Ko Samui. First stop is apparently Surat Thani and from there I can take a ferry.
I inquired at the reception desk of the hotel how to get to Surat Thani and was immediately told I needed to go by taxi. A taxi driver, standing nearby and apparently a friend of the person behind the desk quickly explained that it would be 2 1/2 hours and 3000 baht by private vehicle and proudly pointed to the old sedan parked in front of the hotel. No thanks, I want to bus it. That will be at most, one tenth the cost and provide some interaction with people. Well, the bus leaves at four, maybe five. Great help there guys. Perhaps I should just bus it to Krabi Town and secure a seat.
Half an hour later and 60 baht later… That was easy and the next bus leaves at 1:00 and costs 150 baht.
I read on the bus and arrived at Surat Thani. I was expecting a bus station, but was told to disembark at some intersection. I looked up and a man inquired “Kho Samui? Hurry, hurry.” I had never caught site of the bus driver. The man stepped down out of the bus. I placed my bags down and he grabbed my backpack with a profound grunt, but managed to sling it over one shoulder. He proceeded to walk as quickly as he could manage under the load and a block later the bag swung and knocked down an elderly woman. As I stopped to make sure she was ok, he merely turned around and had a hearty laugh and proceeded. Three blocks later he placed the bag in the back of his beaten down little pickup truck and told me to sit in the cab. He wanted 2,000 baht to drive me to the ferry terminal. I stepped out, retrieved my bag and walked a short distance before confronting another person. “Where you go? Where you go?”, the refrain of the Thai national anthem. I indicated that I was trying to get to Kho Samui. He brought me to a tour company that told me it was too rough to go out today and that I should buy a ticket now, get a room and they could take me in the morning.
I walked on. An old lady stopped me, called out the refrain and took me to another place. A bus ticket and a ferry ride to Ko Samui was 380 baht. This was the last bus and left in less than half an hour, at 5:30, directly in front of the business. I was hungry but was advised that I had no time to get food. Next door was a woman with “two menus” one was pork, she pointed to a pot of meat simmering and the other fried chicken. The pork certainly had to be an improvement on the chicken and I opted for that. It wasn’t bad.
On the bus I sat behind a german girl and across from her Chilean boyfriend. He was working on his Phd in biology and had spent considerable time in Gamboa, Panama. The ride time was consumed by very pleasant conversation. A one hour bus trip terminated at the ferry terminal. I slipped the plastic ticket card I had been provided into the slot in the turnstile and walked through. I took a seat on the second level foredeck of the big, rumbling steel boat and I continued to read. I didn’t even notice that we were a mile from shore. The seas were very calm. An hour and a half later we arrived at Ko Samui. I had been advised by a woman who travels for a living, making damn good money from her blogging that I should head out to Lanai Beach. When I was approached by a woman with a map asking me, “Where you go?” I told her Lanai Beach, but before listening to her ridiculous quote I queried the driver of another truck. Yes, he was going to Lanai Beach, second stop, that would be 200 baht. I don’t know how long that ride was about forty minutes, I guess. In the middle of a narrow, bustling street I was told this was the center of town.
I got out, walked a few blocks and found a very nice hotel with a swimming pool, secured a room with a balcony for 750 baht, plunked down my stuff and headed out for dinner.
This town was nice, every business had a dozen customers, anothing was dead but nothing was mayhem. Restaurants, bars, hotel, convenience store, pharmacy, pool parlor, repeat.
The pool parlors had two or three tables of incredibly hot girls looking like they were just having a nice time. The tour books indicate that these girls will beat you at pool every time and are available for take away.
I just wanted something substantial and decided that it was not mandatory to eat Thai for every meal and dined at a Swedish restaurant, hardly a scarce resource here. I made the mistake of ordering Stroganoff with sausage. The sausage was hot dog.
Ahh well, I will explore tomorrow, it’s ten o’clock at night and I have no sense of
urgency.`
Jonathan Allen LaFleur