if you don't stay in haad rin, you will get what you want -- i hear there are some new bargirl bars on the road between thong sala and haad rin, but if you stay in a bungalow place, you won't ever see them. the beaches are nice, and there are a few things to see. mostly, it's a good place to just chill out, and definitely cheap. you can still find 300 baht bungalows if you look, and at 600 baht, you have lots of choices.a lot of the places book online now. baan tai and baan kai are easy to get to, and have a lot of resort choices. i like that kpg is mostly young people and not families or older couples, plus it really doesn't have that ugly-farang-guy-looking-for-thai-bargirls vibe so it just has a more casual and comfortable feeling to me. there are a few 7-11s, of course, what would thailand be without the seven?

it does take time to get to kpg, though --- even if you fly into samui, you need to take a ferry to the island, and then a taxi to wherever you decide to stay. and you want to make sure you're not there during the full moon, when it gets kind of crazy (unless that appeals to you).

you might want to check out tong nai pan, the beach/village on the northeast side of the island. there's a daily ferry from samui that goes up that side of the island, so you could avoid all of the busy tourist ferries.

if you're coming down from bkk by train or bus, you might want to consider koh tao. a little pricier, but you can get the lomprayah ferry from chumpon. that same trimaran ferry stops next in koh phangan, could save you some time.

i could use a few days in a bungalow on the beach myself right now. ;^)