Air travel has its benefits but also its downside. In fact the advent of long haul flights had a huge impact on everything we do. Forty years ago if you wanted to travel from Europe to “Far Away Places with Strange Sounding Names”, you had little choice but to get on an Ocean Liner in Southampton or Tilbury and spend five weeks at sea if you were lucky enough to travel before the Suez Canal was closed or six weeks if not, to get to Australia and longer to the Far East. The big white liners of the P&O – Orient Line (as it then was) together with Shaw Savill, Union Castle and many others plied their trade between these foreign destinations. Passengers were varied, from Diplomats taking up or returning from foreign postings, to assisted passage immigrants to Australia. Cruising was in its infancy and these ships spent more than three quarters of their time carrying people from one port to another. You could of course fly, but it still took a few days and several legs with stop overs in the Middle East, India and Asia.
What changed all of that was the introduction of the Boeing 747 in the mid 1960’s with its ability to carry large numbers of passengers great distances quickly and relatively cheaply. Almost over night this killed the Liners. Most had been built just after the Second World War with reparations from the British government for ships they had lost. Without a doubt they were in any case approaching the end of their useful life and only a few new ships such as the Oriana and Canberra had been built since.
Air travel changed the world and made it smaller. No longer were foreign vacations confined to Teneriffe or Majorca and these “Far Away Places” suddenly became accessible to far more people. Television also had its place in opening peoples eyes to what was over the horizon, and the Brits in particular, always ready to conquer new lands, set off to explore this expanding world. The Far East, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, could all be reached in a day. The tourist markets in these countries opened up and as wealth increased with age, the possibility of owning your own piece of Paradise became a reality for many people.
The world became more accessible to back-packers on limited budgets and eventually they found Koh Samui. Undeveloped, with few roads and very basic infrastructure. Travel here was by road or rail and ferry. Nothing much changed until in 1989 Bangkok Airways opened Koh Samui Airport. Once again air travel was the catalyst of huge change. It took a few years, but gradually word spread of this idyllic island and of course Alex Garland’s book “The Beach” was another influence. With the airport came people with money although it was not until about ten years ago that the influx of wealth started to have an effect on land prices and developers came to the island. Would they have come without an Airport? Almost certainly not. So air travel and in this case Bangkok Airways have a lot to answer for. Whether this is good or bad depends on your point of view. A subject for future discussion perhaps.
Wednesday 16 February 2011
Koh Samui January Blog and Review of 2010
Still catching up on my posts but getting there. This is from January 2011
Let me start by wishing everyone a Very Happy and (hopefully) Prosperous New Year. Looking back over the last 12 months here on Samui I would say that the real estate market has been pretty static. As reported during the year there have been sales but almost exclusively in the price range below Baht 10 million. The Red Shirt protest in Bangkok earlier in the year clearly had a negative affect on tourism and combined with the strong Baht this has continued throughout the year so that even over the Christmas period hotels were reporting poor occupancy. The problem for the Thai Government is that the strength of the Baht is due to outside factors beyond their control so do not expect any changes there. The number of hotel rooms in Samui continues to increase in particular in the 5-star category with the opening of W in Maenam, Banyan Tree and Langham Place in Lamai, Hansar Samui in Bophut and soon Conrad followed by Vana Belle due next December. Infinity will also start operating as a hotel in the spring and I am aware of other hotels in the planning stage.
Earlier in the year I reported on the ring road having a layer of tarmac applied between Bophut and as far as the Law Courts in Hua Thanon. Whilst a great improvement it was always in doubt as to how long this would last as it was laid directly on to the concrete. Come the heavy rain of the monsoon and two areas not far from our office were quickly washed away but I was pleasantly surprised that this was the only real damage that occurred and for the most part the road held up pretty well. Back in May we were talking about the possibility of water rationing – certainly not needed now!
In July we had the mass protest against the proposed drilling for oil of the coast. Hundreds of people joined hands around the ring road in a mass peaceful demonstration. The proposal has since been put on ice for at least a year while further environmental studies take place.
