Island Hopping: Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea

Hi all, 2nd from last night in Thailand and I realised I haven't updated you since Bangkok - very poor - no excuse, so here goes...

3/11/06
After 8 hours on an incredibly cramped minibus (and short-ish ferry trip) we arrived at White Sand Beach, Ko Chang. Hadn’t booked anywhere and found the only place we could afford was a very smelly red brick ‘bungalow/cupboard’ with a DIY flushing toilet and cold dripping shower (which has now become commonplace for us as ALL the accommodation we have stayed in since Ko Chang has offered the same luxurious bathroom – cringe!!!!!!!!!) We thought our first impression was bad enough, but later on when I was just about to brush my teeth I noticed the water was running brown...we turned on the shower and sure enough brown crap started flooding the wetroom (drainage was also very poor). Wayne ran to get one of the owners who then proceeded to spray the walls, ceiling and floor with this filthy suspicious substance. It was just revolting. After about 30mins he ‘realised’ (or just told me this to keep me sweet) that one of the pipes outside had been sliced open so mud (although I still believe it was sewage!) was getting into the water flow. He ‘fixed’ this problem and let the tap run to clear the system out…….over an hour later the water ran clear-ish, but our bathroom was still a filthy mess.

Although our accommodation wasn’t up to much, it was on the beach and the adjoining bar was excellent. We stayed out until about 3am singing and playing the drums while one of the owners sang along to his guitar (re-reading that it does sound a bit odd! – we had had a few drinks.)

4/11/06
Hired a moped to flee the tourist haven we were residing in –headed south and found a deserted beach! When we arrived we were the only 2 there – it was paradise…the sea was crystal clear and warm, and the sand was fine, white and rubbish-free. Later in the day a few more people found the beach (much to our disappointment) but it was still really, really quiet =fab!

Ko Changs’ interior comprises mainly of lush national parkland and it is therefore remarkably unspoilt. By this time we had had enough of waterfalls so didn’t bother visiting any, but the jungle was beautiful. Looking back I would say that Ko Chang (East Coast, near Cambodia border and in the nearest island cluster to Bangkok) is one of the better islands we’ve been to – although White Sand Beach (West coast) is too touristy, the rest of the island is beautiful.

5/10/06
Hired a moped again (a cool bright pink vehicle!) and this time headed East: which is relatively deserted (very little development/tourist industry). It took us hours – we didn’t realize how big the island was, nor how bad the road surface became….we had read that the road around the island wasn’t yet complete, but had assumed that the road continued down to Long Beach (SE.) Not the case. We encountered massive dirt track slopes where our poor little rev-and-go struggled – it couldn’t get enough power to reach the top, so we had to walk up half of them. Once the tarmac road stopped (see pic) we should have really turned back, but since we’d come so far we persevered. I even had ago on the bike, but was quickly demoted to the back seat again when I came into a ‘spot of bother’ with a sharp corner (lets just say we went ‘off’ road before the tarmac road had ceased – whoops!) The treacherous journey was NOT worth the hassle –we should have just gone back to the beach in the south. ‘Long’ Beach may have been long but it certainly wasn’t wide – there was nowhere to even sit – the sea came right up to the tree line. The only restaurant/accommodation there, was a stereotypical hippie hangout (think grown men in sarongs, with flowers in their hair….) After one drink and one very awkward conversation we waded through the sea until we found a spot where we could dump our bags and swim – it was soooooo shallow we had to crawl! No exaggeration, you could keep walking 200m out to sea without it getting past your knees! The water was lovely and clear, but there was no way you could swim. Very disappointing. We stayed about an hour and then made our way back down the dirt track. Our petrol gauge (yet again) didn’t work, and we run out of ‘gasoline’ on one of the steep hills…typical! Whilst we were contemplating what to do next, a lovely local couple pulled over and helped us out. The guy disconnected his petrol pipe and filled up my empty bottle of water with fuel – ahhh. We tipped it into our tank and then drove to the nearest gas station (term used VERY loosely as such things rarely exist). In reality you just have to pull up at one of the road side stalls (sell odds and ends, fruits and drinks) and buy an empty squash bottle full of pink fuel –I was very skeptical at first but all our mopeds/scooters have seemed to work ok).

