Several people have told me there will soon be a direct ferry service from here in Sichon across to Koh Samui.

It’s not that Koh Samui excites me particularly. Although, I must confess, I haven’t been. The place strikes me as being over-touristy, over-priced and over-hyped. Not my kind of place at all. But there’s several reasons why I think a ferry service would be a good idea.

It would be nice to be able to say “I’m popping over to Koh Samui for lunch.” The journey there and back, on a bright sunny day, would be very pleasant. I might even see some dolphins. Lunch in a quiet fishing village would be nice, if there is such a thing on Samui.

And, it would help popularize Sichon, which would be good for hotels, restaurants and local businesses. I don’t want Sichon to become an extension of Koh Samui, but there’s always room for improvement, which a new influx of tourist dollars would help fund.

A couple of people have told me the new jetty and ferry terminal will be north of the river, near the big statue of – I’m sorry, I have no idea whom – and Google doesn’t help.

But, on the face of it, that seems daft.

It wouldn’t be very easy to reach the terminal. There’s only one bridge across the river, and it’s inland a ways. Then, to get to the statue, you have to go north, east and south for a few kilometers on a very narrow road.

But, maybe there are things I don’t know. Probably many many things I don’t know.

Perhaps the ferry service and new terminal are part of some Grand Master Plan to develop the part of Sichon that’s north of the river. Perhaps there are plans for a new bridge.

So, I went to take a look. And sure enough, there is one new 200 meter stretch of narrow road, and a sign that suggests they might build four new houses, but somehow this doesn’t seem like part of a redevelopment master plan.

Oh, and there’s no sign of a new jetty and/or ferry terminal, or even the start of construction of same.

I, and others, have seen large metal frame thingies out in the sea, being moved around on barges. But, whatever they are and wherever they’re going, they don’t seem to be anything to do with the Sichon to Koh Samui ferry. There is one large, new, deserted parking area – but perhaps that’s to attract one or two tourists to the other side of Sichon. Or maybe it’s so people can come and pay homage to the statue of whatshisname.

Anyways, due to the relative inaccessibility, I don’t go there often, so I figured I’d better take a few photographs while I was there. I’m sorry about the gloomy weather, but maybe you’re tired of the constant pix of blue sea and bright sun? We’re currently waiting for a tropical depression to cross the Gulf of Thailand on its way from Vietnam, so I’m afraid there’s more dark skies and rain to come in the next few days.

Meanwhile, I’ll think about the forty minute drive north to Don Sak, to take the Samui ferry from there. I probably won’t go. But I will think about it.

And if they do decide to build a terminal, I hope they don’t do it anywhere near me, because I don’t want ferries at the bottom of my garden.

I thought that would be the end of the story, but tootling around in Sichon just now, I spotted something on the opposite bank of the river.

It’s a new building. It looks like a new floating pontoon platform of some kind. Not quite what I was looking for, but it could be a terminal. So, I had to go back across the river to check. It’s hidden away behind the statue of whatshisname, and very close to the huge empty parking lot I mentioned.

It’s nice that they have wheelchair access into the building, but I sure as heck wouldn’t want to be rolled down – or up – that ramp to the floating pontoon.

Oh, and there’s no signs of any kind in any any language, so there’s no way to know what the building is for. But, it does kind-of look like it could be it. Time will tell.