No transport hitches

Day 90 - 23/08/2010 - 21:34 - Lamai, Koh Samui, Thailand

Absolutely no hitches today. Happy days. The train journey was pretty good. We'd heard lots of mixed things about the State railways of Thailand but one thing that kept being mentioned was their inability to be on time. Because of that we had no onward tickets from Surat Thani, the station we were getting off at, to Koh Samui. The train, was delayed but it was only by 40 minutes, much better than the 1-2 hours that I'd heard. We got into Surat Thani at 4:45am and were greeted by lots of people trying to sell boat/bus tickets to the gulf. We ignored them and walked the length to the main station building. There was nothing there, although a man was and he asked if we'd tickets. As my plan had been blown (to find tickets in the main station building) we told him and he said the bus and boat ticket leaving at 6am would cost 280 baht each, about 60p more than we had read it cost so we were fine about paying it.

We left on time and got to the ferry station at Don Sak (it's still called Surat Thani despite being 60km away) by just gone 8. The boat took 2 hours in total and then got a cab between us to Lamai, on the other side of the island for £8. We just wanted to get there, sure we may have got it for £2 less if we'd haggled but we were groggy and tired and needed our western luxuries (showers). We got to Lamai, and our hotel at around 11am. They told us that the room wasn't going to be ready until 1pm which was annoying but offered for us to use the pool facilities which was nice. However, by the time we'd got our pool clothes out as well as the towels it was 11:30 and our room was ready! Strange but we weren't complaining! We got the usual spiel that we'd been upgraded (Which I think just means higher floor) and we were placed on the 4th (top) floor with an absolutely amazing sea view. Awesome. We showered and headed for the beach, which is absolutely stunning too. There wasn't a lot of space between land and sea but the beach wasn't heavily populated at all, we stayed there for a couple of hours before going back to our hotel and spending a couple of hours by and in the pool. Absolutely blissful afternoon!

Forgot to mention in my last blog entry as well - my lady boy count is well and truly underway. They say Thailand is famous for having Transgendered people but I'd not seen any (either because I hadn't seen any or the operations here are VERY good). But however, I saw my first yesterday at a cafe in the train station. And even then, in fairness, it was only until they spoke that I realised! I also saw another 3 (yes 3) on Koh Samui alone today. Good to see that Thailand is still representing!

This evening we've relaxed and had tea at a restaurant where they had fresh seafood on show. We we greeted at the front by an English woman who spotted my "Brummie" t-shirt. Whilst looking at the menu she said "Oh so you're a Brummie are you". I replied "Yeah". She then asked if I was an Aston Villa fan by any chance and I said "Yes" looking embarrassed because of our recent 6-0 thrashing by newly promoted Newcastle. You can't think how it could get any worse, could you? Well her next words topped it all. "Ah, you see I'm a Geordie". Noooooooooooooooooo. What are the odds, seriously?! A complete joke. Never mind, she was nice and I got some tiger prawns (absolutely huge) for much cheaper than the going rate. "You obviously feel sorry for me" I said. Maybe, she did, but nonetheless the food was excellent and they were the biggest and tastiest prawns I've ever eaten. To top it all off I had an apple pie and custard for desert - it was amazing, just like the good stuff you get back home!