Is The Smell Really That Bad?

[frazjham]

Hi there,

My boyfriend and I are planning a trip to Koh Samui for July of this year.

We've been told that Chaweng "stinks" - is this true, and is it really that bad? Is it just that the whole town smells, or is there specifically smelly area? We would like to avoid choosing a hotel where we wake up to the smell of sewage!

Is it common to choose a hotel in a more pleasantly-fragranced town (e.g. Bo Phut) and get taxis/tuk tuk things to Chaweng for party times?

Any advice or comments would be great!!

Thanks

[Boater]

its not really the whole area that smells, just in the central part around 100 mtre either way of green mango , if i was you , get a hotel in Fishermans Village / Bophut towards meanam and get a Taxi/songtow ... samui doesnt have Tuk Tuk's

[insertmembernamehere]

I think it is worth pointing out that the stench (it's the smell of stagnant effluent) is indeed only on a couple of sections and on the road (drains), and not on the beach at all.

[Tropicalevo]

its not really the whole area that smells, just in the central part around 100 mtre either way of green mango , if i was you , get a hotel in Fishermans Village / Bophut towards meanam and get a Taxi/songtow ... samui doesnt have Tuk Tuk's

Boater is correct there - it is the main drain that runs under the Beach Road that smells as it dries out. More riffy in the hot weather. As this road is the main road through Chewang - you will walk along it at some point. The smelly bit (Green mango) is the centre of the nightlife area.

Both suggestions by Boater are good, or my prefered favourite is Choengmon. However, there is not a lot for young folks to do in the way of bopping and partying at any of these places.

There are certainly places at each end of Chewang that do not smell.

[steelerian]

Its only the beach road that stinks. And it really does STINK.

[smokie36]

Listen to Boater...book the Smile House....

[PoorSucker]

Stinky in red.

[insertmembernamehere]

IF I had a business right in the olfactory kill zone I'd be righteously pissed off. Another local government problem that stinks, literally.

I think one thing that happens is people will sit down as the breeze is blowing away from them and order something; then when the wind shifts, they think, "Holy mother of God! What do we do now?" Eating food as you are blanketed by an overwhelming, pungent stench of ripe sewage is not an experience anyone is likely to endure twice.

I think there is an ice cream shop there if memory serves, and it makes me think about the Jelly Belly candies that have bizarre flavors, like vomit and boogers. Maybe there's a market for Chaweng sewage flavor?

[Boater]

IF I had a business right in the olfactory kill zone I'd be righteously pissed off. Another local government problem that stinks, literally.

I think one thing that happens is people will sit down as the breeze is blowing away from them and order something; then when the wind shifts, they think, "Holy mother of God! What do we do now?" Eating food as you are blanketed by an overwhelming, pungent stench of ripe sewage is not an experience anyone is likely to endure twice.

I think there is an ice cream shop there if memory serves, and it makes me think about the Jelly Belly candies that have bizarre flavors, like vomit and boogers. Maybe there's a market for Chaweng sewage flavor?

does anyone remember tenerife back in the 90's , same kind of issue as chewang, but they resolved it , with a simple process !, they would at 4-5am , bring out a team of about 100 workers, 20 odd road cleaning macheines and sewage jet washers/cleaners .... the place smelt very fresh come 9 am !,

They also do the same in China .......

[steelerian]

Stinky in red.

Thats not the only stinky area. Its very bad lately between the Green Mango area, down to as far as Tropical Murphys/McDonalds.

[JonW]

I´d say it´s not as bad as it was 5-6 years ago, or maybe just becasue we´ve had later rainy seasons recent years.

Still it´s funny to see how some shops with drains just outside try to cover them with carpets etc.

Anyway the complete beach road should be re done, especially sidewalks/electric system.

Strangely they seem to give priority to the lake side road, soon finished with nicer sidewalks, streetlights and new drains there.

Edited January 18, 2012 by JonW

[Tropicalevo]

I´d say it´s not as bad as it was 5-6 years ago, or maybe just becasue we´ve had later rainy seasons recent years.

Still it´s funny to see how some shops with drains just outside try to cover them with carpets etc.

Anyway the complete beach road should be re done, especially sidewalks/electric system.

Strangely they seem to give priority to the lake side road, soon finished with nicer sidewalks, streetlights and new drains there.

