French man found hanged in Koh Tao with his hands tied behind his back – foul play suspected

[BritTim]

The location Dimitri was reported found is a "rented beach side bungalow at Moo 3 Koh Tao". This is not very precise, and photos suggest that it was not exactly on the beach. Fwiw, Moo 3 implies the Southern end of the island, some way from Ocean Front Bungalows where Hannah and David were staying. If Dimitri was home (and staying in this bungalow at the time) he likely would not have heard or seen anything of the events early morning September 15.

Good point BT, but there was a football tornament on the 14th with a big party afterwards so he might have been socialising..... and the only reference I have read of Hanna having an argument with some Thai guys in the AC bar is attributed to an unnamed French man, who apparently took a photo (not seen) of the altercation and passed the photo to the BIB, I am not talking about the photo taken by Sean in the 7/11, even though that photo was used in the news article.

Agree with everything you say, but any possible link is tenuous. I would imagine there would have been a lot of Frenchmen visiting Koh Tao on September 14-15. If the pictures from the scene did not make the suicide hard to accomplish, I would opine that it was almost certainly unrelated. As it is, I am looking for further data. There are other indications that it might be suicide. What the police say about no signs of a struggle looks right. The table on the verandah has what looks like a liquor bottle and the top of a glass. That is consistent with an alcohol induced depression.

[IslandLover]

wendycraig, on 04 Jan 2015 - 08:36, said:

Hi,

After 4 previous visits to Thailand, (having deliberately avoided Pattaya + Phuket), we have "bitten the bullet" and have flights from OZ to KL and on to Surat Thani in June for three weeks, so we could at least satisfy our curiosity regarding Samui and neighbouring islands.

The plan was to visit KS, KP, and KT, then ferry to Chumphon, Lang Suan, and bus back to Surat Thani.

It now seems wise to avoid Koh Tao altogether.

or: avoid the islands altogether, and add Sichon, and Khanom to the itinerary ?

FWIW we are late 50s euros from australia, who would like to avoid trouble and have no interest in the seedy side of life, know it goes on any where, but heck, sometimes its bleedin' obvious.

Nothing wrong with Koh Samui or Koh Phangan if you keep well away from the areas of Chaweng (KS) and Haad Rin (KP). KP is a particularly beautiful island. The coastline of Surat Thani is stunning and it would be a shame not to see it. I would certainly give KT a miss though.

[berybert]

<deleted>

Are you out of your mind ?

I hope mod sees this and remove this personal attack ! Do you think we support murderers ? We want the truth not some social media bullshist.

Nothing personal. You are on your side of the fence I along with many others sit on the other side.

There are nutty murderers on that island and certain people have claimed them innocent.

This is what happens, more people get killed. Eventually you will work it out.

Sleep well.

[gezginrocker]

The worst thing about this beautiful country is the foreigners who loathe Thailand, but insist on living here for some reason. (Cheap sex?) You can see them at almost every topic, they can find a reason to bash Thailand for almost anything. And being part-time crime solvers, those chaps are quick to produce conspiracy theories about unsolved deaths.

One of my favorite quotes is from Bertrand Russsell: "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

And you can see that exactly in action here, while the intelligent are full of doubt, questioning everything, not making quick judgements, stupid are cocksure that there's a mysterious crime wave going on at Koh Tao and they don't hesitate to label a generally peaceful place as "Island of Death" and scare away people thinking of going there. Of course, by doing that they don't care about the damage they are doing to the Thailand's tourism industry, because they loathe Thailand anyway. They claim they are doing this "to stop future murders", but I don't buy this at all. That is just another expression of their hatred for Thailand, their need to label Thailand as a scary place to be.

[berybert]

The worst thing about this beautiful country is the foreigners who loathe Thailand, but insist on living here for some reason. (Cheap sex?) You can see them at almost every topic, they can find a reason to bash Thailand for almost anything. And being part-time crime solvers, those chaps are quick to produce conspiracy theories about unsolved deaths.

One of my favorite quotes is from Bertrand Russsell: "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

And you can see that exactly in action here, while the intelligent are full of doubt, questioning everything, not making quick judgements, stupid are cocksure that there's a mysterious crime wave going on at Koh Tao and they don't hesitate to label a generally peaceful place as "Island of Death" and scare away people thinking of going there. Of course, by doing that they don't care about the damage they are doing to the Thailand's tourism industry, because they loathe Thailand anyway. They claim they are doing this "to stop future murders", but I don't buy this at all. That is just another expression of their hatred for Thailand, their need to label Thailand as a scary place to be.

