Back then, there were pickup trucks that basically took you from the pier on Samet to the entrance gate of the national park, where the road ended, which was essentially the beach area. If I remember correctly, you paid a ฿20 fee to enter the national park, and then you had access to the beaches and all the hotels. The issue was that you had to walk along the beach carrying your bags to reach your hotel. Another reason nobody went there for longer stays was because there was no way to wheel a suitcase along the beach or have it brought to your hotel by pickup. Most of the hotels close to the entrance filled up pretty quickly, while the next beach over, which I think was called Thap Thim Beach (Pomegranate Beach), was pretty much empty. I went there a few times to relax and I remember there were a few more beaches beyond that one if you wanted to continue walking down the coast around the headlands, but I never ventured any further than Thap Thim. There was very little in terms of accommodation past the main beach anyway because most people did not want to walk any farther and then go around the headland to get there. So most of the development was limited to that initial stretch of beach near the entrance to the national park. I guess there were a few roads on the inside of the island back then, but they were just dirt roads and were not wide enough for cars. I think maybe a couple of motorbikes could get through some of them to reach some of the other beaches, but I do not remember seeing many motorbikes on the island. Most of the hotels on the island got their deliveries of supplies by boat because there was really no other way to get supplies to them by land. Some had their own boats and would go into Ban Phe in the morning to stock up on supplies. At the time, I also remember there being one separate resort on the other side of the island that you could see from the boat as you were coming over from the pier at Ban Phe. It was sort of an exclusive resort with its own private beach. Maybe it was around 1,500 Baht a night. I never went there. But back then, privacy really was not much of an issue because the island was so undeveloped. So I never stayed at that resort because, if you did, you were basically limited to the one restaurant inside the resort, and that was it. Come to think of it, Lamai Beach on Samui was still all dirt roads back then, too. And the first time I went to Phuket, Bangla Road was also just a dirt road with a few dusty beer bars. But now I am starting to show my age...