I reckon that they will make the beach road a walking street one day. It would make sense - to all but the taxis/songtows

[frazjham]

Thanks to you all for replying! This really helped a lot. We decided, in the end, to book a hotel near Lamai (The Kala Samui) - thinking that we could easily spend time in both Lamai and Chaweng without having to travel too far. We want reasonably young, lively nightlife, but we thought that the beach in Chaweng would probably be too crowded to spend all our days there.

As for the smell, we'll just have to put up with it. It sounds like it mustn't be putting too many people off visiting Chaweng! The map and descriptions of smelly bits were really useful, thank you.

Looking forward to July!

[Rise]

I would recomend Chaweng for nightlife, a lot more going on here than in Lamai. Except if you wanna hang around all the ladybars. You will get used to the smell and its only a few places on the beachroad. If you stay most of your day at the hotel and the beach you wouldnt notice it at all. Young people and lively nightlife = Chaweng for sure

[JonW]

I´d say it´s not as bad as it was 5-6 years ago, or maybe just becasue we´ve had later rainy seasons recent years.

Still it´s funny to see how some shops with drains just outside try to cover them with carpets etc.

Anyway the complete beach road should be re done, especially sidewalks/electric system.

Strangely they seem to give priority to the lake side road, soon finished with nicer sidewalks, streetlights and new drains there.

I reckon that they will make the beach road a walking street one day. It would make sense - to all but the taxis/songtows

Forget it. How on earth should all the resort guests arrive? By boat? Not to mention all the deliveries to the myriads of shops, restaurants and resorts.

But since the one way system was introduced I think there now should be space to widen and lower the sidewalks.

And at the same time get rid of the air cables/posts, clean up traffic sign posts, telephone boxes no one uses, etc etc.

[Tropicalevo]

I´d say it´s not as bad as it was 5-6 years ago, or maybe just becasue we´ve had later rainy seasons recent years.

Still it´s funny to see how some shops with drains just outside try to cover them with carpets etc.

Anyway the complete beach road should be re done, especially sidewalks/electric system.

Strangely they seem to give priority to the lake side road, soon finished with nicer sidewalks, streetlights and new drains there.

I reckon that they will make the beach road a walking street one day. It would make sense - to all but the taxis/songtows

Forget it. How on earth should all the resort guests arrive? By boat? Not to mention all the deliveries to the myriads of shops, restaurants and resorts.

But since the one way system was introduced I think there now should be space to widen and lower the sidewalks.

And at the same time get rid of the air cables/posts, clean up traffic sign posts, telephone boxes no one uses, etc etc.

It would work the same way that it does all over the world. Pedestrian precincts still allow vehicles for delivery and guests! They just have to keep to a slower speed limit.

Now bearing in mind other topics where one way streets, and traffic laws are regularly ignored, I am sure that that will be the case here.

However, if man can put a man on the moon in the 1960's with a computer that has less power than a mobile phone today, I am sure that a way could be engineered to build up the lake road and close the beach road to most traffic.

Then again - TIT

Edited January 19, 2012 by Tropicalevo

[JonW]

If you still allow the pick up/delivery traffic, almost the only thing you get rid off is the motorbike traffic.

And lower speed limit, the speeds on the beach road are already very slow.

Sufficiant public access points from the lake road will also be tricky to achive due to existing properties in between.

It´s already hard for the public to reach the beach itself, and the other side of the road is much more densely built.

[JonW]

New drainage pipes and wells now going down on the Beach Road.

I do hope they make sure that there will no be no sewage connected to them, and the smell should be gone.

Also guess we will see some nice asphalt after this is finnished, but they still seem unable to mount the cover grills level to the road. Still a hazard for bikes.

[koheesti]

Thanks to you all for replying! This really helped a lot. We decided, in the end, to book a hotel near Lamai (The Kala Samui) - thinking that we could easily spend time in both Lamai and Chaweng without having to travel too far. We want reasonably young, lively nightlife, but we thought that the beach in Chaweng would probably be too crowded to spend all our days there.

As for the smell, we'll just have to put up with it. It sounds like it mustn't be putting too many people off visiting Chaweng! The map and descriptions of smelly bits were really useful, thank you.

Looking forward to July!

If you're planning on partying in Chaweng then heading back to the hotel in Lamai at night - DO NOT go by motorbike. The dark, hilly road between Chaweng & Lamai is a bad idea at night on a bike. Even if you are sober, the other guy probably isn't.

