So, I feel like at this point I need to preface this blog post with the observation that a few of our adventures have had less than desirable outcomes. However, I don’t want to come across as being too negative. Writing this in hindsight two years later I can say emphatically that our trip has been one of the highlights of our lives and that, over time, you tend to remember more of the good than the bad. However, THAT also being said, Thailand was our least favorite place that we visited. There were some good points, which I will try to reflect on more, but overall not a place that we would be inclined to visit again. We did have quite the adventure though, and learned a lot from it, so onwards we go!
Landing in Bangkok airport was a breeze. After going through customs and immigration and gathering our bags we were able to get a pre-paid, airport-run, bright pink, late-night taxi to the other domestic airport across the city, where we had a very early morning flight on one of the budget airlines to Surat Thani--where we would catch a ferry over to Koh Samui. I should also preface this whole story with the fact that John said he was getting tired of having our whole trip planned out moment by moment, and wanted to travel more spontaneously. So we chose Thailand, during Christmas, in the touristy areas, to try this out. This was a mistake. When we landed in Surat Thani we were able to get a bus to the port in order to get a ferry across. This part was no problem. Once we got on the island, however, it was like a fight to the death to get in the taxi vans that were taking people to various places on the island. We booked a few days at the Ibis Hotel in Koh Samui in order to treat ourselves, but for some reason the hotel didn’t offer a shuttle from the port, even though they had a shuttle on the property? Anyways, by the time we got our bags and made it out into the throng it was slim pickings—which meant the prices went up because there were only a few seats left in each van unless we wanted to wait another hour for them to come back. The best we could get for a mini van was 600 BHT, which was actually quite expensive considering a tuk-tuk going the same distance would have been 200 BHT. I was not a happy camper but got in the van so we could at least get to the hotel and relax.
So, Koh Samui. I think it’s a reflection of our impression of Thailand in general in that it was overrun by tourists, Western-money and influence, and pretty much run-down from what was once a nice, relaxing, exotic place to visit. The hotel was okay—it was clean and modern. They had a nice pool. The beach however, had murky water and a beach littered with garbage that also came in with the tide—not exactly the picture of Thailand you imagine. Everything there was about tours catered to Westerners, charging Western prices, and you basically felt like you were a walking ATM and in turn received a less-than-authentic experience. Yes, I sound bitter, but the island itself was overdeveloped, and not in a way that was sustainable. That is not to say people in Thailand should remain primitive and poor in order to provide an “authentic” experience for tourists, but the overwhelming feeling I got is that it was more of a shame than anything, because even with the influx of money you got the impression that not everyone benefits and some most definitely more than others. So yeah, Koh Samui was a bit of a disappointment. Christmas Day was a bit of a dud. We sat out on the beach in the morning.
However, the rest of the day was spent in our room on our computers as we spent most of the money on the hotel room in the first place and, lo and behold, on Christmas Day my computer starts to go wonky and would prove itself unusable for the rest of our trip. Also, my external hard drive broke. Bad juju overall--but also explains why it's taking SO long for me to finish this blog as I couldn't really work on them in real time and had to wait to get my computer fixed back in the states almost 5 months later. But anyways, turns out spending a holiday alone in a hotel room in Thailand isn't all it's cracked up to be. Pretty much the worst Christmas I've ever had.
However, for all of our disappointments with Thailand, one thing did NOT disappoint—the food. No matter where we went, we were always able to find a small mom-and-pop or hole-in-the wall Thai restaurant, run by locals, serving the BEST (and cheapest) food we could ask for. We found this one place just a short walk down the street from our hotel and would end up going there three times during our short stay—including for Christmas dinner. We were going to have a nice dinner at this fancier area of town that was sort of like a boardwalk, but the prices were far too high so we headed back to our little tried and true restaurant instead (and were all the happier for it).
So yes, the morning we left Koh Samui was a good one, and we were headed to the other side of the peninsula to Phuket Town and a tour out to Koh Phi Phi. That morning we met a really nice Italian/Brazilian couple who were also heading back to the mainland. We caught the ferry back to the port, which was actually quite a nice ride, and from there all hell broke loose once again.
