Day 10 Digest from Koh Pha ngan and Anthong Marine National Park, Thailand

For the earlier daily travel digests from my South East Asia Backpacking trip, look here.

The day began early for us as we had to be at the travel office by 8 AM where a taxi would pick us up and take to the Thongsala pier and then off to the Mu Ko Angthong Marine National Park. Hence, we left our Lazy House hostel early and walked to the travel office where at 8 AM sharp, a taxi picked us up and some more folks and took us to the speed boat’s office. At the office, we were given tickets and told to have their light breakfast that consisted of tea, coffee, fruits and cookies. We had breakfast and after a brief break, the speed boat company folks accosted us to the pier and into their boat.

Once we were in the boat, we were given a high level plan and off we went into the ocean and towards the marine national park. The first 45 minutes of the trip was uneventful as it was just blue seas that we passed, but post that we started seeing small islands jutting out of the water and soon started seeing a cluster of islands all close to each other and lush green in appearance. Some of them even had their own beaches. Then, the guide started showing us some islands that resembled a monkey, a lion or more. Shortly, after this stretch we reached our first pit stop on the waters. Here we were given our life jacket, masks and snorkels and told to jump into the water. All of us jumped in and found the marine life to be beautiful. A lot of fishes came up to my face and the experience was very good. But, what I did not realize is that there was a current in the water and while I was looking at the fishes I had gone quite far away from the boat and the rest of the group. Now, to tell about me, I don’t swim, but since I had a life jacket, I was comfortable floating or bobbing around. When I did look up, I saw the boat to be quite far and had to wave for help. My friend saw and swam up to me, but he could not pull me towards the boat as the current was quite strong. Soon, one of the crew members dove in, swam up to me and started pulling me, but the progress was slow as I am a big guy and the current was heavy. We swam a little bit more before a rope was thrown into the water. Finally, I reached the boat safely. An interesting experience it was.

The next stop was lunch where we were taken to a beautiful island with a white sandy beach. By this time we were all very hungry as the breakfast was light. Thankfully for me, there was 1 vegetable dish and fruits for me to eat and hence I ended up having a good  lunch. After lunch, there was a 30 minute break for everyone. During this time, the other tourists preferred to get into water and take a swim, while me and my friend stayed in the shade and decided to let our food digest. After this island, we were taken to another island in Angthong marine national park where we were supposed to climb up to the view point and also get to see the salty emerald lake inside the island.

When we reached this island, the weather was nice and sunny, which was good as that meant great photographs. But, it was only when I started climbing the steep stairs that it was bloody humid too. It took me about 5-6 minutes to reach to the viewpoint but by then I was drenched to the bone in sweat. The view was fabulous though. Here, we stayed for about 10 minutes taking photographs of the Angthong island that was one side and the Emerald lake that was on the other side. Then, we walked down the other side to the base of the Emerald lake. The lake was beautiful, but it was too hot and hence the view was murky. No one was allowed to swim in the lake as it was national park rules. Again, we started climbing to the top and then to the bottom. This time we were totally bushed and hence immediately jumped into the ocean to cool off. The dip was refreshing, but we were all called to the boat as we were headed to the other island.

This final island was large and in pristine condition. The plan here was to explore around the island or take a break and then do some kayaking. Since we were in no mood to take a break, we decided to play some beach volleyball. (the net and ball were already provided for). Soon, we were all sandy, but enjoying the game. It was during the game that my friend realized that he had lost his ring. He thought that he lost it while playing volleyball and hence we started looking in the sand for his ring. But searching for a ring in the sand is like looking for a needle in a haystack. We tried hard, but had to give up. By then, we had lost all interest in our kayaking trip and hence decided to give it a skip. We tried looking for the ring again but gave up quickly. We took a dip in the sea to get rid of the sand sticking to our bodies and then did 30 minutes of photography around the island before hopping onto the boat and back to Koh Pha ngan. At the Thongsala pier, a taxi picked us up and dropped us back near our hostel.

It was a good day trip to the Angthong Marine National Park, but it was a bit tiring and I felt like I was still in the boat as the ride was a bit bumpy on the return. Evening was relaxed with a long dinner and a movie back at the hostel.

