The first backpackers hitched rides on fishing boats to the island in the early 1970s, but now that Samui has filled with upmarket resorts, they prefer the neighboring island of Phang Ngan, famed for its monthly "full moon" raves.
Samui now has an official population of 36,000, but an estimated 150,000 mainland Thais now live on the island to serve the tourism industry. Much of the land and the hotel business is run by businessmen from the Thai capital, Bangkok.
"Now, because the local economy is growing so fast, Samui people are happy outsiders here. But one day it will slow down," said Marc Ribail, managing director of villa developer Coconut Land and Houses.
The island's bustle has pushed sleepy villages of stilted wooden houses into the background as construction material stores and furniture shops compete for space with ice cream parlors and Italian restaurants.
But the new wealth often splits close-knit families, with some overnight millionaires driving the island's 50km circular road in brand new luxury cars, while their cousins remain low paid civil servants or work on plantations.
"Traditionally, the mountain land was given to the favorite boy and the beach given to bad boys," said Ribail.
"Now the bad boys are very rich because they sold to Bangkokians, foreigners or large hotel groups."
But islanders say selling land was a necessity because the cost of fish and other produce ballooned when mass tourism arrived and businesses began to be run by outsiders.
"Normal people couldn't adjust to the changes. The cost of living rose and they sold land. They had no choice," said Chavalit, scanning his hill for a spot for his own second home with a sea view.
"Now the old traditions have gone because people don't work the fields and plantations anymore."
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