Ao Nang to Ko Samui: Travel Day

Today we caught our last glimpse of the Andaman Sea as we headed north to Ko Samui and the Gulf of Thailand. While we were waiting to be picked up, we picked up a conversation with Will and Dan: two born and raised Californians who were visiting Asia (and Vietnam in particular) to remember their more youthful days. I was wearing a Cal Poly t-shirt that started our little chat, and we soon found out that Will lived right down the street from the Pruneyard and picked prunes there as a kid. It’s so random when you meet someone on the other side of the world who grew up less than five miles from you!

Anyway, our “air con bus” arrived 30 minutes late, crammed full of other deceived backpackers. Our bus was actually a glorified pickup truck, and our driver knew no English, and none of us knew enough Thai to ask any questions, so we were unsure if this was our transport vehicle for the three hour drive or not! It turns out we got dropped off after half an hour at the Krabi bus station and waited 45 minutes before boarding. We then bused to Surat Thani and waited another 45 minutes before finishing the bus trip to the ferry port. By this time it was already close to 3:30, and we realized we had been very misinformed about our 2:00 arrival time in Ko Samui!

On the ferry ride, we admired the only slightly less impressive islands of the Gulf of Thailand. What they lacked in towering limestone cliffs they made up for in lush vegetation spilling directly onto long curving stretches of sand. We watched the local fisherman in the big boats with odd contraptions that no one could explain to us and we still haven’t been able to come up with a logical explanation for how the boats brought in their catches. Once we arrived at the pier in Na Thon, we were ushered onto another bus to take us to the opposite side of the island and our final destination, Lamai Beach.

By now it was getting dark, we were all tired, and ready to be done with the day. Our bus driver got lost, passed our desired bungalows, stopped at a guest house and walked into a bar, cracking open a beer. It looked like we had no other option but to stay here, so we booked a room and settled in. No complaints though, we had a clean, cheap room about a 30 second walk from the ocean.

We decided that the weary travelers (us) deserved a meal and a beer. We ate at a fantastic little Thai place with a canvas ceiling, no walls, and an indoor waterfall. About halfway through our Massaman curry, it started downpouring and we were glad to be undercover during the short, sudden rains. After about half an hour it stopped, and we decided to check out the bar scene in Lamai, which was rumored to be quite fun. Although the bars were ablaze with neon lights and blaring loud music, they were pretty much empty and awkward, so we settled for beers on the beach thinking it would pick up in an hour or two. We were wrong, and on our second round of appraising the night life we encountered the same atmosphere and decided to go to bed instead.