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Day 9 Digest from Koh Samui, the boat and Koh Pha ngan, Thailand

For the earlier daily travel digests from my South East Asia Backpacking trip, look here.

The day started early for us as we had a boat to catch at 9:30 AM. We were ready by 8 AM, but when we came out on to the streets for breakfast, we found that all the shops on the island were closed. Apparently all of them stay open till late in the night to cater to the folks who come late for dinner from the parties. And since they are open till late in the night, nearly all of them open only at 11 in the morning. Thankfully for us, we found a deli shop who served foot long sandwiches. We decided to have breakfast at this shop in spite of the high prices as we were very hungry.

At 9 AM sharp, a share taxi arrived at our hotel to take us to the pier. The share taxi picked some more people and dropped us all at the pier. At the pier, we got our tickets and stickers and boarded the small Haad Rin boat that could seat about 50-60 people. I got myself a spot on the sunnier deck while my friend got himself a spot in the windier front side. As the boat chugged away slowly, I could admire the beauty of the island, its blue waters and the colorful boats sailing on it. The island looked massive and so green as we passed along its length slowly. I wished I could live in one of those cliff side hotels that looked so exotic from the boat, but then I realized that I did not like this island much.

In an hour or so, we arrived at Koh Pha ngan’s Haad Rin beach and after passing by all the taxi and hotel guys, we reached the main Haad Rin area. As we walked around the area, we checked our three hostels, but found all of them to be expensive. It was very surprising that they were quoting high prices because all of the hostels were running empty. As we could not pay that high, we walked quite a distance in the humid weather before we found the Lazy house hostel who offered us a dormitory bed for 250 THB per head which was half of what others were asking. We took it and found that even this hostel was running empty and upon asking found out that most of Haad Rin as running empty as all the folks had left after the full moon party and that they would expect tourists to arrive 3 days before the half moon party. We settled into the hostel, freshened up and then walked towards the Haad Rin market area to have lunch. The best part of the lunch here was the tender coconut water as it felt like heaven in that sultry weather. After lunch, we explored a bit of the Haad Rin beach before we decided that the heat was a bit too much for us to handle. While we relaxed back at out hostel, we started reading more about Ko Pha ngan, we found out that there was a great trek nearby that provided great views of the Haad Rin beach and the surrounding ocean. As soon as it was 4 pm, we decided to grab a small bite and started our trek towards the view point.

We would show the map to the locals and get directions to the trail and once we found the trail, we started walking uphill. The trek was nice and green, but the humidity was still high. We walked for more than 30 minutes but could not located the view point. We asked a couple of locals, but they had no clue of where the view point was too. We decided to turn back as we thought that we might have missed a turn somewhere. And when we did retrace our steps, we found out a steep way that led up somewhere. It was slippery, but we found a rope that could be used as a support to climb. But, unfortunately for us, it started raining and we sensibly decided not to climb any further as the trail would get worse and dangerous in the rain. As we made our way back to the market area, the rain increased in intensity and we were all drenched. But, I really liked the rain as it provided much needed relief from the heat and the exhaustion from the trek.

By the time we reached the hostel, the rain had stopped. After a much needed shower, I began exploring the market area of Haad Rin, had one of the famous banana pancakes of Thailand and kept exploring while my friend decided to check out the various seafood that were put on display in front of the restaurants. We finally settled into a restaurant, had a hearty dinner, explored the market area some more and then finally booking ourselves on a tour to Angthong Marine National Park the next day.

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Day 8 Digest from Koh Samui, Thailand

For the earlier daily travel digests from my South East Asia Backpacking trip, look here.

The exhaustion of Day 7 ensured that we woke up a bit late on this day. After the usual morning routine, we headed out to have Pad Thai by the roadside and kept walking by the Chaweng market road before we decided that we needed to explore the Choeng Mon area that was to the north of us. After a log of haggling, we finally got a share taxi who agreed to take us those 10 kms for 50 THB per head. The ride was along fairly easy as we crossed some beautiful views over the mountain roads. All of these view points were occupied by private properties and hence one needed to stay/eat at these properties to enjoy nature’s view. This really sucked, but there is only little that I could do about it.

