Dead island

We flew in to Ko Samui (or Koh Samui) after one night in Bangkok. We've been walking around for ages looking for something to do, but there's relatively few tourists. Restaurants are empty, our hotel complex apparently has noone else in it, and the salesmen are hanging on to tourists for dear life. They're not too annoying, in fact quite entertaining, but their desperation is apparent. The tripple whammy of the financial crisis, low season, and the recent Thai anti-government protests has taken its toll.

We went to the best beach on Ko Samui called Chaweng, and while it's a bit more lively than the rest of the island, it's still a bit dead, the beach is less impressive than what you'd see in Barcelona, and the cloudy skies have you wondering what the Thailand hype is all about.

The highlight of the day was a visit to Big Buddha Beach, although very cheesy, it's some sort of Thai flavor.

Another cute place is the Samui Robot. Since this is not Japan, the "robot" is just a piece of abstract part made out of metal.