Water, Water everywhere and not a drop to drink

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Having been informed that we would not be able to get a bus out of Surat Thani, due to the flooding we decided to extend our stay in the hotel for another night whilst we tried to figure out a way out of the city. Confident that the water level would not be too high, I headed over to the bus station in order to purchase a ticket for the next day. Alas, I forgot to pack my kayak and, as a result, I could no longer make it to the bus terminal in order to buy a ticket.

Fortunately, help was at hand, not from any staff in the hotel, who seemed slightly inept, but from the other guests in the hotel, the majority of whom were struck in Surat Thani as well, trying to find a way out. It was thanks to their help that we found ourselves sitting on a minibus to the civic hall, where the army would then take us to the airport where we could finally get out and be on our way. This does unfortunately mean that we failed in our efforts to get back to the UK without flying, but with time running out on visas we could no longer afford to wait in Surat Thani and hope the water disappeared.

The trip to the airport was anything but comfortable and we arrived in a slightly disheveled and sun burnt state. On the way we got yet more insight into the large scale flooding in and around Surat Thani with large sections of the roads destroyed, people stuck in the middle of a bridge and even some people fishing in what used to be the high street. In amongst all the damage though some of the local children at least found some good waves to go tubering on. All joking aside the extent of the damage was shocking and we felt a great deal for the locals, and all the people in southern Thailand who had had their lives devastated by the flood.

A ridiculously short flight later, it would have taken 10 hours on the bus but only 1 by plane, and we were eventually in Bangkok. We headed straight to the train station hoping to catch the last train up to Chiang Mai but unfortunately there were no seats left. We therefore booked a train ticket for the following night and decided to stay in Bangkok for the day.

Having stayed in the lovely 100 Island Resort and Spa, the Train Inn was a bit of a crash back down to the backpacker reality. A cramped room in a hostel where the floor was always wet, admittedly due to the cleaner but it was a death trap afterwards, and the room was always noisy. In order to aid the decision never to stay there again the management put on mango biscuits for breakfast. The stomach turning smell was only eclipsed by the taste which made you want to be sick, which would still have put a better taste in your mouth.

Following breakfast we quickly fled the hostel and headed in to Bangkok. It was a bit odd being back in Bangkok after visiting it for our honeymoon under a year ago. Largely this was because it was the first time in a long time that we arrived somewhere and vaguely knew our way around. It was a bit more of a practical day, picking up the few odds and ends that we needed for the rest of the trip. It also gave us time to do some recycling. Not the most important thing in the world but, due to her keen resolve, Steph’s bag was now largely filled with plastic bottles. This had the unintended consequence of meaning I carried all the heavy stuff!

After a good day in Bangkok we headed back to the train station and caught the overnight train to Chiang Mai arriving at 7:00am. There were some fun times on the train, restraining Steph from attacking the man in front who kept knocking her chair – she was trying to remove the chicken from her dinner at the time and it was annoying- to the loud bang in the night when we blatantly hit something bringing us to a stop before carrying on regardless. However, 13 hours after we got on we finally arrived in Chang Mai, 3 days after we wanted to and with a numb bum to boot but at least we were out of Southern Thailand and ready to have an explore around Chiang Mai, one of the most historic cities in Northern Thailand.

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Comments

[Kate]

oops!
The truck looks somewhat cramped!!! Hope you didn't travel far on it. The poor Thai people what an awful disaster to cope with.