Samui is an island, part of the province of the Surat Thani Province. It is located just off the east coast of the Kra Isthmus and it is quite close to the mainland town of Surat Thani. There is an international airport in Samui, which makes daily flights to and from Bangkok. It has greatly benefited from the economic growth affecting the entire Kingdom of Thailand, so prosperity there is doubly easy to achieve. As such, it is an ideal place to live. It used to be a very self-contained community, and parts of that still exist, giving foreigners the opportunity to settle in a very diverse area.