If you want the “Too Long; Didn’t Read” version of this story, I will sum it up here; only use public buses and trains, or just rent your own freaking car if you want to get anywhere in Thailand. If you want the full and exciting story of how it took us 9 hours to get 200Km, then read on!
Once we got to the port it was chaos. We bought our tickets from the concierge at the hotel, but there were about 10 minivans in this parking lot, plus a couple of buses. People kept asking us where we were going, and we kept getting shuffled around. Finally, we got shoved into a small mini van with a few other people who were all going to Phuket Town (as opposed to Phuket the small island because all the research we did about the place turned us off). So we hop into this minivan and show our tickets and finally, after what has to be an hour, the buses start heading in their respective directions. We get a little bit more in town and, maybe a hour later, pull into this make-shift bus stop. Everyone gets out here as more people join, and we are told our next bus would come in 30 min. So, I use the toilet and grab a snack and half an hour later—no bus. Another half hour--still no bus. People are starting to get antsy. Finally, another 30 min later—there is a bus! Sort of—it was actually a small truck with some benches in the back and a luggage rack overhead. Some of us were weary that this was supposed to be our bus all the way to Phuket, but luckily (or unluckily) it was just another taxi that took us to ANOTHER make-shift bus stop at the corner of some busy road next to a restaurant. We arrived and there were already other tourists there. Over the THREE hours that we waited for our bus to take us to Phuket, more and more buses pulled up, dumping off Western tourists, before moving on. It was quite the spectacle and this gaggle of foreigners on a random street corner was definitely noticed by the locals. As people waited longer and longer and kept asking for answers and getting none, or just bold-faced lies, the tension started to mount. Meanwhile, there was this one guy inside the restaurant who just kept yelling, “Food! Drink! Fried Rice! Pad Thai!” over and over and over again. Our theory is that they were just going to keep everyone there until they got hungry and the restaurant made enough money—because whenever a person asked the dude who was kinda in charge when their bus would come he kept saying, “Soon. Soon.” Some of the tourists resorted to shouting and anger, but we knew this would get them nowhere. Finally, after three hours, an older couple who were also going to Phuket Town, and who were waiting just a long as us, talked to the head guy. Whether they were able to finagle him or just slipped him some extra money I don’t know, but 10 min later they had a mini bus for Phuket Town! Thank god. It would take another 3.5 hours or so of driving, and it was already late in the day when we set off, but at least we were on our way. We finally arrived to Phuket Town around 8 pm—well, I should say we arrived NEAR to Phuket Town around 8 p.m. When our bus finally stopped it was not at the public bus stop in the city center, a short walk away from our hostel. No, we were taken to this company’s own bus stop 5 km outside of town—from which they wanted us to take one of their taxis to our final destination. We were so disgusted at this point that we flat out refused and walked across the street to a big shopping center where we found a pay phone and called our hostel to see if they could pick us up. Unfortunately they couldn’t, but they did tell us how much a taxi should cost (200BHT). We went outside to a taxi stand and tried to haggle with some drivers who wanted way too much for the short trip. We ran into a French couple who had also walked away from the extortion of the other place, and we agreed to split a taxi and managed to get the driver to agree to 500BHT per couple. We finally arrived at our backpackers in town around 8:30. We had our own room that was simple, but clean and were able to put our bags down after the hellish day. Good riddance!
We took solace, once again, in the delicious food of a restaurant not too far down the street that was still serving dinner that late at night. The waitress was super friendly, the food well-priced and delicious! Oh Thailand—if only everything else could be as good as your food.
