Playing pool in Chaweng Beach

One of my favourite past times in Samui is shooting pool with some friends. Our best gathering was always at the Sportsman Inn, close to Zico’s in Chaweng, but alas that has been demolished so where do we go now?

There are quite a few places up and down the beach road that have a pool table but they are not always to people’s liking. The Wave in the south of Chaweng has just had a pool table installed and what makes it better is the large flat screen TV to watch sports on when you’re having a break!

Farther up the road in central Chaweng you will be met with a number of bars offering pool tables. You may want to check it out first as some of these places are beer bars or lady bars for ‘single men’ so you don’t want to take the wife and kids in.

Bondi Aussie Bar & Grill has a fancy table with their logo embroiled into the table cloth, in case you forgot where you were. Upstairs in the number one Irish bar in town, Tropical Murphy’s, they also have a few good pool tables.

There is also The Islander Bar & Restaurant near to Starbucks that has two very good pool tables up on the first floor. A lot of these bars have weekly competitions for tourists and locals alike. Everyone pays an entrance fee and the winner of the tournament will walk away with a percentage of that take and some will sometimes go to second and third place.

Of course there are many others bars across the island that offer pool tables but there is simply too many to list. It is a great way of making new friends but watch out for the local Thais playing pool; they are nine times out of 10 very good at the game!