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Published: April 10th 2009
Thursday, April 9th
This morning we had to go to the train station to see about tickets to Surat Thani, a town on the west coast of Thailand. From there you can take a boat to the islands of Ko Samui, Ko Pangan and Ko Tao. It's about 11 hours by train so we wanted to depart the following evening.
We grabbed a taxi and headed to the nearest subway station (they call it the Metro, like the French). Here we took our first subway ride of the trip. The line terminates at the train station so a short walk took us to the booking desks. A friendly official checked for availability but there was no tickets available for the following evening or the evening after that. The only space in the near future was this evening. This presented a bit of a problem since we'd already paid for our hotel. With little other choice we booked these tickets (they include transfers from the station to Ko Samui). We depart Bangkok at 17:05 and will arrive the following morning in Surat Thani at 4:05.
A subway and a taxi ride later saw us back at our hotel. It was 20mins
past our check-out time so we had to pay a 20% cancellation fee. We quickly packed and checked out, then spent our remaining time in the pool. We ordered rice take-away for dinner on the train.
A third taxi and subway ride and we were back at the train station. We got eight donuts from the Dunkin' Donuts stand then proceeded to the platform. The train was late and the heat over-whelming so we pulled out our trusty little fan. Rivers of sweat were running from Ferdi's face so Talita strapped the fan around his neck. Not the most macho look but who cares. It cooled him down splendidly.
At 17:50, with dark clouds building in the north, we left Hualompong station heading south. It's hard to believe that the following morning we'll be on the island of Ko Samui.
After a stop of more than two hours (it felt like five) at a station outside Bangkok, we finally got going again. They call this an "express train". Well, if this is express we'd hate to see a "normal" train. Even so, this is and infinitely more comfortable way to travel than taking a bus (and cheaper).
We spent the evening reading, finished off our donuts then hit the hay.
Today's highlights:
1. Exploring Bangkok's subway system.
2. Easily booking our train, bus & boat tickets without getting scammed.
3. Donuts at the train station.
Thought for the day:
It's exciting when you expect your day to go a certain way and then it goes in a completely different direction. Friday, April 10th
Happy Easter weekend everyone! May it be a blessed time for you and your family. Ferdi woke at 6am, a little worried that we'd missed our stop, which should've been at 4am. The train was at a station so he popped out to see where we were at. Turned out, to his great relief, that we were still 200km from Surat Thani.
We arrived at 8:30, four and a half hours late. Our breakfast was on the bus, consisting of Lipton Ice Tea and seaweed flavoured Lays. An hour and a half later and we were at the pier. Here we were able to get a proper breakfast and then took the two hour ferry ride to Ko Samui.
The more we travel the harder it
gets to conceive of an existence other than this. How does one go back to sitting in an office ten hours a day? It just doesn't make any sense... We might be in trouble... :-)
We arrived on Ko Samui at 12:00. A taxi wanted to completely overcharge us so we told him to take a hike and took a Sawngthaew (an enclosed pickup truck with two benches on the back) to Lamai beach on the east side of the island.
After a bit of hotel scouting we found a decent place at about the price we wanted. They had wi-fi (not free like we'd gotten used to), a restaurant and a bar on the beach. After checking in we went to walk on the beach. Huge dark clouds were building over the island and just as we got back to our place the rain started falling. We got ourselves a cocktail (ouch! Expensive much?) to celebrate our first night on the island.
We wanted to dive at each of the islands, but after a bit of research found that it costs almost four times as much as diving in Vietnam! We were really looking forward to
diving here but it doesn't look like we'll be doing much of that.
Even though our bed is as hard as stone we had a good nap followed by Indian food for dinner. We're still struggling to get used to the currency. Everything seems so expensive here. Maybe it is because Ko Samui is very touristy. We'll just have to go with the flow.
For dessert we had ice-cream on the beach then turned in for the night.
Today's highlights:
1. Arriving on Ko Samui.
2. Affordable room and cocktails.
3. Feeling free and independent.
4. Ice-cream on the beach.
Thought for the day:
Before you get your underwear in a bunch, stop, reflect, and admit out loud what you're feeling.
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Sandra
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Vlegsel foto
Ek dink julle kuier nou te lank in die Ooste. Op die vlegsel foto lyk Talita al nes een van die girls!