The next day we took a tour out to Koh Phi Phi island, which, while also overrun with tourists, was much more enjoyable than the experience we had had thus far—and we didn’t get ripped off by this company (which is quite a plus for Thailand, I suspect). The tour company picked us up from our hostel and brought us to the port, where there was instant coffee and snacks for all the people on the tour. We were divided into groups, given our snorkel gear, and made our way out to separate boats. The leader of this company was a crazy guy with an extremely outgoing personality, but his jokes were funny and he made the experience enjoyable. The guide on our boat was also a nice woman. First, we rode out to the vicinity of the island. We dropped anchor at this spot not too far off the coast where we were able to snorkel. There was indeed some coral here, though most of it was bleached by all the development and human contact, but John did spot a poisonous sea snake! After snorkeling, we visited “Monkey Island” as there are, you guessed it, monkeys that hang out in the trees by the beach. Naturally, the tourists feed them, but I just took pictures of them playing around on the beach and in the trees. Some other people got off the boats wanting to get close to them, but even with all the human contact I doubted that was a good idea.
After the monkeys it was time to head to Koh Phi Phi island where we were provided a buffet lunch and given free time to lounge on the beach. The lunch was pretty decent, and it was at this resort place right on the beach. Some of the other people grabbed some lounge chairs and we did the same and just relaxed for a while. The ocean here was the clear crystal blue that you imagine and the beach was much, much cleaner with white sand—finally, the Thailand we had been waiting for!
Yet, naturally, after about 30 minutes, some random people come by saying that the lounge chairs were not free and wanted to charge us 500BHT per person. We just apologized and moved our stuff off and sat on the beach instead. We didn’t pay them, because I can almost guarantee that those guys didn’t work there and were actually just scamming people into giving them money for the loungers—because, Thailand. Yet, we still enjoyed the rest of the time on that beach before heading back onto the boat toward another island near Koh Phi Phi with a famous cove called Maya Beach--famous because they filmed the movie “The Beach” there. Filled with people, it was still pretty nice and clean, and the scene was also very pretty with all of the colorful boats and the clear water.
We relaxed for a bit, but then decided to go for a walk around to the other side, where our guide had fresh pineapple and watermelon for all the tour guests! This side of the island was nice as well.
All in all it was a relaxing day and the best one we had in Thailand so far. As promised, we were taken back to shore and dropped back off at our hostel, where we went back to that delicious restaurant again for dinner.
The next day it was time to leave Phuket Town and, having learned our lesson from our excursion there, learned from the front desk where the ACTUAL public bus terminal was in Phuket Town and walked there with our bags the next morning. We were heading to Khao Sok National Park to enjoy a bit more nature (and less people) for New Years! One of those taxi/truck things picked us up and drove about 20 minutes to a huge bus terminal full of those buses with the Thai seal on the side, which meant they were part of the public bus system—what a relief! We bought a ticket at one of the windows for a bus heading in our direction. After we got our ticket, we rushed over to the correct terminal as the bus was already there but about to leave. We showed our tickets to the driver but he said the bus was full so we would have to wait for the next one in an hour. So, we got back off and were waiting at the terminal in some seats when a police officer approached us and asked where we were going. We told him and showed him our tickets and he motioned us to follow him. We went back to the ticket window where the officer began to talk to (scold?) the lady for giving us tickets for a bus that had already left and made her exchange them for the correct bus. Wow! Someone in Thailand who actually helped us! My faith in humanity was temporarily restored. So, she gave us the correct tickets, and an hour later we were on the bus to Khao Sok. It was’t too bad of a bus ride and, sure enough, the bus dropped us off right at the front of the park. From there, it was a 2 km road filled with bungalows and resorts leading to the actual park entrance. However, a group of ladies sat at a table out front waiting for people to get off the bus and offer them rides to their accommodation. We had done a little research about possible places to stay and when we asked the ladies where they worked, one of them was one of the places on our list called Nunh House, so we went with her.
Khao Sok is a quaint little village, with most of the action concentrating near the river that runs through the area.
We had a nice bungalow with its own hot shower for like 600BHT per night, located pretty close to the entrance of the park. The property was very pretty—quiet and tropical.
