5 Reasons Why You Should Try Living in Koh Samui • Happily Ever Travels

Not everyone loves the island of Koh Samui, in fact, I have heard a lot of people say they thought it was too touristy or too expensive. But if you do it the right way, Koh Samui is one of the best islands in Thailand! Here are a few reasons why I loved living in Koh Samui so dang much.

1. The Food

I have always loved Thai food, even before coming to Thailand. But Jake and I found this local restaurant only about 5 minutes walk from our place that was SO FREAKING GOOD that we never ate at any other Thai food place the rest of the time that we were there.

Even since then we have tried to find Massaman Curry as good as hers and just can’t find it.

Plus, the owner is the sweetest woman ever and she makes everything fresh. For example, there were days when I would come in and ask for Massaman curry and she wouldn’t have any ready.

So she asked in advance what days I wanted to come in and promised that she would make some that day, and she always did!!

If you want to check out her restaurant, I HIGHLY recommend it! Here’s the location on Google Maps to help you get there:

Then, right on the side of that restaurant, there’s a fruit stand. (If it’s not there anymore, don’t worry there are hundreds of fruit stands on this island).

For less than a dollar, we would pay them to peel mangoes and pineapples for us and eat them on the walk back home or we’d buy a coconut to drink with our Thai food!

2. The Palm Trees

Just. Everywhere. We would hop on our motorbike and up to this street that led you to the other side of the island, but you didn’t need to go that far to have an amazing day.

Riding Scooter in Ko Samui — If you’re wondering who took this, it’s our BFF the tripod

There were literally thousands of palm trees and walkways that I took one too many pictures of. But that was Koh Samui!

Palm Trees Ko Samui — So many palm trees!!!

3. The Beach

Our Airbnb was less than 5 minutes from this gorgeous beach.

Beach in Ko Samui — Here’s the beach 5 minutes from our Airbnb

Not only that, but you could keep walking down the whole beach (we did the walk one afternoon and even with a ton of sunscreen we got super burnt!) and you would keep seeing clear blue water, adorable fishing boats, and piers as well as huts and bars right on the beach.

I absolutely fell in love with the little fishing piers that were a short walk from here as well.

The beach is called Lamai Beach and in my opinion, it was WAY better than the “most famous” beaches that you would find on a google search. Here is a picture we got on one of the piers:

After you pass the piers then there’s a bit of a river that you have to cross so beware if you’re bringing your camera and you’re short like me.

Luckily, Jake was able to cross! But it’s worth the walk because when you get to the end of the beach (it was about an hour and a half walk each way) you get this amazing view:

There’s obviously a lot more to say about the beaches on Koh Samui, but I think you get my point!

I’ll write a post later about all the beaches we visited and what we thought about them! Anyways, on to the next thing I love about Koh Samui which were the …

4. The Dogs

Okay, not all of the dogs. Actually both Jake and I got bit while we were living in Koh Samui, but luckily it didn’t break the skin.

Some of the dogs are pretty vicious, so you have to learn to make the dog aware that you are coming (Never sneak up on a dog!!) and if they come at you, pretend to pick up a rock and they will usually run away.

But besides that, the other dogs on this island were PRECIOUS!! Here’s the dog that came with the Airbnb!

This dog and the two others that lived here actually saved me from being attacked by another dog while I was on a run. So, I definitely love these pups.

Then we found puppies when we were driving through some of the palm tree forests. We think that they had owners since there was food placed out for them, but they were so cute!!

So definitely be prepared to fall in love with a dog or two while you stay here! And last but not least…

5. The Bookstore

It is not easy to find a good used bookstore in Southeast Asia, especially one that has anything in English! We met the owner (and his cat) who had been living on the island and running the store for quite a long time. We were even able to sell back some books we had finished reading!

Here’s the map that will take you straight there:

So those are just a few of the main reasons why you should consider visiting or even living in Koh Samui!