Tell you what find another island with such a small population that has as many people die on it as Koh Tao.

P.s you will also find most here are full of doubt, and the so called intelligent are 100% sure.

And no I don't care about the damage being done to the tourism industry. But I can assure you more damage is being done by those that live on said island than those that talk about it.

P.S cheap sex and cheap booze. Don't let the side down.

Edited January 4, 2015 by berybert

[Adeeos]

Granted,,, NONE of us were there,,,and have NO idea of what actually happened,,, but,,1,, although it DOES happen,, someone committing suicide,, doesn't "normally" tie their own hands,,, ESPECIALLY behind their own backs,,,(and from the pics, appears it WASN'T done by themselves, the photos of it "look" to be done by someone else,, "it looks to be TOO well done),,, 2,, the lacerations reported are VERY consistant with the small wounds found on the British man David... as in a,,, "push/neck knife".,,,, something, IF the same person did this,, would be consistant with someone that believes they are ABOVE/beyond the law,, and would most likely keep/carry, use all the time,, as in their,, "go to" tool of choice,,,, Another thing,, My Brother was with a coroners office, in the USA for several years,, and went to MANY hanging suicides,, and has said,, and i somewhat quote,,, "It's "freaky,, 99% of the time we'd go to a hanging suicide,, and they'd be hanging from a electrical cord, or something OTHER than a piece of rope,, and we'd actually say,, "OK,, where's the rope?",, and low and behold,, we'd do a search,, and there'd be SOMEPLACE in the general area,, a PERFECTLY usable peice of rope,, He said it was SO common to find this , that at a hanging suicide,, using an electrical cord, or similar,,, the hair on the back of your neck would be standing up, because,,, they KNEW they were going to find a PERFECTLY sutible piece of rope, SOMEwhere within the general area",,,, the theory is,, most that do this,, are HOPING the electrical cord will break,, and while they attempt to, "check out",,, where as,,, they KNOW,, a rope won't break, and it's over,, done,,,

[Adeeos]

How the article title is written,, "hands tied behind his back, Foul play is SUSPECTED",, is just COMICAL,,,,, That's very similar to a report by the RTP stating,, "The deceased was shot 6 times in the back, Foul play is suspected"..... TYPICAL RTP Thainess at it's BEST!,,,,

Edited January 4, 2015 by metisdead
Oversize font reset to normal.

[catsanddogs]

His hands were 'loosely' bound, apparently.....???

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Frenchman-found-hung-in-Koh-Tao-foul-play-suspecte-30251171.html

[Adeeos]

The worst thing about this beautiful country is the foreigners who loathe Thailand, but insist on living here for some reason. (Cheap sex?) You can see them at almost every topic, they can find a reason to bash Thailand for almost anything. And being part-time crime solvers, those chaps are quick to produce conspiracy theories about unsolved deaths.

One of my favorite quotes is from Bertrand Russsell: "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

And you can see that exactly in action here, while the intelligent are full of doubt, questioning everything, not making quick judgements, stupid are cocksure that there's a mysterious crime wave going on at Koh Tao and they don't hesitate to label a generally peaceful place as "Island of Death" and scare away people thinking of going there. Of course, by doing that they don't care about the damage they are doing to the Thailand's tourism industry, because they loathe Thailand anyway. They claim they are doing this "to stop future murders", but I don't buy this at all. That is just another expression of their hatred for Thailand, their need to label Thailand as a scary place to be.

No,, the WORST thing about this beautiful country?,,, the corruption, incompetence, etc,, is IN you face,, NO shame, NO trying to hide it, WHAT SO EVER,,,, The FACT THAT it is never appologuised for,, they make nearly NO secret, that they LOVE our $$$,,, but LOTHE us being here,,, THAT'S the problem,,, as in,, "We stop to search farlang, for a BULLSHIT reason because they have $$ to pay,, We NOT stop Thai's BLATANTLY breaking the law because THEY have no $$$".... THAT'S the problem I have with this country I DO love,,,

[sabaitoo]

So much for social media, be it Thai Visa, CSILA or whatever... at least cases like this come out in the open

Frenchman found hung in Koh Tao: foul play suspected

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Frenchman-found-hung-in-Koh-Tao-foul-play-suspecte-30251171.html

[Adeeos]

The worst thing about this beautiful country is the foreigners who loathe Thailand, but insist on living here for some reason. (Cheap sex?) You can see them at almost every topic, they can find a reason to bash Thailand for almost anything. And being part-time crime solvers, those chaps are quick to produce conspiracy theories about unsolved deaths.