September hosted the Samui International Jazz Music Festival which was a great success attracting hundreds of people to the lakeside venue in Chaweng. A mix of Dutch and Thai jazz musicians provided great entertainment for a full week and plans are already in hand for a follow up this year.
We have also seen at last the approval of the new electricity line from Taling Ngam to the new sub-station in Maenam which when complete will solve many of the power issues in the north of the island. The Municipality have approved the 22 metre steel poles which have caused controversy as being unsightly, but all other solutions were too expensive.
The exceptionally wet monsoon season has continued through December.
To see some of the damage go to these You Tube pages
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT-RuPGWF44&feature=player_embedded for the fallen tree in Hua Thanon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nteH4xBa1s&feature=related for flooding in Lamai
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrCPdMjNMvk&feature=related many views and more links.
Let me start by wishing everyone a Very Happy and (hopefully) Prosperous New Year. Looking back over the last 12 months here on Samui I would say that the real estate market has been pretty static. As reported during the year there have been sales but almost exclusively in the price range below Baht 10 million. The Red Shirt protest in Bangkok earlier in the year clearly had a negative affect on tourism and combined with the strong Baht this has continued throughout the year so that even over the Christmas period hotels were reporting poor occupancy. The problem for the Thai Government is that the strength of the Baht is due to outside factors beyond their control so do not expect any changes there. The number of hotel rooms in Samui continues to increase in particular in the 5-star category with the opening of W in Maenam, Banyan Tree and Langham Place in Lamai, Hansar Samui in Bophut and soon Conrad followed by Vana Belle due next December. Infinity will also start operating as a hotel in the spring and I am aware of other hotels in the planning stage.
Earlier in the year I reported on the ring road having a layer of tarmac applied between Bophut and as far as the Law Courts in Hua Thanon. Whilst a great improvement it was always in doubt as to how long this would last as it was laid directly on to the concrete. Come the heavy rain of the monsoon and two areas not far from our office were quickly washed away but I was pleasantly surprised that this was the only real damage that occurred and for the most part the road held up pretty well. Back in May we were talking about the possibility of water rationing – certainly not needed now!
In July we had the mass protest against the proposed drilling for oil of the coast. Hundreds of people joined hands around the ring road in a mass peaceful demonstration. The proposal has since been put on ice for at least a year while further environmental studies take place.
September hosted the Samui International Jazz Music Festival which was a great success attracting hundreds of people to the lakeside venue in Chaweng. A mix of Dutch and Thai jazz musicians provided great entertainment for a full week and plans are already in hand for a follow up this year.
We have also seen at last the approval of the new electricity line from Taling Ngam to the new sub-station in Maenam which when complete will solve many of the power issues in the north of the island. The Municipality have approved the 22 metre steel poles which have caused controversy as being unsightly, but all other solutions were too expensive.
The exceptionally wet monsoon season has continued through December.
To see some of the damage go to these You Tube pages
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT-RuPGWF44&feature=player_embedded for the fallen tree in Hua Thanon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nteH4xBa1s&feature=related for flooding in Lamai
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrCPdMjNMvk&feature=related many views and more links.
Koh Samui Weather, documents and DHL!
Once again I find myself behind with my posts for which I apologise! This is from December 2010.
The main issue over the past month has of course been the exceptionally wet monsoon season this year. As previously reported the Municipality has been working on improving the drainage at various points around the island but the weight of rain falling is still too much for them to cope with and the result is massive flooding in all the usual places – the link road between the Ring Road and Fisherman’s Village; the Ring Road by Bandara Hotel, Samui Town Centre and between the police box and Caltex Filling station; Laem Din and Dao Markets and the Beach road. However, the good news is that once the rain stops the drains do take the water away pretty quickly. Then you can see the damage that has occurred. It is not at all surprising that the tarmac road has been affected as laying tarmac directly onto the old concrete road was never going to be a long term solution.
As usual with severe weather there has been a lot of other damage including a large tree behind the 7-11 at the sharp turn in Hua Thanon which fell onto the adjoining building. You can see the damage in this photo taken a couple of days later when the weather had briefly improved. As far as I am aware no one was hurt. We had our own share of problems with a couple of broken roof tiles and a collapsed ceiling and of course finding someone to repair this when everyone was shouting for roofers and builders was not easy.
