Surat Thani Airport to First Bungalow Koh Samui

  Surat Thani, Thailand
Wednesday, November 19, 2008

We arrived in Surat Thani
thinking that we only had a short bus ride and then a quick ferry over to Koh
Samui.  This turned out to be a 1.5
hour bus ride to Donsak pier followed by a 1.5 hour ferry ride to Koh
Samui.  Thankfully the bus was
air-conditioned and the scenery along the way was beautiful. (There was also a
man on the bus who seemed like he was employed by the bus company but turned
out he was selling mini bus rides at the other end, on which Leah purchased us
3 seats. We later were saying that we hoped he hadn't ripped us off and this
bus better turn up - but the fact that the people later on the ferry recognised
the little yellow stickers that the man gave us and did not try to hassle us to
use their taxi service was a little reassuring)

Along the bus ride I was
already falling in love with the country-side and am still continually amazed
at the contrast that makes up Thailand. 
From Surart Thani to Donsak we passed some 'slums' for lack of a better
word, dotted with large furniture warehouses containing seemingly mass-produced
items alongside countryfolk crafting their own wares.  The bus zipped quickly passed many a scooter with all sorts
of sights that would make the Aussie cops cringe ranging from men carrying
various items precariously balanced to women with young children hanging off their
sides.  These scary scooter
sightings against the backdrop of lush tropical rainforest and mountains that
seem to jut out of nowhere as well as a few moments of shut eye here and there
made the bus journey bearable.    We
were finally dropped off at Donsak pier and told "bags on the boat", a little
uneasy about not having our luggage but too tired to care we made our way to
the boat ticket office and then ducked to the toilet for some much needed
bladder relief (after I had flushed the toilet I read the sign stating not to
put toilet paper in the toilet and realised then that may have been why it
struggled to flush - Leah and I exchanged a "Whoops" as we left the building
realising that we had made the same mistake).  


We boarded the ferry in the
knick of time as the heavens opened up and also enjoyed some much needed
bladder relief.      We ventured into
the indoor section of the boat where there were 3 Thai men who certainly had
the right idea by enjoying a Thai massage for the majority of the ride.  Although only 1.5 hours this ferry ride
seemed like one of the longest parts of the journey due to our extreme
fatigue.  We were still questioning
the whole not having our bags situation and ran into the nice German corporate
lawyer (an oxymoron I know) who we had met on the bus and he reconfirmed that
the bus was actually on the boat presumably with our bags inside.  About halfway into the journey to lay
our fears to rest Thom and I went down to the deck below and spoke to the bus
driver to check that we would get our luggage at the other end.

 

Leah and I agreed that the
ferry had the same feeling of the old North Stradbroke Island barges. Much like
I had done on so many a childhood Christmas camping trip I watched the mainland
disappear on the horizon   and the island destination appear  .  An hour and a half we finally arrived
at Koh Samui and disembarked the vessel, we then met our bus, found our bags
and were quickly located (due to the little yellow sticker) by the 'mini bus'
driver who shooed us over to his vehicle - which was more like a beaten up old
tarago with 9 seats and on first inspection no room for bags.  He then jumped up on top of the van and
pointed and grunted for us to pass our bags up to him to put on the roof
racks.  Not seeing any ropes or
other securing devices on board you could imagine our concern.  So up our bags went and in we jumped to
this cramped, poorly ventilated 'mini-bus' and out of the carpark we turned.     We conferred with our newly acquainted
German companions that they would watch out the back while we kept an eye on
the sides to make sure no belongings were lost on the way.  We thought this wouldn't be too hard a
task until the van turned downed the dodgiest, bumpiest mud road!  We quickly reached a dead end at which
point a comment was made from a man in front in a not so joking kind of way "Is
he going to kidnap and kill us?" nevertheless we turned back and we still don't
quite know why he went there in the first place unless it was some kind of
cruel joke... not a very funny one.  

About 40 minutes later and
not a minute too soon we pulled into the driveway of the First Bungalow
Resort.  All bags and people were
still accounted for and we quickly got out of the stinking hot vehicle, I think
a minute longer and it would have been Thom who was killing someone so that he
could get a change of clothes. 

We
presented ourselves to the reception of the hotel so relieved that we had
actually completed this mammoth journey but then... the lady behind the counter
informs us that we have one sea-side bungalow (that had no sea view) and one
pool-side bungalow... some words of advice don't tell three extremely hot, sweaty
and super tired travellers who have just completed a no less than 25 hour
journey that you do not have the rooms that they booked!  By this point I was too tired to even
react and left that with Leah and Thom who did a very good job of it might I
say.  We finally agreed that we
would take the not-so-seaside bungalow and I would stay in the poolside
bungalow and be moved the next day to another 'sea-side' bungalow and then we
would all potentially move to bungalows that actually had a sea view within the
next few days.  We had dinner (club
sandwich with chips and a pizza - not too bad, bit expensive but we were just
happy to be eating anything by this point) on the patio of my bungalow and then
retired to bed.   I had
already established that the bed was super hard and was not going to suit my
needs but when I requested extra blankets for padding (feeling like my mother's
own daughter when making this request) I was advised by the reception that the
linen closet was already locked. 
An uncomfortable night's sleep was had and I awoke not anywhere near as
refreshed as I would have liked after such an enormous journey.