[sketcher]

It makes me laugh when people come here asking for advice then completely ignore it. Do yourself a massive favour and don't ignore the bit about not going home on a motorbike .

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[Birdman]

New drainage pipes and wells now going down on the Beach Road....

also on the back road between Lake Road and the runway and on the ring road. Actually laying down also all the ugly electric cables, like announced since quite a time, would have been a nice facelift of Chaweng Beach Road..

[robsamui]

Have to chip in here and say that it isn't just Chaweng - although I'm sure (as instanced already) there are particular patches that are stinkier than others. It's a characteristic of Thai cities everywhere and a lot to do with the climate, the time of year, if it's recently rained or not and so on.

I can remember like it was yesterday getting of the plane at Don Muang the first time I came to Thailand - I broke into an immediate all-over muck sweat half way down the plane steps and was choking on the ripe stink of rotting vegetation, old garbage and sewerage. It's the smell of Thailand and I hardly ever notice it now.

Mae Nam is a case in point. At the bottom of Soi 5 where they've laid all the nice new tarmac they've also messed up the drainage and there's an overflow onto the road. Normally there's no smell to this. But the road drain also seems to contain sewerage and I suspect that a lot of other Samui street drains do too. Sometimes it stinks something vile. Other times it doesn't smell at all. But anywhere where there's waste water at a constant average temp of 28-30 C is going to smell.

To the Original Poster - if this is your first time in Thailand/Samui you'll find it stinky everywhere, compared to what you're used to. Other than that, drainage in general is not one of the sciences for which the Thai nation is noted and you'll quickly adjust. (Last time I went back to England the heat and stink was something I really missed - didn't seem natural to be smell-free . . .)

R

Edited February 15, 2012 by robsamui

[doingok]

i have been the full road today and i didn't smell a thing?

[robsamui]

Thanks to you all for replying! This really helped a lot. We decided, in the end, to book a hotel near Lamai (The Kala Samui) - thinking that we could easily spend time in both Lamai and Chaweng without having to travel too far. We want reasonably young, lively nightlife, but we thought that the beach in Chaweng would probably be too crowded to spend all our days there.

As for the smell, we'll just have to put up with it. It sounds like it mustn't be putting too many people off visiting Chaweng! The map and descriptions of smelly bits were really useful, thank you.

Looking forward to July!

If you're planning on partying in Chaweng then heading back to the hotel in Lamai at night - DO NOT go by motorbike. The dark, hilly road between Chaweng & Lamai is a bad idea at night on a bike. Even if you are sober, the other guy probably isn't.

Take serious note of this. There are a couple of blind bends after a down hill stretch that just get tighter instead of opening out again. In the daylight, knowing the road and what to expect (and sober) it takes concentration to get round. I think twice about doing this run at night in a car, never mind on a motorbike.

You might have to pay a few hundred baht for a songthiew or taxi but plan for this and double up with another couple for a night out and take a taxi there and back. The hospital agony is bad enough, never ming having to fork out 40,000 baht for a wrecked rented motorbike.

R

[jamesbrock]

New drainage pipes and wells now going down on the Beach Road.

I do hope they make sure that there will no be no sewage connected to them, and the smell should be gone.

Also guess we will see some nice asphalt after this is finnished, but they still seem unable to mount the cover grills level to the road. Still a hazard for bikes.

I drove down the back of lake road last week, from the roundabout to the ring road, and was thinking the exact same thing in regards to the cover grills - there are some that are a good 4-5 inches below the new surface; however, as you get closer to the ring road, you can see that they're actually raising the cover grills to the level of the new asphalt (whether this stays that level and doesn't deteriorate is another subject altogether).

[Pardisemike]

Thanks to you all for replying! This really helped a lot. We decided, in the end, to book a hotel near Lamai (The Kala Samui) - thinking that we could easily spend time in both Lamai and Chaweng without having to travel too far. We want reasonably young, lively nightlife, but we thought that the beach in Chaweng would probably be too crowded to spend all our days there.

As for the smell, we'll just have to put up with it. It sounds like it mustn't be putting too many people off visiting Chaweng! The map and descriptions of smelly bits were really useful, thank you.

Looking forward to July!

This is a good place to stay... Chaweng is not the right place for anyone to stay... young or old. It is just one big hassle