One of my favorite quotes is from Bertrand Russsell: "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

And you can see that exactly in action here, while the intelligent are full of doubt, questioning everything, not making quick judgements, stupid are cocksure that there's a mysterious crime wave going on at Koh Tao and they don't hesitate to label a generally peaceful place as "Island of Death" and scare away people thinking of going there. Of course, by doing that they don't care about the damage they are doing to the Thailand's tourism industry, because they loathe Thailand anyway. They claim they are doing this "to stop future murders", but I don't buy this at all. That is just another expression of their hatred for Thailand, their need to label Thailand as a scary place to be.

No,,, you're wrong,,, THE worst thing about this country?,,,, the BLATANT in your face, FACT that they make NO excuses, NO appologuise, are even in the LEAST BIT embarrassed about the FACT,, that they LOVE our MONEY,, but truly LOTHE us actually being here,,, the FACT that,, they'll stop a farlang for some BULLSHIT reason, and EXTORT $$ from them, SIMPLY because we tend to have $$..., yet let Thai's ,, go about their business ,, ACTUALLY BREAKING THE LAW, because of 1 of only TWO reasons,, 1,,, either they HAVE $$$,, and are therefore ABOVE the law,, or 2,, they have NO $$$,,, and can't pay, therefore USELESS to stop/hassle,,, THAT'S what's wrong with this country I DO love,,, Think about exactly what would become of Thailand in general, if there were NO tourist $$$,,, you REALLY think there'd be super, mega, shopping malls on nearly EVERY BTS/MRT station?,,,, you REALLY think there's enough mega wealthy Thai's to actually support a "Gucci, Prada, Rolex" dealer nearly every 2 kilometers?,,,, If Thai's actually "supported" the country in general,,, WHY aren't the small villages up north, doing as well as the more major cities?.... WHY are young girls leaving their homes in these poor areas, and coming to the major cities to swing on a pole, and have sex 4 times a night with strange men TWICE their age?... The country in GENERAL is POOR as can be,, the ONLY reason people in poor areas can actually, "get by" is the FACT that FARLANGS spend BILLIONS in the major cites,, and a lot of THAT $$$,,, finds it's way to the otherwise DESTITUTE areas,,,, I'd not be shocked if at the airport they didn't ask ,, "How long you stay?,, 1 month,, OK,,, please pay $100,000 to me, and enjoy the NEXT flight back home",,, AND say this with a SMILE and WAI,, and NOT be the LEAST bit embarrassed by saying that!,,,

Edited January 4, 2015 by MJP

[sabaitoo]

His hands were 'loosely' bound, apparently.....???

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Frenchman-found-hung-in-Koh-Tao-foul-play-suspecte-30251171.html

I guess the Journalist did not see the pictures

Edited January 4, 2015 by sabaitoo

[englishoak]

The worst thing about this beautiful country is the foreigners who loathe Thailand, but insist on living here for some reason. (Cheap sex?) You can see them at almost every topic, they can find a reason to bash Thailand for almost anything. And being part-time crime solvers, those chaps are quick to produce conspiracy theories about unsolved deaths.

One of my favorite quotes is from Bertrand Russsell: "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

And you can see that exactly in action here, while the intelligent are full of doubt, questioning everything, not making quick judgements, stupid are cocksure that there's a mysterious crime wave going on at Koh Tao and they don't hesitate to label a generally peaceful place as "Island of Death" and scare away people thinking of going there. Of course, by doing that they don't care about the damage they are doing to the Thailand's tourism industry, because they loathe Thailand anyway. They claim they are doing this "to stop future murders", but I don't buy this at all. That is just another expression of their hatred for Thailand, their need to label Thailand as a scary place to be.

