Our Brady Bunch looking Thai Air Airplane
Thai Air even gives you food for an hour flight!We arrived in Surat Thani around 6:30pm + soon realized we were in an airport with one baggage claim belt. Think Gainesville airport in Thailand. We knew beforehand that the last ferry to Koh Phangan was at 5pm, but had read about a night ferry that was from 11pm - 6 am. It is much slower than the 2+1/2 hour day ferries. So that was technically our plan. But upon arrival, we heard we would be sleeping on mats in a big room on the boat + had a very good feeling we would be miserable.
So, we had previously picked a hotel in Surat Thani to stay in, in case of failure to get to Koh Phangnan. And we decided to get there immediately. Our guidebook said "do not take a bus because they steal your stuff when you put it beneath the bus". So we see the bus + avoid it. And it leaves. And we realize, shit, there are like 5 people left from our flight that was a 747. Our flight was so full of thai people though, who must of known where they were going. There were a couple taxi drivers who wanted to totally rip us off + one was bargaining with us + said, oh there are some boys who will split it with you. Being completely paranoid, we started envisioning them as drug lords + the taxi being pulled over + there being drugs in the car + us reenacting Brokedown Palace. So we decided it was worth a couple hundred more baht to have the taxi to ourselves. We got in + ended up at our "4 star hotel". Marissa + I walked in + thought it was pretty funny that this was a 4 star hotel. But it was still nicer than some of the hostels we have been staying at.
We layed our dirty, wet trekking clothes out to dry as they hadn't dried overnight in chiang mai. Then we went out to maybe get a drink + some snacks for the next day. As our guidebook said, Surat Thani is a stopover point to the islands + nothing else! True statement. We took a 10 minute walk, trying to find a market + ended up at the largest grocery store we have seen in Thailand. We got some snacks, shampoo, + razors + then headed back home. It was about 9pm by then +we had promised we would be in bed by 10.
We just wanted to check out our hotel's "spa" real quick + when we saw a massage, we were a little excited. It was a 2 hour massage, so we tried to just get one for an hour, but they said it would be the same price. It took all of 5 seconds for us to sacrifice an hour of sleep + suck it up for the whole 2 hours. The massages were a little painful (my calves were sooo sore after) + our masseuses kept talking in thai + making fun of us. But not too many complaints... We both had at least an hour of sleep while massaging + I was pretty happy.
We went upstairs + got into bed + fell asleep within seconds of putting our heads on the pillows.
We woke up at 615am, packed + got breakfast. It was a huge buffet + the hotel seemed to be full of thai people. We were the only young farangs. Everyone else was like a 40 year thai person. And the huge restaurant was packed. We barely found a seat. We stuffed our faces with eggs + fruit + bok choy on steamed rice. We know how rare kinda healthy food is. We are a little sick of eating our eggs on white bread ... Not gonna lie. We took a car to the ferry + are waiting for the ferry to come ( 2 hour ride).
While waiting, we already had some guy come up to us + try to sell us a room for the night. The full moon party is in 3 nights so the island gets really booked. The room looked really nice from the pictures, but I did a quick google search for some reviews and came up with one that said "worst place we stayed in southeast asia, we paid 800 baht + were sold the room waiting for the ferry"...basically our exact scenario. We quickly said no + I said a prayer thanking my blackberry. Really, thank you blackberry for making this backpacking experience so much better.
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