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Published: March 27th 2009
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After a brief sleep we headed along Silom Road which was the main road next to our hostel, we went in search of some breakfast and after not finding anything but street vendors (Which looked a little dodgy) we settled on a nice nutritional breakfast of an ice cream shake! After which we headed along the road until we reach an MRT station, the MRT was the same thing i caught when i was in Taiwan and Hong Kong and its a very efficient underground train. We caught it to the main station called Hua Lampong and it cost us an extortionate 18 Baht or 35p in real money, we had both decided that we wanted to head south out of Bangkok to one of the small islands and the receptionist at our hostel suggested catching the over night train. We enquired at the ticket office and they told us the only one left was the 5pm overnight train which takes 11 hours, it was 3:30pm and we still had to get back to the hostel to pack so we rushed back and grabbed our things and made it back to the train station at 4:45pm. The train was quite quiet
and there were people selling things on board, we ordered dinner for later, sat back and looked out at the odd sights of Thai life. The homes alongside the train we're like shanty houses made out of bits of scrap metal and there were people sat on the tracks, we also noticed there were loads of stray dogs wandering around not bothered by the train or by the scooters that kept whizzing past just a few feet away from the train.
After we had dinner which was quite basic but tasty the seats we were sat on were folded out to make beds and we settled down to sleep whilst watching lightning flash in the distance, when we woke it was about 3:30am so we got our things ready as the train was meant to be arriving at 4am but due to some unnexpected stops we didn't arrive until 5am. We got off at a city called Surat Thani and got on an open back truck to a waiting area until we were taken to the ferry, we sat up front sunning ourselves as the boat headed to Koh Samui which is the largest and most touristy of the
Surat Thani
This is where we waited in the early hours before boarding the ferry islands, most of the people on board got off and we left to go to Koh Phangan which was the island we had decided to go to.
The ferry took us just over 3 hours in total and when we got off we were greeted by a man from the resort we were staying at who took our bags and we got in the back of another open back truck, after a quick drive through the town we arrived at Power Beach Resort. The resort was situated along the main drag next to the beach and there were palms trees where ever you looked, we stayed in a private bamboo hut with a hammock outside and for 900 Baht (£17) a night we couldn't ask for anymore. Later that day we decided we wanted to head into the main town area and explore, as there weren't any public buses and it was too far to walk we decided the best option was to hire a scooter!!!! There was very little traffic and a separate lane for bikes and scooters and the bike was an automatic so it wasn't as dangerous as it sounds and the guy we hired it
from went through everything we needed to know before hand, having the freedom to be able to get around made it a lot easier to see and do things and it was great fun. After looking around the shops for a few hours we went to get some food and ended up at a seafood restaurant, Siouxsie ordered Butter fish with garlic and pepper and i had lobster with oysters to start, it was very extravagant but i had always wanted to try lobster and it was better then i could have imagined and the whole meal with drinks was only 1130 Baht (around £20) which for what it was was extremely cheap, as we ate we could hear the sea as it was just a few feet away and there were geckos crawling along the walls and ceiling which fascinated Sioux but had slightly become the norm for me. Siouxsie rode us home as I'd had a beer and we watched a movie before falling asleep.
The following day we woke up and went to have brunch at the resorts restaurant whilst looking out at what looked like a postcard picture, as we only had the scooter until
two we decided to ride further inland to a temple or a Wat as there called and a waterfall. It was only a short ride and we parked up just past some small huts we assumed were where the monks lived as there were robes hanging out to dry, we wandered round the small but spaced out complex of religious buildings some of which were being renovated. We were the only ones around and other then the sound of a radio coming out of one of the huts there was no sign of anyone, we spotted a sign pointing to a marble Buddha statue at the top of a hill, to get to it we had to climb up what seemed an endless staircase of shallow steps but when we got to the top it seemed worth it. We lit some incense and placed them in container full of sand then sat there for a moment and took in the view, we then rode for short while just down the road to Peang Waterfall. To get to it we walked through Thansadej National Park and reached the bottom of the waterfall, the falls were smaller then we thought in the
Lurking in the bushes
Siouxsie relaxing on the hammock outside our room sense of amount of water as there was only a little but the rock face they fell from was very large. We only had a short time left before we had to return the scooter so we headed back stopping quickly at a small shack that sold home mad ice cream which was delicious. After returning the scooter we attempted to go for a swim in the sea but without much luck as after wading out quite some distance from the shore the water still only came up to our knees and we couldn't go out further because there was a field of sea weed blocking our way, instead we went for a swim in the pool and later that evening we had a few drinks at the pool bar whilst the barman impressed us with a fire poi display (See Video) The next day we woke at 6am and after grabbing our things we were drove to the pier where we had to say good by to what had been our little bit of paradise for those few short days.
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