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Published: July 28th 2006
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Koh Samui
us at our beach hotel, where we had some fabulous seafood meals. Hi All
Next morning to travel to koh Samui from from Surit Thani, we believed we'd be taking the big ferry from the harbour located just by our hotel.(which was very, very clean, but had the hardest bed we've ever slept in!!). But no, this is Thailand and nothing runs quite that easy!! Not that it was difficult at all, we just caught a coach outside of our hotel. As we booked late last night through the taxi driver/hotel owner who didn't seem to speak much English, we weren't sure what was happening. (This is appears to be normal in Thailand, as we found out!!) The coach was full of other backpackers who were under the same immpression as us, that we were leaving from the main jetty, but we had a 40 mins to a jetty outside of town, where we were issued with a coloured sticker and told to board the ferry which was already full!! Our bags were stacked out on the deck at the back and luckily we found the last two seats in the aircon lounge. The most popular place to sit was outside on the deck with your feet swinging over the edge. It took
Motorbike
Eat your heart out, Hells Angels, it's Arnie & Maggie cruising through Koh Samui. about 90 mins to get to Koh Samui and this was where it really turned into a cattle market. Our bags were thrown from the back of the ferry onto the narrow jetty then thrown again to try and make space, but there just wasn't any!!! People were searching for bags, putting them on and then hitting others when they turned around, and most did at least three times to check on their mates progess in amongst the bag melee!! But that was the worst bit over with, we'd paid for a minibus over to the otherside of the island, (cost a 100thb approx1pound 50p) and we liked the first place the bus stopped. On the way in it looked a total dump, the road was rough and lots of rubbish was strewn around, but once in the yard, it looked very fine. 800Thb for an a/c room ensuite with hot water and a fridge, a very well appointed room with our own little veranda complete with tables & chairs outside. Everywhere was very clean, the resort, beach and sea, with proper recliners for a spot of serious sunbathing!! Interestingly the Thai boy/girl was took us view the room was
Big Budha
The big Buddha on the north of Koh Samui, visible for miles more concerned with how he/she looked than showing us the room, he/she didn't even know if there was hot water in the room. (But he would have made a beautiful girl, just a bit too effeminate in his actions!!!!)
We had a glorious 5 days, hot sunshine, wonderful thunder storms over the sea, very good seafood and the beer was cheaper than Malaysia.
We hired a Honda Phantom for a day, Arnie driving and I was on the back and an extra lookout as bikes and cars come from both sides towards you and from behind you. It was a good way to see the island, but extemely tiring with the heat and the traffic congestion. We went to see the big Buddha in the north of the island and on around to the Na Thong to book our journey on to Bangkok in a luxury coach overnight.
Because we had time, I had a wool/cashmere suit made in 4 days, for a jacket, skirt & trousers in the best quality 88 pounds, I'll need something smart to wear when I'm looking for work when I get back!!!
Sunday came and it's time to move on again, by luxury coach
Arnie
Arnie relaxing to Bangkok, or at least that's what we thought!!! We put our rucksacks on a rickety bus in Na Thong and that's where they will stay until Surit Thani when we change to the overnight coach. The ferry was the worst we've ever been on, but it gets us to Danok where we boarded the bus, it's 70 k to Surit Thani. Here we off load at a very unsalubrious establishment to await the arrival of our overnight transport. We think we are going on coach with fully reclining seats, allowing us to sleep well and it's only supposed to take 34 passengers but looking aroung the cafe we realise that there's at least 48, so there goes any hope of fully reclining seats, we're not on the service we thought we were on and which we paid for!!! Ah, but this IS Thialand.
The cafe may not be that smart but we have the best egg sandwiches since we left Australia, proper runny eggs and thats unusual.
Our coach arrives and it's an uneventful journey to Bangkok, we do sleep in our 60 degree recling seats and we stopped for food and calls of nature at 1am, where we
Storm
Stormy skies saw Italy scoring the equaliser in the first half of the World Cup Final.
We thought we were going to a bus station, but the coach pulls up on the side of Kowsan Road and drops us off, taxis and tuk tuks appear from nowhere and nearly everyone is whisked away in seconds. But we don't know where we are going, and we haven't booked a hotel. but there's a guy there who tells the taxi driver to take us to a TAT (Thailand tourist Agency, government run offices), it's 6.15am, the taxi driver rings his mobile and a guy appears and opens up the office, just like that!
Within minutes, we're booked in to a hotel for 4 days, and on a tour for 2days 1 night in the middle of the four days, and it's all paid for although we don't know where we're going or what the hotel is like, we'll find out soon enough!!And that's another blog
Bye for now
Arnie & Maggie
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