A word of advice. If you own your property through a Thai company. Do you know where all your original documentation is? The original incorporation documents and share certificates being the most important but also your Tax ID Card, Tabien Ban (House Book), audited accounts and tax receipts? You will need all of these if and when you decide to sell either by a share transfer or sale out of the company. If you do not have them, then it will delay the whole process by some considerable time.
If you are intending to use a Courier Service to send anything to Koh Samui, another word of advice. Avoid DHL. They do not know where Koh Samui is. A client sent us three packages from Hong Kong correctly addressed to our offices with my contact details. This was on Friday 12th November. The same day I was given the tracking number which showed the destination as Phuket. DHL Hong Kong was immediately informed of the error. This is the route the packages took. Hong Kong – Cincinnati – Hong Kong – Bangkok – Phuket – Bangkok – Hong Kong – Bangkok – Phuket – Bangkok. At this point they gave up and sent it from Bangkok by Thai Post EMS. The first two packages arrived on Monday 22nd and I had to collect them from the Post Office – hardly the door to door service they advertise. The third package was missing. I contacted DHL in Bangkok on Tuesday morning and they confirmed they had sent it separately by post and gave me the tracking number. I went to the Post Office and they found the package but informed me they were about the return it to the sender (DHL) as it was incorrectly addressed. I was able to assure them it was for me, so eventually I had all three packages. DHL have an office on Koh Samui, but DHL Bangkok “think” they must just be an agent. Contact with DHL Headquarters in Germany just elicited the usual “We will look into your comments” and nothing further since.
If you wish to received a copy of the full Newsletter please email me at hbonning@kosamuiproperties.com
The main issue over the past month has of course been the exceptionally wet monsoon season this year. As previously reported the Municipality has been working on improving the drainage at various points around the island but the weight of rain falling is still too much for them to cope with and the result is massive flooding in all the usual places – the link road between the Ring Road and Fisherman’s Village; the Ring Road by Bandara Hotel, Samui Town Centre and between the police box and Caltex Filling station; Laem Din and Dao Markets and the Beach road. However, the good news is that once the rain stops the drains do take the water away pretty quickly. Then you can see the damage that has occurred. It is not at all surprising that the tarmac road has been affected as laying tarmac directly onto the old concrete road was never going to be a long term solution.
A word of advice. If you own your property through a Thai company. Do you know where all your original documentation is? The original incorporation documents and share certificates being the most important but also your Tax ID Card, Tabien Ban (House Book), audited accounts and tax receipts? You will need all of these if and when you decide to sell either by a share transfer or sale out of the company. If you do not have them, then it will delay the whole process by some considerable time.
If you are intending to use a Courier Service to send anything to Koh Samui, another word of advice. Avoid DHL. They do not know where Koh Samui is. A client sent us three packages from Hong Kong correctly addressed to our offices with my contact details. This was on Friday 12th November. The same day I was given the tracking number which showed the destination as Phuket. DHL Hong Kong was immediately informed of the error. This is the route the packages took. Hong Kong – Cincinnati – Hong Kong – Bangkok – Phuket – Bangkok – Hong Kong – Bangkok – Phuket – Bangkok. At this point they gave up and sent it from Bangkok by Thai Post EMS. The first two packages arrived on Monday 22nd and I had to collect them from the Post Office – hardly the door to door service they advertise. The third package was missing. I contacted DHL in Bangkok on Tuesday morning and they confirmed they had sent it separately by post and gave me the tracking number. I went to the Post Office and they found the package but informed me they were about the return it to the sender (DHL) as it was incorrectly addressed. I was able to assure them it was for me, so eventually I had all three packages. DHL have an office on Koh Samui, but DHL Bangkok “think” they must just be an agent. Contact with DHL Headquarters in Germany just elicited the usual “We will look into your comments” and nothing further since.
If you wish to received a copy of the full Newsletter please email me at hbonning@kosamuiproperties.com
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