Monday 21 May 2012

Old style Samui; 1989

Old style Samui; 1989


It's Old style Samui; 1989 moment. Thanks to Dawn Farrell who lives since 1987 on Phuket and runs a great blog there as well, was kind enough to provide me with a couple of Koh Samui pictures dating back to 1989! Lots of thanks for allowing me to use these pictures here Dawn! Please keep in mind that all copyrights to these pictures belongs to Dawn!
It's not many times that you get such a great opportunity to travel back a little bit in time.

Old style Samui; 1989
Old style Samui; 1989; This could be in Hua Thanon, Dawn isn't sure and stated that it was somewhere in land, away from beaches

Old style Samui; 1989
Old style Samui; 1989; This could be anywhere on the island, really....

Old style Samui; 1989
Old style Samui; 1989; This is in the Bang Rak - Big Buddha area, Koh Phangan is in the background

Old style Samui; 1989
Old style Samui; 1989; Long tails at Nathon, the pier is on the right hand side with a Navy boat pictured

Old style Samui; 1989
Old style Samui; 1989; Low tide at Nathon, looks like rain in the background

It's great to see pictures from times long gone around Samui, especially considering how the island has 'exploded'. Hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do.

If anybody has more pictures from Samui in it's early stages and would like to share them, please get in touch.


Don't forget to use my Camille's Samui hotel recommendation blog and my Camille's Thailand hotel recommendation blog for all your hotel bookings on Koh Samui and around Thailand. By doing so, you will support my blog. Thanks folks!

Camille

6 comments:

Dawn in Phuket said...

Great blog, Camille, glad my photos are here for all to see and enjoy before the memory fades away!

Camille said...

Thanks so much Dawn for allowing me to use the pictures!

Bernd said...

Hi Camille,
missing the good ol´ days, when Thailand was like an adventure. Anyway - still a good place to be, almost anywhere.

FYI - see the link below, another set of images from the 80´s (my fav is the unspoiled Had Rin, which I do remeber like this).

http://gallery.atpic.com/de/21738


Keep in blogging.

Camille said...

Hi Bernd,

Thanks for the link, some nice pix indeed.

Alex said...

I find that when looking back in time, thed general everyday photos of life tend to be the most interesting ones, years later.

I try to remember this when taking photos, as I have a tendency to go for the 'artistic' photo rather than the every day photo but often forget and feel compelled to go the 'artistic' route. Doing so, I neglect that what may not look particularly interesting today, may be very very interesting in 20 years time to somebody else or even to myself after many changes.

I can't claim to be an early visitor to Thailand. My first visit was a short one in 1998 while touring the region, and the island I've watched change since then on several visits, is Koh Samet. Its structure means it can't change to the extent that Koh Samui can, but I've found the changes tend to be in attitude.

Bungalow owners used to commonly allow discounts for longer stays. Each time I went back through the 00s, this became rarer and rarer to the point where some owners almost scoff at the proposal.

The introduction of motorbikes as a 'visitor hire' option isn't too welcome either, but other changes were good. It seems cleaner now.

I first came to Samui when it was certainly well and truly built. 2002. But although I can ride down some of the main streets and the structure is essentially similar, the speed at which businesses change always amazes me. I've mostly seen any remaining gaps being filled with new buildings, but recently noticed one area where bungalows I used to stay in had been knocked down and it was now overgrown wasteland once again, so it doesn't always go in one direction.

Camille said...

Hi Alex,

Thanks for your thoughts, much appreciated. I also think that normal daily live pix are interesting, maybe not right now but in 10, 20 or more years to come. I went around the island a few years back and took pix just with this thought and the inevitable change going to happen. Should do it more often!