Here's a question for people who have spent time in Samui as well as Phuket and perhaps places like Hua Hin, Pattaya and so on.

Reading this and other forums I get the feeling that there's more violence, crime and general nastyness in the Samui / Kopangan area than in places that seem to be governed on a tighter leash, like Phuket.

Is this the case in your opinion?

I'm currently leaning towards Phuket, or perhaps the Pattaya area (but then not downtown Pattaya obviously)

Very few people on holiday have any problems on Samui. Don't worry.

No different Phuket / Samui / Hua Hin if you are going to have/see trouble then it will happen. I actually prefer Samui over Phuket though it's not to everyone's taste.

Lilawadee, sorry, but I have to disagree. Especially after reading the Pattaya News clippings forum.

yeah pattaya's news clippings make phangan seem tame. but that's not to say there aren't problems here. i agree that most tourists won't run into them though.

Sorry, I should have made myself clearer. I'm not asking for the purpose of tourism but to settle there for the better part of the year. I'm aware of Pattaya's reputation, it's merely one of the places I'm considering.

So for people actually living there, is Samui more problematic than places like, say, Surat Thani town itself, or Phuket outside of the tourist areas?

I'm thinking that Samui, like Pattaya, is booming exclusively because of tourism, with a large influx of fortune seekers that actually outnumber the original population. I worry that this might not make for a healthy society, as shown by Pattaya. I worry that Samui may get worse before it gets better again. Pattaya on the other hand got so big it seems that it now attracts business and industry outside of the tourist industry, and may in that sense be maturing.

What aspects of Samui's bad press are concerning you the most? Samui is a great place to live. You get to know your neighbours, everyone looks out for each other and crime is low. Yes there is drugs and gang related crime as well as the healthy dose of Thai corruption, but I don't believe any different to any other tourist destinations in Thailand. I am a girl living on her own here and feel safer here than I have done anywhere else that I have lived. The only thing that really does deserve the bad press are the roads - they are death traps....

As for Surat Thani town being safer - I really wouldn't know but what are you looking for in a place to settle if you are comparing Samui to Surat - both very different places with completely different attractions.

But why not just visit and spend a few weeks in each place and decide where you feel most at home?

Loads of burglaries on Samui. I constantly had problems with clients, almost on a daily basis with breakins... Bars on the windows will keep em out

Loads of burglaries on Samui. I constantly had problems with clients, almost on a daily basis with breakins... Bars on the windows will keep em out

It's not just Samui. The whole area including Surat Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat has a bad

reputation even among the Thai populace.

Naka.