I get a shock every time I see how mass tourism can destroy a once beautiful place like Ko Samui. When I first got there in 1981 after an almost 20-hour train and boat ride there were a few grass-roof bungalows with a bed and a shower and maybe 5 or 6 restaurants on Chaweng Beach. Nothing else. No hotels, no discotheques, no swimming pool, no motor boats, no noise.
The greatest attractions were the stars at night and a fully intact coral reef. This, my friend, was paradise and not this parody of it.