No,, the WORST thing about this beautiful country?,,, the corruption, incompetence, etc,, is IN you face,, NO shame, NO trying to hide it, WHAT SO EVER,,,, The FACT THAT it is never appologuised for,, they make nearly NO secret, that they LOVE our $$$,,, but LOTHE us being here,,, THAT'S the problem,,, as in,, "We stop to search farlang, for a BULLSHIT reason because they have $$ to pay,, We NOT stop Thai's BLATANTLY breaking the law because THEY have no $$$".... THAT'S the problem I have with this country I DO love,,,

Do us and yourself a favour when you post, drop the childlike capital words littered all over the place, we are all quite capable of reading normal script and really prefer not to be shouted at every other word, that only gets your posts ignored.

[Adeeos]

The worst thing about this beautiful country is the foreigners who loathe Thailand, but insist on living here for some reason. (Cheap sex?) You can see them at almost every topic, they can find a reason to bash Thailand for almost anything. And being part-time crime solvers, those chaps are quick to produce conspiracy theories about unsolved deaths.

One of my favorite quotes is from Bertrand Russsell: "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

And you can see that exactly in action here, while the intelligent are full of doubt, questioning everything, not making quick judgements, stupid are cocksure that there's a mysterious crime wave going on at Koh Tao and they don't hesitate to label a generally peaceful place as "Island of Death" and scare away people thinking of going there. Of course, by doing that they don't care about the damage they are doing to the Thailand's tourism industry, because they loathe Thailand anyway. They claim they are doing this "to stop future murders", but I don't buy this at all. That is just another expression of their hatred for Thailand, their need to label Thailand as a scary place to be.

No,, the WORST thing about this beautiful country?,,, the corruption, incompetence, etc,, is IN you face,, NO shame, NO trying to hide it, WHAT SO EVER,,,, The FACT THAT it is never appologuised for,, they make nearly NO secret, that they LOVE our $$$,,, but LOTHE us being here,,, THAT'S the problem,,, as in,, "We stop to search farlang, for a BULLSHIT reason because they have $$ to pay,, We NOT stop Thai's BLATANTLY breaking the law because THEY have no $$$".... THAT'S the problem I have with this country I DO love,,,

Do us and yourself a favour when you post, drop the childlike capital words littered all over the place, we are all quite capable of reading normal script and really prefer not to be shouted at every other word, that only gets your posts ignored.

How bout you do us all a favor,, and only post when you actually have something of value to post,, and not just either be a grammer/content/context/English Nazi,,, And yes,,, I'm aware of the misspelling,,, I figured it might entertain you,,, and maybe keep you off someone else's back,,,,

Edited January 4, 2015 by MJP

[Chetzee]

His hands were 'loosely' bound, apparently.....???

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Frenchman-found-hung-in-Koh-Tao-foul-play-suspecte-30251171.html

I guess the Journalist did not see the pictures

not sure what you deduce from that picture . to me i just shows one wrist with quite tight binding .

in full uncensored pictures the hands look loosely tied as the paper has suggested

Edited January 4, 2015 by Chetzee

[kcirtapyelrah]

I would like to see anyone on this forum try to tie their hands behind their back. See how easy it is.

Then simply step through

Ok well that was easy enough. Can you now show me a video of someone stepping thru their tied hands.

But their hands must be as tightly tied as the French guys were, not just some loose tie like she made.

By the time that guy finished tiying his hands as effectively as that, he would have wanted to commit suicide.

[BritTim]

His hands were 'loosely' bound, apparently.....???

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Frenchman-found-hung-in-Koh-Tao-foul-play-suspecte-30251171.html

I wish we had a clearer back view. The only photo showing both hands is too fuzzy to draw firm conclusions. I think we can see enough to rule out Dmitri having tied up his hands from the back. If self inflicted, he must have done it with hands in front using his teeth to help and then stepped though to have them in the rear. I do not think he could have done this standing on the verandah rail (the only apparent jumping off point) with the noose around his neck. It may well be suicide, but he made it as difficult as possible to accomplish.

[BritTim]

His hands were 'loosely' bound, apparently.....???

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Frenchman-found-hung-in-Koh-Tao-foul-play-suspecte-30251171.html

I guess the Journalist did not see the pictures

not sure what you deduce from that picture . to me i just shows one wrist with quite tight binding .

in full uncensored pictures the hands look loosely tied as the paper has suggested

I assume you are referring to the zoomed in view of the hands from the photo of the hanging man from the rear. That is pretty fuzzy. (If you have a better picture, please PM it to me.) It does look consistent with one wrist fairly tightly bound when both hands were free and the other secured less tightly with the help of the teeth. I cannot figure out if there is slack rope between the hands. I would say,though, the distance between the hands is less than I have seen in photos of other hanging suicides with the hands tied behind.

