Arrived to Koh Samui at about 2PM. The flight from Bangkok was really short, only about an hour. We had already attituded ourselves that this is a real tourist place, but still found it a bit funny already at the airport's arrival hall which looked like a bambu shaft, not a hall. ;) Taxis cost way too much compared to the main lands' prices (going by a taxi in Bangkok really IS cheap!), and if you don't bargain for the price of smth you wanna pay, you'll be ripped off. Like in Bali; mainland was cheap, but the Gilis weren't because everything has to be delivered from the main land.. But - we had found a really nice place to stay from Trip Advisor: a quiet, tranquil place called "The Lipa Lodge Resort" at the Lipa Noi beach! :) Having a really nice own villa, ~50m from the sea shore and it is clean and nice. Costs about 100€/night, so at the brink of being a bit overpriced but if you want piece&quiet and privacy; I'd recommend!
This resort has many times been almost empty/only half full according to Trip advisor, so not that much bother about other people neither (so suits for misanthropes, like me, too ;) . Atm there's only like 5-6 people + us.
But a warning: if you want people&party&hassle&bars etc. DON'T come here, since this is pretty far from those kind of places (like Chaweng, Lamai etc.), about 30mins taxi ride away.
The resort's restaurant food had had many really good reviews and recommendations from the best chefs in Thailand, so we expected quite much from it. So we went for a dinner at the first evening over there. Had a 3 course meal set for 2 persons, 1200Bht. Had a good squid salad with a very nice dressing, good prawn dish and a very good chicken satay styled dish and some beef barbequed in the Korean style at our table by a waiter, a banana cocos dessert. Good sized menu, though the beef could've been better. Still I've had my best (&cheapest!) Korean barbeque in Naha, Okinawa, Japan at the very large dining hall, called "Bambohe", where the meat was just a super quality and by "all you can eat in 2hrs" principale! It cost like 8-10€/head, and beer (Asahi) 1€/stobe (0,4l)!
Anyway our dinner was nice and good, so we decided to maybe eat there a second time as well.
Resort has a nice pool, though a bit small, if the resort were full. Beach is good, really a swimming beach, sand bottom many many metres from the shore. NOT anything for snorkelling then, of course. But it's another island for that, then. Like Ko Tao.
At the evening we got a taxi to Chaweng beach (cost 600bht, which is a rip-off price, if you ask me), to the tourist hell, to see it once in a lifetime. Well, it was just that, more tourists than your soul could bare and more shop people trying to rip you off than you can count. And which made it even worse; drunken tourists. :P
We were SOOOO glad we had chosen our accomodation so well, far from this hell. Bought coupla things (like sunglassses, 'cause I needed them), but the atmosphere was somehow so consuming that we left at around 12 o'clock. Concience can't bare supporting the piracy scene more than for those sunglasses, though everything was there, ungenuine: Diesel, Prada, DG, you name it. Not to mention the piracy of DVD's&CD's: music, movies, games.. Oh dear.
We found a 7eleven where we shopped some water, beer, chips, yoghurt and other little stuff into our room's fridge. Even though its minibar prices were reasonable, it's always cheaper to buy your own from the grocery stores, and get as many as you want ;))
Our taxi driver from Chaweng back home ate khat all the drivingway to our hotel, which did concern us a bit.
Well, still at one piece and happy to be here in Thailand and somewhere where they really know WHAT service means..!