With an area of 233 square kilometers
Ko (= island) Samui is the third largest
th island of Thailand. It is part of the
Samui archipelago, to which about 60
other islands belong. The interior is a mountain landscape largely covered by secondary forest. The original jungle
except for a few leftovers
cut down to space long ago
to create for plantations. A 51 kilometer ring road runs all around
the island, mostly along the coast. According to the legends that have been told about it, Samui has been at least for 1500 to 2000 years
temporarily settled. At that time, Chinese seafarers are said to be on the island
landed to take in fresh drinking water and repair their ships. Samui was also a fisherman from southern Malaysia
known for a long time. At the beginning of the 20th century, Muslim fishermen from the southern provinces of Thailand were added. This mix
different ethnicities and religions and a largely self-sufficient existence
the islanders develop a special self-confidence. That's how they see themselves
not only as Thai, but above all as Chao Samui, the “people of
Samui ". While conflicts on the mainland for decades
break out between the Buddhist and the Muslim Thai, live
the people of Samui therefore peacefully next to and with each other. In Samui
there is a number of Buddhist temples (Wat). The best known is the
gold-plated twelve-meter-high Buddha statue, the "Big Buddha" of Wat Phra
Yai, which was built in 1972 on the small offshore island of Ko Fan opposite the northern beach of Bang Rak.