In a short while, we reached the Choeng Mon area, walked to the beach and walked all along its length. The beach was fairly good, but was frequented by older people and/or families with kids. That was the first thing that we noticed because we had just come from a more younger area, the Chaweng beach area. The other thing that we noticed that everything was more commercialized here and one could go on the jet ski, do surfing and so much more. As we were watching all this, we noticed dark clouds coming at us quickly and in line with those clouds, it turned dark very soon. The last couple of days, it had been raining around these islands and it looked like we would get much more rain even today. Soon, the rain came and boy was it heavy. It poured for more than an hour and we had to take shelter in a dive shop. During this time, we made our acquaintance with the dive shop manager, found about the weather forecast and the various dive sites around. The underlying census was that the weather forecast was bad and the cost of diving from Koh Samui was insanely high as all the dive sites were either closer to Koh Pha ngan or Koh Tao.

After a long wait, the rain finally let off and we explored the Choeng Mon area a little bit before taking a taxi back to Chaweng. By this time, both me and my friend felt uneasy in the stomach and both of us guessed that it had to do with the Pad Thai we had in the morning. As soon as we reached Chaweng, we made a dash for our room, took some rest, had a late lunch, but a light one and then kept exploring some more of the market before it started raining again and we went back to our room. During our stay in the room, we watched the james bond movie, Sky fall and then after the decent movie break, we headed again to the Thai restaurant that we had liked during our visit last night. Food was again good there. We loved the curries here. During dinner we decided that since both of us did not like the big city culture of Koh Samui and since all the dive spots were far away from Koh Samui, we agreed to move on to Koh Pha ngan. In line with our decision, we purchased a boat ticket on a cheaper Haad Rin boat (200 THB per head) from our hotel front desk. The boat was supposed to leave the next morning at 9 AM and since we had an early start to the next day, we retired early. The uneasy stomach episode also ensured that we slept as soon as we hit the bed.

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Day 7 Digest from the train, Surat Thani and Koh Samui, Thailand

For the earlier daily travel digests from my South East Asia Backpacking trip, look here.

It was an early start to my day as the movement in the train woke me up. After asking one of the train guards, I got to know that the train was running late by 90 minutes. I tried sleeping again, but could not get to sleep and hence got up, opened the screens on my side windows and watched a very beautiful sunrise followed by great views of lush green countryside passing by.

In a short while, the entire train started to wake up and the catering department came to take the breakfast order. I had to order from them even though they were a bit too pricey. In a short while, one of the AC compartment attendants came, removed the bedding and converted the beds back into seats and the catering department guy came with the food, took a table piece from below my seat and plugged it next to my seat and voila my breakfast table was ready. I was impressed with the design and after the initial excitement wore off, I dug into the food as I was really famished.

By the time my breakfast was done, the catering attendant informed us that we are expected to arrive at Surat Thani in 45 minutes. Thus, we packed our stuff and stayed ready. Once we got down at the station, we reached over to the information desk and told them that we had our Lomprayah bus and boat ticket bookings. They took us to the Lomprayah shop and asked us to wait for 30 minutes. Soon, a bus came and it took us 90 minutes to reach the Don Sak pier. I spent most of the bus journey sleeping and when I did wake up, I had a stiff neck. The boat looked great. It was supposed to be a high speed catamaran. I was impressed. It was clean, large and air conditioned. The boat journey was supposed to be about 60 minutes. Just after we left, the weather got bad and it started raining. We would feel the bumpiness in the water, but not that much. The boat simply sped on top of the rough waves. Thankfully, by the time we reached Koh Samui, the rains had stopped but it was still cloudy.

When we got out of the boat, we were swarmed by taxi guys with price lists to different parts of the island. Each fare was above 300 THB and the driver told us that distances were 20 kms, 30 kms and so on. I was wondering whether I was on an island or a large city. One of the taxi drivers explained us our location and the island’s geography using a map. He said he will take us to Lamai beach for 600 THB. But, I smelled a scam and hence kept moving. Finally, I got a Toyota Innova AC taxi to go to Lamai beach for 300 THB. We did not know where we had to go as we had no bookings. Hence, we asked the driver if he had any budget accommodation recommendations. He ended up taking us to one, but we didn’t like it. And we had also released the vehicle by then. Hence, we started walking on the road and by then we found a share taxi and bargained with the driver to take us to Chaweng beach for 60 THB per head.

