Koh Samui

Transportation is always one of the biggest headaches of foreign travel, but, once in a while, the Travels gods smile on the weary travelers, and sometimes – we get dumped on.  We were scheduled to fly from Chiang Mai to Koh Samui with a stopover in Bangkok to change planes with a 2.5 hour layover.  We arrived at the airport and upon checking in we were told that the flight to Bangkok was overbooked!  Uh oh!  I feel a dumping coming….

Then, the clouds parted, the ticket agent says “would it be Ok if I switched you to the direct flight to Koh Samui, you can wait in the first class lounge too!”  “Same price?” I reply.  “Yes, same, same! Ok?”  We enjoyed the very nice first class lounge with food, drinks and good WiFi and the non-stop flight was delightful.  We had been smiled upon.  But, the world needs to stay in balance at least in the travel god’s eyes, more on that later.

Koh Samui is is a small, beautiful island in the Gulf of Thailand.  It is much more tropical at this lower latitude than we had seen on this trip.  We were perched on a hillside on the windward side of the island with a good view and nice breeze.  The breeze was especially appreciated as the the lower latitude comes a definite increase in temperature.  We rented a motorbike for our stay on the island, for $8 a day you get two helmets and the motorbike.  No paperwork, no license check, no insurance (that I know of).  Evidently that is only requested when you are pulled over and offered a ticket with immediate bail payment of 500-1000baht (14-28$US) or in the case of an accident.  Fortunately, we avoided both scenarios.   The driving is done on the left hand side and is a little crazy, after all it is Asia.  We logged a couple of hundred kilometers just cruising and exploring with no real destination in mind.  It’s a small island so I figured that I couldn’t get too lost, Terri had much less confidence in me though.  That might be my fault-she often would ask, “are we going the right direction?” My favorite answer: “I think so….”

Terri and I practiced our resort crashing technique while on the island.  Since most of the beaches have a private resort built on them, we would try our best to “blend in” to what ever resort we were at before security kicked us out.  We only had limited success, Terri just doesn’t have the larceny in her to really pull it off.  It would have helped if we had the right color towels too.

Our new friends, Anita and Ikenna-from Qatar, were also on Koh Samui however, they had a 200$+ a night villa.  Our one room place just didn’t compare to their 3 levels of luxury and they were quick to invite us over for a home cooked Thai dinner.  We had previously been to two cooking classes with them, one in Chiang Mai and the other here in Samui.  We brought wine and made the 300 meter climb to their villa, (for 200$+ a night you would think they could loan you a golf cart or something to get you up the hill!).  We had a great time with new friends, good food and cheap wine all in luxurious surroundings.  The important topic that night was “gratitude,” we all felt it.  Especially after walking up that $&&@$X Hill!

With our time on Samui winding down, I booked us a taxi/ferry/bus ride (online) to Koh Lanta, another Thai Island, this one on the west coast of Thailand.   As the crow flies, it is only about 150 kilometers from Island to Island.  But the travels gods gave us a sick crow.  

the dumping begins…

My booking included a taxi ride to the ferry port.  Except the taxi could not come up our hill either.  Terri and I don our backpacks and walk the steep rode to the main road where we wait for our ride.  In Asia, many people will attempt to give you rides: motorbikes, Tuk tuks, random drivers, taxis, song thaews, all looking to make at little extra $ – so each time a potential driver stops, ( not knowing what is suppose to pick us up) I have to explain that we have prepaid and that this driver is not getting paid directly from us.  Eventually, a landcruiser pulls up, (no taxi sign, no company name, nada) and I go into my explanation again: he points to himself and I reiterate that I have prepaid…”yes, yes – no problem” he says in broken English.  We arrive at the ferry port and both Terri and I breathe a big sigh of relief.

The ferry ride is fine and with a short wait we board a full size bus to Krabi.  All seems well until the bus starts moving and the insane driver starts busting out with short screams or pieces of songs….something, I’m still not sure.  Terri likes to sits in the front of the bus for the better viewing forward.  I believe after this driver she may rethink that strategy.  This guy drove the bus like he was in the Daytona 500 while still letting out brief screams/rants at odd intervals.  He would tailgate within inches any unsuspecting driver/motorcyclist that didn’t give him the lane.  I saw Terri cover her eyes a few times.  We did get a short break when the driver abruptly pulls to the side of the rode, leaves the engine running, jumps out and relieves himself next to the bus!

We finally arrive in Krabi, in one piece, and I negotiate yet another “taxi” ride to Koh lanta.  I had heard that this ride can be long as it requires two car-ferry crossings to get to the island.  We have a minibus to ourselves, nice – but  I think the driver was the brother of the bus driver and they were having a competition of “Who best can scare the crap out of the Americans?”  We crest a small hill and there is a line of red tail lights in front of us, the driver laughs.  Really, we are already exhausted.   We slowly – for the first time that day – make our way to the front of the line and realize the problem: the car ferry only carries 24 cars or so.  We make the short crossing to land, travel another 30 minutes, weaving & passing only to arrive at an even smaller ferry to make the last crossing.

After more than 12 hours, 7 different vehicles and 150+ zigzagging, white-knuckle kilometers, we arrive at our destination: Relax Bay Resort.  Please let that name be representative.