There were a few other guests there, mostly people like us looking to get away from the crowd. We went to look for some food for dinner and found this place right on the main road that had a good looking menu at good prices. The owner was interesting guy as he was A) A foreigner and B) extremely picky about where people sat. We got sat at a table with this older American guy, who turned out to be super nice. His name was Kevin, he was a lawyer and had been living in China for the last 10 years or something but had traveled extensively. We talked about all the places we had been and lived and about our aspirations for the foreign service, and he was both interested and impressed having thought about the foreign service himself. He had an interesting perspective as he had been to Thailand about 20 years prior, before the tourism boom really took off and his opinion about the country matched very close to ours—he was still on the lookout for the unspoiled places in the country. We had a nice dinner together and said our goodbyes.
The next two days we went tramping through different trails in the park.
One trail we saw some wild monkeys in the trees—that was a fun time. The other trail took us through some forest-y jungle and along a river, where we saw a gigantic spider--not quite as fun.
It was a nice walk but we didn’t start out soon enough to finish the trail as it was quite long, so we got to a nice spot in a gorge with a running river, but when we discovered small leeches in our socks we decided to turn back around!
I would end up with two leeches that stuck that I didn’t notice until the end of the trek, but luckily they were pretty small and I was able to easily knock them off! We also were hoping to see a special flower that is native to Khao Sok called the Rafflesia. It’s a huge flower and apparently it smells really bad—like burning corpses bad—but unfortunately it wasn’t the season for them to be in bloom. However, the information center had a nice exhibit and information about them.
That evening it was New Years Eve so we decided to head out into “town” to see what was going on. We had dinner at a delicious place called Art’s Tree House—another accommodation/restaurant further down the road. We heard good things about the restaurant and it didn’t disappoint! The whole time John had been asking for his meals “Thai spicy” and our waiter was super nice so this meal was about as close as he got. It was a great end-of-year meal and we walked back to our bungalow to get ready for the evening. The path back to the main road was quite dark without much light so at one point John turned on his flashlight so we could see and shined it directly on a snake that was slithering along the path! Good thing we saw it in time! We headed back to the bungalow to rest a bit, then headed out into town. The center of town had a few stalls where you could buy sparklers and Chinese lanterns to make a wish for the New Year. We decided on a red Chinese lantern and set it off into the sky to make our wish for 2013!
After that we walked along the road to find somewhere to grab a beer and found this small restaurant that was very lively with some sort of party and ended up chatting with a nice Dutch couple who were traveling with their kids—a young girl and a small baby boy. They were really, really nice and we chatted once again about some of our travels. They did things the smart way and rented a car in Bangkok and were just driving it all over the country. This significantly reduced the scamming that could occur, and with an adorably cute daughter they were treated kindly wherever they went—kids, I tell you. Travel anywhere with a baby and the best nature of people comes out. We chatted away with them for a while and they paid for John’s beer! Soon, it was getting a bit late for their kids and we bid them good night and happy new year and headed back to our own bungalow. We were getting sleepy at this point even though it was only 10:30, so we decided to take a rally nap and I set my alarm for 11:55 so we could wake up in time to celebrate the New Year. Well, we really are starting to get old because at 11:55 my alarm went off, but I couldn’t rouse John enough to get out of bed. So, at midnight I just stood out on the porch to watch some fireworks go off, took a shower, then went to sleep. What an exciting way to bringing 2013! But no worries, there was more excitement in store!
The next day was New Years day, but we felt it was time to move on. However, trying to travel during that time would be difficult as all the trains were booked, but we knew it would be possible if we could use the public buses. That morning while waiting to check out we heard the owners of our bungalow tell another family that it would be impossible to try to get anywhere on New Years, as the family was hoping to head up to Bangkok—however, we think this was just a ploy to try to get them to stay an extra night. When we checked in we only booked the three nights and asked the woman if we could get a ride back to the end of the road that morning to catch the public bus when it came through. She said yes but kept stalling for quite a while which made us nervous—we had already paid the bill and were just waiting to leave. Finally, we pushed a little asking her if it would be possible to get a ride SOON to the end of the road and she said she knew of a service that would pick us up at the resort and drive us to the bus station in Surat Thani. You would think we would have learned our lesson by now, but we were still trusting and so we obliged because we had a hunch that she didn’t want to drive us back to the end of the road, but in the end we wish we would have just walked the 2km and waited for the public bus. However, she called the bus and they came pretty quickly, collecting various tourists from different resorts and finally we were on the road to Surat Thani where we would catch a bus to Bangkok—and then get the hell out of the country.