6/11/06
Left Ko Chang and headed for Pattaya (yep its meant to be a hole I know –but we had booked a very cheap flight from Pattaya to Ko Samui so we were just heading there for one night so that we could catch the flight the following morning). After a ‘slight’ disagreement the previous night (yep again, our first big argument – not bad for 2 months 24/7 or is it?) we were both a bit pissed off: in our own little worlds, oblivious to others and hence vulnerable –perfect for a pair of vultures/con-artists. I don’t know how it happened but I was only aware that we were being led to some unknown accommodation once we’d been dropped off by the minibus into the middle of no-where. We were told by these two ‘passengers’ (who we now realise were commission-earning tour operators) that we had to wait for a free ‘taxi’ from this deserted bar, but nothing ever showed up, so we then had to pay to get into Pattaya –should have stayed on the bus!! However, it all worked out rather well as the room was brilliant (and cheap 5GBP for the night!). It was huge, had hot water, a sofa, a tv, a balcony and best of all it was spotless!!! Things were looking up…

7/10/06
…or were they? As I said before, the only reason we came to Pattaya was to fly out of the airport (to Ko Samui, where we would catch a boat to Ko Tao). The flight, although a bit more expensive than bus, was chosen as it would save us valuable time. This didn’t quite work out…we asked an employee at the hotel how long it takes to get the airport and they said 1.5 hours/800B! I knew that Pattaya airport was ‘out of town’ but this was a lot further than expected. We were really pissed off – having paid over the odds to get into Pattaya we realised that we should have stayed out of town anyway! By that (eve 6/11/06) time we couldn’t do anything about it, so we booked a taxi for 7.30am (aiming to get to the airport around 9am).

The taxi turned up on time (phew) and I’d found a copy of The Guardian the previous evening so I was happy: engrossed in British news. 15 mins later Wayne was concerned that we were heading to Bangkok –very odd as the airport is in the opposite direction? After much deliberation we decided that maybe the motorway network meant that we had to go north slightly, before heading south-eat?!? (it was early!!) The further north we crept, the more concerned we became so we stared checking with the driver (a 17 year old who evidently couldn’t read) that this was the right way to Pattaya airport. He kept saying “yes, yes” so we felt a bit rude and just shut up. Anyway, an hour later I noticed a sign to Suvarnabhum (Bangkok’s newly opened) Airport and literally shouted at this imbecile to “STOP and PULL OVER NOW”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We then calmly (?!?) tried to explain, using visual aids – i.e. guide book map, airport booking voucher, and very, very slow, well pronounced English that we were at the WRONG airport. The poor guy just didn’t understand –he didn’t speak much English. 20 minutes later we were still sitting on the hard shoulder, and our driver was yet to experience any sense of urgency. I knew we were going to miss our flight so I rang the airline who, eventually, told me that we could turn up late and get booked onto the next flight (5pm). This would really mess up our plans (we wouldn’t be able to get to Ko Tao that day) but was better than paying for another flight from Bangkok – slight ray of hope –all we had to do was get the driver to “turn around!!” After numerous phone conversations with various taxi associates we managed to get the driver to understand that he must drive us back to Pattaya. With this ‘new’ revelation our driver was concerned as to who would pay for his fuel. Once again I had to speak to a colleague, who tried to persuade us to pay a bigger fare to cover the cost of the ‘gasoline’. My response: “NO WAY!! This guy has taken us to the wrong airport and made us miss our flight! I don’t see why we should pay at all – would you?” She got a bit mad, made me pass the phone back to the driver, who also got a bit mad, and then we carried on our journey in complete silence. We had obviously pissed him off as it appeared that his new mission was to kill us before we got to the airport – his driving was crazy. He didn’t know where he was going and would have driven us past Pattaya airport if it wasn’t for Wayne shouting out the directions from the road signs (illiteracy was confirmed). I think we actually did a handbrake turn into the airport: tyres screeched and we were flung out of our seats, but to his credit (?!?) he did get us there very quickly: it had taken over 1.5 hours to get out of Pattaya, but took only 30 mins to return! We pulled up outside departures at 10.50 (our flight was at 10.50!) so while Wayne negotiated a reasonable price for this farce of a ride, I sprinted into the airport, through security, in hope of stopping the plane. No such luck, it had already departed: 10 mins ahead of schedule. AAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! We’d been in the car for over 3 hours and in reality it should have taken us 20mins (MAX!)
AGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

We booked ourselves onto the next flight (without any penalty charges!) and then faced a 6 hour wait in an airport with one canteen and no shops – fun, fun, fun. We hadn’t eaten all day so we spent a few hours in the restaurant and then wondered outside. Time went surprisingly quickly: we watched a film in the canteen, read a newspaper and part of a book, but it was such a wasted day! And, what gets me most is that if you had booked at taxi to the airport in Luton or the surrounding towns, you wouldn’t get taken to Heathrow!!! I just couldn’t believe that we’d booked to go to the airport in Pattaya, but had been taken to an airport miles away! It does explain the estimated 1.5 hour journey though – the hotel employee must have thought we meant Bangkok???

Ko Samui Airport made up for it though – it was a gorgeous open air, beach hut style affair, with super-efficient staff who helped us find accommodation for that night and transport to Ko Tao for the following morning. Didn’t see much more of the island, as it was pitch black by the time we got to our room.

I'll sign off now as I've written far too much as usual. I'll try and carry on tomorrow...still got over a weeks worth of info to write up...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (mostly beach stuff.) Hope you're all ok. E (and silent typer W) xxxx