Uneasy Paradise

And still do. The sea is crystal-clear and warm and you can walk in for about half-a-kilometre and still be in only waist-deep water. The beaches are lovely and clean, palm slopes and turquoise sky are almost a picture postcard cliche. The local inhabitants—having made the transition from hawking coconuts to mixing Pina Colada and Tequila Sunrise in just a couple of generations—seem happy enough at the tourism but some older people complain that their young people wear beads in their hair and swim without any clothes on. Koh Samui may have been good for the yup-pie-hippies, they ask, but were they good for Koh Samui?