Bangkok, Thailand, Asia

Today was such a long and strange day. Planes, trains, and automobiles doesn’t even start to explain it. We were picked up by a nice air conditioned van at 6:30am to go to the pier in Nathon. From there we caught the ferry for an hour and a half to Surat Thani on the mainland. We had bought a joint ticket to get us straight to the airport, so when we got off the ferry we got on a big dirty coach bus that was going to the airport. What we didn’t know was that this bus didn’t actually go to the airport. About an hour after we got on the bus, we turned down a dodgy dirt road and stopped at a little shop off the main road.

We were all told to get off the bus and it turned out that we weren’t all going to the airport anyway. We waited ten minutes before a jeepney turned up and they told 11 of us to get in it, with all of our luggage. A few of us had to throw our bags on the roof and it was tied down by a bit of rope. There wasn’t enough room for the eleventh guy to fit in the back, so he stood on the bumper and held on for dear life. About ten minutes into that ride we hit a good sized pothole and something broke underneath the truck. We pulled over and the driver tied something back on, and we continued on for another few minutes until whatever it was fell down again. We stopped again, and he “fixed” it again and this time finally made it to our destination.

We thought that our destination was the airport, our driver had a different idea though. We were dropped off at a small cafe in the middle of the city, and were told that another bus for the airport would be coming in a few minutes. It seemed like a really random place for them to stop, but after what we’d been through today, it seemed about right. The bus showed up at 11:30am and this time it was a nice coach bus with great A/C. About 25 minutes later we arrived at Surat Thani airport, only four hours early for our flight to Bangkok.

We grabbed some lunch in the only restaurant available, and then sat in a cafe for another hour just to waste time until check-in. The flight was very easy and we actually got in about 15 minutes early, so that was a bonus. It meant that we didn’t have to fight rush hour traffic in Bangkok on the Skytrain and BTS. Lynne was pretty terrified for most of the flight, because she’s a very nervous flier now. Every little bump made her grab the arm rest and close her eyes. This must be a new thing because she never used to be this nervous on a plane.

We got back to Saphai Pae Backpackers and were both instantly grateful for their A/C. We had dinner in the restaurant and then got comfortable in our dorm room. We are sharing with one other person, and he is a 70-ish year old man from Melbourne, Australia. He has just come from Vietnam and Laos, and he would not stop talking, at all. He has an opinion about everything, and a lot of them were pretty ignorant. We were both pretty surprised at how ignorant and racist he sounded for someone that is willing to travel the world. I guess you run into all sorts when you’re travelling. It’s actually nice being back in Bangkok and knowing that we’re going out tomorrow to see a temple. We haven’t done any real sightseeing for a while now. Plus, today was Taxi -> Ferry -> Bus -> Jeepney -> Bus -> Plane -> Sky Train -> BTS. Phew!!