[nontabury]

The worst thing about this beautiful country is the foreigners who loathe Thailand, but insist on living here for some reason. (Cheap sex?) You can see them at almost every topic, they can find a reason to bash Thailand for almost anything. And being part-time crime solvers, those chaps are quick to produce conspiracy theories about unsolved deaths.

One of my favorite quotes is from Bertrand Russsell: "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

And you can see that exactly in action here, while the intelligent are full of doubt, questioning everything, not making quick judgements, stupid are cocksure that there's a mysterious crime wave going on at Koh Tao and they don't hesitate to label a generally peaceful place as "Island of Death" and scare away people thinking of going there. Of course, by doing that they don't care about the damage they are doing to the Thailand's tourism industry, because they loathe Thailand anyway. They claim they are doing this "to stop future murders", but I don't buy this at all. That is just another expression of their hatred for Thailand, their need to label Thailand as a scary place to be.

Maybe they are simple people who have lived in Thailand for many years and know how things are.

[HeijoshinCool]

Geez. Twenty five pages of arguing about knots. Bet none of the naysayers are sailors.

Knot tying is a hard-earned skill. But it's been around for centuries. Just because some of you have never done more than tie your own laces, does not mean others aren't accomplished at tying knots.

I have a half-dozen books, some with a few hundred types of knots. Many are used by sailors, such as myself, when sailing alone. Once you know how, it is not at all difficult, and it's possible to do it in a manner that will keep the wrists quite close to each other.

Maybe the Frenchman was a sailor. Or a rock climber. Or an Eagle Scout.

Or maybe he just Googled.

[DennisF]

Geez. Twenty five pages of arguing about knots. Bet none of the naysayers are sailors.

Knot tying is a hard-earned skill. But it's been around for centuries. Just because some of you have never done more than tie your own laces, does not mean others aren't accomplished at tying knots.

I have a half-dozen books, some with a few hundred types of knots. Many are used by sailors, such as myself, when sailing alone. Once you know how, it is not at all difficult, and it's possible to do it in a manner that will keep the wrists quite close to each other.

Maybe the Frenchman was a sailor. Or a rock climber. Or an Eagle Scout.

Or maybe he just Googled.

Or maybe he was assisted.

[Jungle Jim]

Thailand is safe as long as your (A) Not being obnoxious towards the Thais. ( Have some common sense meaning as a woman not walking around half naked or in the dark and numerous other things like being drunk the majority of your time while being here. After many years here NEVER had a problem. But hey i understand you want to sell books. But with a few simple words the majority can stay out of trouble. To bad common sense is not sold in a bottle. You could make billions.

But T.A.T. says its safe in L.O.S.

The book I wrote in 2013: "A Place To Be Killed, Tourist Alert Thailand" (on Amazon ebooks) would sell more copies, but I have to be anonymous, or I'll be another farang that dies of unnatural causes in the Kingdom..

By the way, Phuket authorities stopped publishing monthly numbers of tourist deaths in April 2012 - because revealing the numbers would hurt tourism...HELLO?

signed,

the truth kills..

[khunpa]

STOP! with the Burmese jokes for God's sake.......any Idea how stupid you come across as being?

It may seem unlikely that his hands would be tied if it was a suicide but it really isn't that strange or uncommon

The idea is to tie their own hands and it only needs to be loosely because the rope used is behind their back

They stick there head through the noose jump and the rope, even if it's only dangling behind their back, prevents them from reaching the rope above.

Sad that someone would resort to this at such a young age

RIP

Have you ever tried to tie your own hands behind your back?

Giv it a try and let us know how it goes...

[webfact]

UPDATE:

French man found dead in Koh Tao – incident being treated as suicide not homicide

KOH SAMUI: -- The death of a 29 year old French Man found hanging from the balcony of his bungalow on January 1st is being treated as a suicide, not as a murder, despite social media speculation around the death.

Full story: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/789218-french-man-found-dead-in-koh-tao-incident-being-treated-as-suicide-not-homicide/

[stephen terry]

The location Dimitri was reported found is a "rented beach side bungalow at Moo 3 Koh Tao". This is not very precise, and photos suggest that it was not exactly on the beach. Fwiw, Moo 3 implies the Southern end of the island, some way from Ocean Front Bungalows where Hannah and David were staying. If Dimitri was home (and staying in this bungalow at the time) he likely would not have heard or seen anything of the events early morning September 15.

