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Samui offers you a perfect holiday retreat all year round in every season, the dry season between February to July, wet season between August and January. The sun shines all year round, even during the wet season, and a year round temperate climate makes Samui ideal for a extended stay to explore and enjoy the regions rich culture and Thailand 's infamous hospitality.
 Busy Samui supports all kinds of activities, from scuba diving to bungee jumping, jungle trekking to cooking schools. Most folks come here for beach fun and frolic and you'll find all kinds of activities, sailing, jet skis and parasailing among them, at beachside. Then there is golfing and trekking as well as other land-based activities. Fishing and sea kayaking are also still as popular as ever.
The gold-tiled Wat Phrayai (Big Buddha), more than 24m (80 ft.) tall, sits atop Koh Faan ( Barking Deer Island ), a small islet connected to the shore by a dirt causeway almost 305m (1,000 ft.) long. Though of little historic value, it's an imposing presence on the northeast coast and is one of Samui's primary landmarks.
 Koh Samui's famed Wonderful Rocks -- the most important of which are the unique Hin Ta and Hin Yai, or Grandfather and Grandmother Stones, shaped like the male and female anatomy -- are located at the far southern end of Lamai Beach.
The Mummified Monk at Wat Khunaram is certainly worth a visit if your bend is to roadside oddities. He died in the meditation mudra, legs folded lotus style, and he was embalmed that way; you can see him behind glass in a small pavilion at the right as you enter Wat Khunaram, itself a worthy example of a typical Thai town temple.
 Just across Rte 4169 from the Wat Khunaram is the dirt track leading up to Na Muang Falls, a pleasant waterfall once visited by many kings of the Chakri dynasty. After the rainy season ends in December, it reaches a height of almost 30m (100 ft.) and a width of about 20m (66 ft.). Na Muang is a steamy 5km (3-mile) walk from the coast road and makes for a nice bathing and picnic stop.
For something a little more tranquil visit the Butterfly Garden off the 4170 Road near Laem Din on the southeast.
 Along Samui's main roads, you'll find little hand-painted signs along the lines of MONKEY WORK COCONUT. These home-grown tourist spots show off monkey skills involved in the local coconut industry -- they're trained to climb the trees, spin the coconuts to break them off their stems, and collect them from the bottom when they're finished.
I defy you to find a Thai tourist spot without the requisite snake farm where young men harass dangerous snakes (many reputedly drugged, the snakes that is) and taunt audiences by catching the slithering animals in their bare hands (and sometimes their teeth). It's a lot of laughs though to see the audience squirming in semi-amused horror. Samui's snake farm is at the far southwest corner of the island on 4170.
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