to Thailand becoming one of the most popular holiday destinations in the world. Not only with the backpackers and bohemian travellers, but for travellers of all types.
In 1967, the Head-Man of the Island, Khun Dilok Suthiklom, approached and asked the relevant authorities in Bangkok for the funding required to build the now famous 52 km ring road around Samui. The funding request was successful and the ring road project in Samui began later that year.
The road engineers and 200 odd manual labourers had many challenges ahead!
The treacherous hills in the north-west between Nathon and Maenam and the rocky, mountainous terrain on the east coast of the Island provided the most formidable physical challenges.
Dynamite, and lots of it, proved to be the most effective method of removing the rocks and trees while clearing the way for a 52 klm path that needed to be wide enough for the road building machinery and vehicles to pass and no more. This path provided construction vehicles access to all of the 52 kilometres, speeding up the ring road construction.
Samui’s tropical climate, although perfect for 11 months every year, caused many delays as any heavy rain or flooding made road building impossible.
By 1973, the clearing had been done, the foundations were laid and it was time to pour 52 kilometres of concrete, 12 metres wide and complete this historic ring road project. The ring road is officially named Thai Route 4169.
Every type of traveller was coming to enjoy the amazing offerings of the southern Islands of Thailand in both the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. Major cultural and economic changes were starting to come to Samui and with precious little warning.
The popularity of all the southern Islands grew quicker than anyone imagined and with it there was an unheard of amount of money being spent by these tourists, and the locals wanted to get a slice of the action. And why not?
Hotels, guest houses and bungalows were sprouting up everywhere, much quicker than the infrastructure needed to cope with the growth.
Samui, at this time was not a City, and relied upon the allocation of funds from the government offices in Surat Thani and Bangkok. A large number of Samui’s Thai population had come to Samui from other towns within Thailand to find work in the booming tourist industry, and they were still registered in their home city and province.
The allocation of funds is based on the towns permanent population, these transient Thai’s and the 40,000 tourists on the Island at any given time, were not included in the government census of Samui.
