The express ferry (a passenger ferry) departs three times a day and is probably best. The crossing takes about 2 hours and takes you directly to the pier in Nathon (where you can easily get transportation to your hotel or guesthouse). The express ferries leave from Tha Thong Pier 4 kilometers away from Surat Thani (whereas the pier for the vehicle ferry from Son Sak is located 60 kilometers - and a 2 hour bus ride - from Surat Thani, and drops you off at a pier 10 kilometers south of Nathon). You can reach Surat Thani either by plane (with Thai Airways) or by train from Bangkok.

There are a handful of taxies in Ko Samui (a relatively new development) The most common means of transport are Songthaews (lorries or vans with wooden benches for sitting). You must always determine the fare before you enter!

Of course, your hotel or a rental car agency can provide you with a rental car (though you should be warned that the traffic conditions are somewhat tricky; it is probably better to hire a driver as well). A lot of tourists rent motorcycles in Ko Samui, but driving a motorcycle is really  dangerous if you are not thoroughly familiar with both a) the art of riding a motorcycle, and b) the traffic conditions in Asian countries.

Language

Thai is a tone  language of sino-tibetan origin. This means that differences in tone make differences in meaning. The Thai language has five tones, and if you mispronounce you do not simply say an incorrect word, you say another word entirely! Many Thais, however, (not all, of course!) speak some English and at least in the tourist areas of Thailand, like Bangkok, Phuket, or Koh Samui you can manage easily even withouto knowing Thai (in the more remote areas, like the Northeast, or the South, you might run into problems.) It is also always a good idea to ask the concierge of your hotel or somebody else to write down the names of your destinations in Thai script, and to take a business card of your hotel, and a good bilingual map with you.

There are various systems of transliteration, especially for Thai consonants. In thisguide, "Th" means that the sound is a soft "t", and "ph" means that the sound is a soft "p" (not "f").