However, having been to one public bus station at least in Phuket, when the mini bus finally stopped, we knew this was NOT the public bus station. We asked the driver to take us to the public bus station and he insisted that this was it. No, it was a ramshackle collection of small, private bus companies that catered to tourists. Without a map or a smart phone, we had no way of knowing how to get to the actual station because we seriously would have walked there at that point, so we were stuck. We went to the most legitimate company we could find and asked for two tickets to Bangkok on the next bus. We asked where the bus dropped us off in Bangkok as well, and they said “main bus station” and the price they charged was conducive to the price listed in Lonely Planet, so we went with it. Our bus was a mix of tourists and foreigners so we were slightly hopeful—though when we saw the luggage compartment below I knew to be cautious.
There is a well-known scam on buses that leave from a famous backpacking locale in Bangkok called Khao San Road. They say to never take buses from there because they always try to scam you and their luggage compartments are so large because someone goes through the luggage during the trip to steal whatever valuables they could find. Our bus had quite a cozy luggage compartment, so we made sure to keep our backpacks with all of our valuables with us in the coach, while just our clothes bags went underneath. The drive itself was’t that bad—just long at about 10 hours. We arrived into the vicinity of Bangkok around midnight. Soon, however, the bus started pulling over to the side of the road—literally—we were under a freaking overpass, and the guy announces that we were there! There was a whole mix of confusion from everyone as apparently we were all told different stories about where the bus would actually stop, and no one moved until we noticed that they started moving our luggage on to the sidewalk. So people, tired, confused, and angry, started unloading from the bus.
Before we left Surat Thani, the driver and some other dude gave an offering to the Buddhist shrine at the front of the bus. It looked like those old plastic bottles of Kool-Aid. The guy gave the offering and prayed to the statue—for a safe drive I guess, but I don’t imagine his prayers extended to the people on the bus—considering they unceremoniously threw us onto the side of the highway outside Bangkok at midnight (after having, it would turn out, pilfered through the luggage underneath—though luckily I only had the cheap pair of shoes that I bought at the market in Hong Kong taken). There was even a Buddhist Monk on the bus and they threw him off! Seriously!? How do you expect to be reborn into something other than a cockroach in the next life if you throw a monk off your bus onto the side of the highway in the middle of the night!? My faith in humanity was dampened that night, but as we all meandered along the road, the Buddhist monk sitting down to smoke a cigarette, while taxis (who must have been very familiar with this scam) started to pull up to the curb to take our poor, stranded asses to our actual destination—I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. In that moment, I had a newfound and passionate affection for first-world comforts like consumer protection and transportation laws. However, that moment didn’t call for nostalgia but called for some improvisation, so we approached some taxis and asked to be taken to the “main bus station” but were met with blank stares. Wonderful. Luckily, there was a young Thai man nearby on the phone with someone from his family—presumably asking them to come pick him up from the side of the highway at midnight—but luckily he knew enough English to tell us the name of the main bus station in Bangkok, Mochit, and helped us get a taxi there. At least the driver used a freaking meter so the extra trip was only 250 BHT, but by the time we got to Mochit we were wiped. However, upon being approached by some creeepy dude who tried to talk to us, who ended up getting kicked out by a police officer a few hours later, we decided that sleep was not on the agenda for that night unless we wanted to risk our personal safety. So, we popped a squat on the floor near some dude who ended up snoring so loud that it echoed around the building (just a further indication of our luck) and waited until the morning when the window for buses to Cambodia opened up. We were ready to get the hell out of dodge!
Oh, Thailand. It was an exercise in frustration, tempered by the soothing satiation of delicious cuisine. But unfortunately, the food wasn’t enough to keep us there—time to move on! (And this time--plan ahead!)
If you ever go to Thailand, please take my advice. 1) Avoid the touristy areas and seek out the smaller, out-of-the-way places. 2) For the love of Buddha, get your own transportation.
