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Published: October 12th 2009
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While in Langkawi, we decided to head directly to the much lauded island of Ko Samui. Down to our timing, the Andaman coast (which includes Phuket, Krabi and Ko Phi Phi) was still being affected by the southwest monsoon that hits from June to October. So that part of the country was out. The Gulf coast however, where Ko Samui is, isn’t affected as much by the southwest monsoon as it is by the northeast monsoon, which brings the rain between October and January. So our thinking was get there quick before it starts raining!!!
This decision brought upon us a long day of travelling. Setting off from Langkawi, we took a ferry to Satun in southern Thailand. From there we had to take a 10 minute songthaew ride into the town. (For those of you now wondering what the hell a songthaew is, it’s basically a small, old pick up truck, with 2 benches running along the back and a makeshift roof.) From there it was a 15 minute wait until our mini bus was full enough to leave. It brought us to the town of Hat Yai 2 hours away. We would have gotten there quicker if our
driver wasn’t moonlighting as a postman and a deliver driver, picking up people, parcels and packages along the way and dropping them off as we got closer to the town!
In Hat Yai, we were waiting for only another 20 minutes, before another mini bus arrived to bring us the rest of the way to Surat Thani. If we thought our previous driver was bad, this new driver brought a whole new meaning to the idea of making an extra few quid along the way. Stopping easily at least 20 times along the road, asking people did they need transport, stopping to pick up vegetables and a polystyrene box of god knows what, and dropping all people and items off added easily an hour to the journey. Making this a 6 hour mini bus trip.
Arriving in Surat Thani in the dark and with no accommodation booked wasn’t the daunting task it could have been. We had looked at accommodation, but hadn’t booked any, simply unsure when we’d get there. So when we passed a hotel we recognised we were happy to pay the EUR9 for a room to rest our heads. EUR9 for a hotel room rose
in us suspicions as to the quality, but we saw the room before we agreed to it and had read positive reviews of the place before we set off on our long day of travel.
So after a shower, a good feed and a good night’s sleep, the next morning we finally got the ferry to Ko Samui and the paradise island we had heard so much about was soon within sight. A taxi brought us to our hotel at the north end of Lamai beach. Buddy Samui Boutique Hotel Lamai Beach was a rather hasty booking, but it was a stroke of genius on our behalf! More expensive than our hotel the previous night in Surat Thani, it cost EUR20 per person per night, which turned out to be an absolute bargain! For that we got a 4 poster bed in a gorgeous bedroom, free internet, free breakfast, swimming pool, free use of a gym and immaculate 1st class service! They were across the road from the beach and they owned the bar, restaurant and club on the beachfront, as well as a 2nd pool between them! We loved it here and would gladly return, and it’s not
just because of theEUR2 cocktails and free buckets of Heineken in the club, honest! 😊
After our exhausting day of travelling to get to Surat Thani, it was a similar distance to get to Bangkok, our next stop. So we decided to fly! Getting the airport bus to the city was not the straight forward task we thought it would and should be. The girl who sold us the ticket had excellent English; however the bus driver had none! Only for we knew where we wanted to get out, who knows where we would have ended up! Even at that we looked at the monument and thought “Yeah that looks a Democracy Monument” which thankfully it was.
Our 1st experience of the people in Bangkok was a good one. While looking at our map on the street and trying to figure out where our hotel was, a nice girl with excellent English asked us did we want help and pointed in us the right direction, before setting off at the frenetic pace Bangkok is known for.
We had decided by this time to visit Vietnam, the catch being that it is the only country so far for
which we couldn’t get a visa on arrival. We needed to get to the Vietnam embassy in Bangkok, pay them and leave our passports with them for 3 days. Typically for us the process wasn’t quite as smooth as it could have been. What we didn’t know was that the embassy closes everyday for lunch between 11.30 and 1.30. Sure enough we arrived at 11.45, and then had to kill time in nearby shopping centres before filing the necessary items. Picking up the passports and visas didn’t go so smoothly either. Despite now knowing the closing times, thanks to a taxi driver tying to earn a few more Baht from us by driving us in the wrong direction, we were literally 5 seconds late to the embassy. As they locked the door at 11.30, we were 10 yards away, crossing the road and cold see and hear the door being locked! What a kick in the teeth! So there were another couple of hours to while away shopping. We made use of it this time and Lynsey picked up a lovely pair of shoes!
Between these couple of frustrating days, we took a day trip to Kanchanaburi, not far
from the border with Myanmar, 121 kms from Bangkok. Here we visited the Bridge over the River Kwai, which was a surreal enough moment even before a nearby loudspeaker started to play Hey Jude! The Kanchanaburi War Cemetery was the 1st stop on the visit. It contains 6982 POW graves laid out in straight lines amidst immaculately kept lawns. The really emotional part about it being walking among the headstones of the POW’s with no names.
The aforementioned POWs were the prisoners of war captured by the Japanese during World War II and put to work on the Death Railway. Kanchanaburi became a POW camp and base for construction work on the railway which the Japanese military leaders chose to link their newly acquired territories in Singapore and Burma. About sixty thousand Allied POWs and two hundred thousand conscripted Asian labourers worked on the line. An estimated sixteen thousand POWs and one hundred thousand Asian labourers died while working on it. After our visit to the cemetery, we visited the JEATH War Museum, whose name is an acronym of six of the countries involve in the railway: Japan, England, Australia, America, Thailand and Holland.
After lunch, we were
dropped to Soy Yok Noi waterfall, which was truly beautiful. But the highlight of the day was our next stop. We visited the Tiger Temple, a monastery that doubles as a wildlife sanctuary. It became a sanctuary for tigers injured or cubs orphaned by poachers on the Thai - Myanmar border. The tigers grew and reproduced and are all cared for by the monks at the monastery. They are still currently in construction of a large open air enclosure for the animals and the entrance fee helps fund the project. Looking at the pictures you may notice that yes the larger tigers are chained up, but they are very docile creatures, having grown up around humans.
We rounded off the day with a short journey on the infamous Death Railway. We were surprised to find that it was more than a tourist attraction and many schoolchildren use it going to and from school. We were left wondering if they knew the brutal history of their simple daily train ride.
With another day on our hands before we flew to Vietnam, we picked up some bargains on the infamous Khao San Road and paid a visit to the amazing
Grand Palace.
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