Ko Samui!

My train to Surat Thani wasn't leaving Bangkok until 7:15pm, so I had a day to kill in Bangkok. After I showered and dressed, I packed my bags, then I had breakfast with my Irish friend. My malarial pills caused me to throw up again. Great!! I then caught a Tuk Tuk to Pantip Plaza, which is full of shops that specialize in selling computer hardware and software. Some of the shops even sell pirated software and VCD's! I bought a VCD of "Big Daddy" for about AUD$4. After doing some shopping, I went to Khao San Road, where I met my Irish friend. We looked around the shops for a while, before we did a one hour boat trip down the Chao Phraya River and thru the surrounding canals. We had a drink, before heading back to the hotel. Back at the hotel, my Irish lady friend, made it obvious that she wanted more than a kiss goodbye, but as she was about 20 years older than I was, I made some excuses and caught a taxi to the railway station!

My train ticket to Surat Thani in Southern Thailand.

The train to Surat Thani was about 30 minutes late leaving Bangkok.. The train was modern, clean and comfortable. I had a upper bunk, which was very comfortable. The train trip would have been good except, that I had chronic diahorra. If you have ever done diahorra, whilst squatting over a hole in the floor of a moving train, while trying to keep your pants out of water, you will probably sympathize with me! I think I hit everything except for the hole in the floor!  The train was about 1-2 hours late arriving at Surat Thani. So we had to travel by bus for an hour to another port further along the coast to catch another ferry. It eventually took about 22 hours to reach Ko Samui after leaving Bangkok.

One of the forms of transport on Ko Samui. 30 Baht will get you almost anywhere on the island.

I stayed at the guest house above the convenience store, on the left hand side of the road.

I was pretty stuffed by the time, I got to Chaweng Beach, so I grabbed the first decent place I found. The air-con hotel/bungalow I stayed in for my first night, cost me 1000 Baht or about AUD$40 a night. The following day I moved into a cheaper hotel, which was only 550 Baht/AUD$23 a night. I think Ko Samui has gotten more expensive since my previous visit three years ago.

Chaweng Beach!

The Tourist/Shopping Strip that runs behind Chaweng Beach.

Ko Samui  seems to have been spoiled by mass tourism. Chaweng Beach is just one long strip of hotels, restaurants, travel agents, t-shirt shops, bars, convenience stores etc. It has changed a lot from when I was first there in March'91. Everything seems to be geared towards package tourist's coming from Europe and spending up big for 2-3 weeks.

Na Thon Town. This where most of the ferries arrive and depart for the mainland and the other islands.

I hired a motor-scooter for a day and rode it around the island. Its cost me 180 Baht for a 24 hour period.

Departing Na Thon for the mainland.

After purchasing my boat/bus ticket to Phuket, I discovered from my Lonely Planet guide that the bus line has a very bad reputation! When I was lifting my backpack into a pickup truck, to go the ferry terminal, I pulled a muscle in my back, and I was in agony for the next 2-3 days! The ferry left Ko Samui for the mainland at 8:00am and it arrived at the port on time. We were supposed to transfer to a bus at 10:00am and arrive in Phuket at 3:00pm. After two changes in transport we were dumped at a roadside cafe about 30km's from the port. After sitting there for nearly two hours we were put on a small bus, that you would be pushing to put 20 Thai children on, let alone 20 foreign adults. I sat at the back of bus wedged between three German skinheads!! The air-conditioning didn't work, the bus was un-roadworthy and the bus driver obviously had gotten his drivers licence out of a cornflakes package. When we eventually arrived in Phuket and we got off the bus, I was immediately surrounded by 4-5 touts trying to flog me taxi's, bungalows etc. I then did the "Ugly Australian" thing and started to swear at the touts, telling them to fuck off. After making a complete asshole of myself and offending half the taxi drivers in Phuket, I eventually arrived at my bungalow about 8:00pm, pissed off, tired with an aching back!!