Good point BT, but there was a football tornament on the 14th with a big party afterwards so he might have been socialising..... and the only reference I have read of Hanna having an argument with some Thai guys in the AC bar is attributed to an unnamed French man, who apparently took a photo (not seen) of the altercation and passed the photo to the BIB, I am not talking about the photo taken by Sean in the 7/11, even though that photo was used in the news article.

Agree with everything you say, but any possible link is tenuous. I would imagine there would have been a lot of Frenchmen visiting Koh Tao on September 14-15. If the pictures from the scene did not make the suicide hard to accomplish, I would opine that it was almost certainly unrelated. As it is, I am looking for further data. There are other indications that it might be suicide. What the police say about no signs of a struggle looks right. The table on the verandah has what looks like a liquor bottle and the top of a glass. That is consistent with an alcohol induced depression.

First I've heard of a Frenchman taking a photo of an altercation and passing it to the BIB. I've heard rumours of an altercation, but that's it - no confirmation.

Edited January 5, 2015 by stephen terry

[DM07]

A Frenchman called, Dmitri?

It appears that in Thailand deaths of farangs is a suicide until proven otherwise.

Sadly I very much doubt that how and why this person died will be established and this is the last we will hear of this case. Just another mystery death to add to the lists. But it does seem that the proportion of farang deaths here in Thailand is exceptionally high and rather scary. The question being, WHY?

These are the names of some French international footballers! Abdelkader Ben Bouali, Maryan Wisnieski Zinedine Zidane, Samir Nasri, Hatem Ben Arfa and Youri Djorkaeff. Will you all get over the name, please!?

[BritTim]

First I've heard of a Frenchman taking a photo of an altercation and passing it to the BIB. I've heard rumours of an altercation, but that's it - no confirmation.

See http://friendsinthailand.com/2014/09/23/frenchman-can-id-killers-molestation-witness-in-protective-custody/

Note that it was later claimed that this was a mix up with Sean McAnna, but none off the details match.

[newcomer71]

The worst thing about this beautiful country is the foreigners who loathe Thailand, but insist on living here for some reason. (Cheap sex?) You can see them at almost every topic, they can find a reason to bash Thailand for almost anything. And being part-time crime solvers, those chaps are quick to produce conspiracy theories about unsolved deaths.

One of my favorite quotes is from Bertrand Russsell: "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

And you can see that exactly in action here, while the intelligent are full of doubt, questioning everything, not making quick judgements, stupid are cocksure that there's a mysterious crime wave going on at Koh Tao and they don't hesitate to label a generally peaceful place as "Island of Death" and scare away people thinking of going there. Of course, by doing that they don't care about the damage they are doing to the Thailand's tourism industry, because they loathe Thailand anyway. They claim they are doing this "to stop future murders", but I don't buy this at all. That is just another expression of their hatred for Thailand, their need to label Thailand as a scary place to be.

I bet also foreigners knowing it all, and insulting others having different opinion are not better than them...

[Falcon]

So how does a person tie his/her own hands behind his/her back in the first place? Even a world class magician needs to get some one from the audience to do it for them. This place never ceases to amaze me, no matter how many years I have been here.

[wendycraig]

wendycraig, on 04 Jan 2015 - 08:36, said:

Hi,

After 4 previous visits to Thailand, (having deliberately avoided Pattaya + Phuket), we have "bitten the bullet" and have flights from OZ to KL and on to Surat Thani in June for three weeks, so we could at least satisfy our curiosity regarding Samui and neighbouring islands.

The plan was to visit KS, KP, and KT, then ferry to Chumphon, Lang Suan, and bus back to Surat Thani.

It now seems wise to avoid Koh Tao altogether.

or: avoid the islands altogether, and add Sichon, and Khanom to the itinerary ?

FWIW we are late 50s euros from australia, who would like to avoid trouble and have no interest in the seedy side of life, know it goes on any where, but heck, sometimes its bleedin' obvious.

Nothing wrong with Koh Samui or Koh Phangan if you keep well away from the areas of Chaweng (KS) and Haad Rin (KP). KP is a particularly beautiful island. The coastline of Surat Thani is stunning and it would be a shame not to see it. I would certainly give KT a miss though.

Thanks IL,

Have noted your recommendations.