In about 10 minutes, we were dropped at Chaweng beach. I was still struggling to come to terms with the sheer size of the island. We were on the Chaweng main market road. We looked all around, but did not find anything that fit our budget. An Indian waiter from an Indian restaurant saw our plight and offered to help and once he found out that we were Indian, he asked us to sit in his restaurant, gave us access to the restaurant’s wi-fi and asked us to go online and check out hotels that fit our budget. We found some names, got directions from the Indian waiter, thanked him profusely and hit the road again. We were sweating profusely as it was a super sultry day. We went from hotel to hotel, but did not like the rooms. Finally, our walk stopped at P Chaweng guest house, located on the main market road. We checked into our room, freshened up, had our lunch in the evening and explored the Chaweng beach before the sun set.

The evening was spent exploring the beach and the various shops and restaurants on the Chaweng market road and we ended up having dinner in a large Thai restaurant that seemed to attract a lot of people. The food was really good even though the prices were slightly on the higher side. During dinner, we watched a lot of taxis with blaring speakers and huge hoarding that were inviting people to different events, be it a wet shirt party, a muay thai boxing match, an ice party or others. This was quite a new experience to us,but apparently this was the norm in the islands here. One can sit in these taxis and get a free drop to these hangout joints. But, since we were tired, we decided to explore some shops nearby and then headed straight to the hotel to hit the bed. After all, it had been a hectic day for us and the sun and the humidity had really sapped our energies. But, as I was sleeping, I knew that I could not survive for long in this island city and created plans of getting out of the city as soon as possible.

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Day 6 Digest from Bangkok and the the train, Thailand

For the earlier daily travel digests from my South East Asia Backpacking trip, look here.

The morning of Day 6 was fairy easy. The agenda for the day was to book our train tickets to Surat Thani as we had to catch a bus and a boat from there to the island of Koh Samui. We looked up online, but unfortunately for us all berth tickets were sold out and only the AC seats were available. It was not our first preference as we did not want to spend 9 hours of the night sitting cramped in a chair. Hence, we decided to try our luck at the railway station as we were told that the railways never released the entire tickets to the online booking system.

So after a hearty breakfast, we took a metered taxi to Hua Lampong station, which took us about 25 minutes even though the traffic was heavy. As soon as we entered the railway station, we headed straight to the tourist information center. I was really surprised at the great service meted out to us. First of all, the folks at the counter spoke good English and then they explained to us the train schedule and options available and personally escorted us to the booking counter for us to book our tickets. We found out that there were AC berth tickets available to Surat Thani and hence decided to book it. The person at the counter asked us our final destination and we told him that we were headed to Koh Samui. He then told us that the railways has partnered with agencies to arrange the complete ticket to Koh Samui from Bangkok, which includes the train ticket to Surat Thani, the bus ticket to the pier and the boat ticket to Koh Samui. We decided to take the joint ticket and paid around 1100 THB. The thing we found interesting was that the price of the lower AC berth seats were higher than the upper AC berths as the lower berths were slightly wider.

Once our tickets were sorted out, we headed back to the hostel, had a nice relaxed Thai lunch, packed up our stuff and left in the early evening hours to the railway station again, but this time for the actual travel. This time we got a lot of time to explore the railway station, during which we found that the railway station was well lit and was impeccably clean. We had an early dinner at one of the stalls in the adjoining food street after found the food to just ok.

Shortly, we entered the platform and boarded our train. The walk to our compartment was suffocating as the air conditioned compartments were powered by separate diesel engines and these were letting fumes on to the platform. The train in itself was really good. It had been a long while since I had gotten on to a meter gauge train. The seats were large and comfortable. There were 2 parallel lines of seats and in the middle was the luggage areas.  Shortly, the catering department folks came over to hand over the menu card, but we didn’t order as we had just finished our dinner and the prices were too high. They also serve beer on the train.

At about 8 pm, a technician came and in trained style, he converted the seats into bed, set up the bedding, pillow and blankets. Since we were very tired, we retired early, but it took us a while to sleep as we had to get used to the hum, drum and vibration of the train and the slightly cramped berths. But, thankfully, I slept fairly peacefully.

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