I finally made it to Surat Thani at 1030pm. The AirAsia flight was terribly uncomfortable, painful even. I was squished into a narrow seat with zero legroom, and nowhere to go. The seats were actually pretty comfortable, all leather, but the pain in my legs was too distracting to appreciate it. When they turned on the cabin a/c, it came out looking like dense fog, like from a fog machine. It was really creepy. It reminded me very much of Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights, and I half expected that to be an ominous sign of impending doom. Then, suddenly, it was gone.
Next to me were some (presumably) German travelers, who were a bit raucous. The one next to me passed out with his mouth open and was snoring loudly. His friends thought that that was hilarious, and it kind of was. Luckily the flight was short, only one hour, so it went by quickly.
After finding my suitcase (which is now broken), I took a shuttle from the airport to the town, which cost 100 baht (around $3.00 USD, or 3,500 won). There was a man on the bus that was selling his tour company’s bus/ferry combo for the following morning, which most of us bought (fish in a barrel and such). It was a decent deal, I thought, at 350 baht for everything. That’s about ($10 or 12,000 won). Expensive for here, but oh well. The driver took us to a hotel that his friends own (which all the guidebooks warn will happen), and left us there for the night. The room was cheap though (250 b, or roughly $7.50 usd), so that was also okay. The room was sparse but clean, and the bed was amazingly comfortable. (Of course, by that point, anything which would allow me to lie flat would have been dreamy.)
On the shuttle from the airport, I met an Australia man in his fifties named Bob. His daughter will be married in Phuket in a couple of weeks, so until then he’s taking a chance to travel around a bit. He gave me some info about different options, and even a name card from a great guest house in Chiang Mai that rents by the week for cheap. After we got settled in the hotel rooms, Bob and I walked to the nearby night market to find some food. We stumbled upon a drive-in style outdoor theatre, where 25 or so people were watching a movie. It was lovely, everyone just sitting in the dirt or on motorbikes. Among the stalls, we found some great deals on many things, and I bought 3 posters/wallhangings for the new apartment for a total of 197 baht ($6 usd, 7,000 won). We found a food place that appeared to be selling omelettes, so we went for that. They were, in fact, banana omelettes, with sugar on top. It was a combination that never would have occurred to me: egg and banana. As many of you know, I have serious issues with combining fruit with most things, and this was no exception. It was good for what it was, and Bob enjoyed them, but after half I was done.
I slept well for the first time in a week or more, but again I had to get up early to catch the bus to the ferry. Seven o’clock in the morning is not a wake-up time that I’m on good terms with. I made it though, and shortly we were off. We picked up many people along the way out of Surat Thani. The bus was uncomfortable also, but had open windows and the breeze was lovely. I sat with another guy I met on the airport shuttle, and we had a good conversation. There were 4 drunk French boys next to us, one of which was carrying a mostly-empty, open, bottle of cheap whiskey. He passed out frequently, but when he was awake he and another guy in the group would hassle the Swiss boys in front of us about their French language skills. Then the “leader” of the French guys starting hassling the guy I sat by (who is Irish), who apparently looks like a popular French singer, Gilbert (jil-bare) something. All the drunkards started singing Gilbert’s songs, which pissed off a lot of the others on the bus, and at one point, a fight was moments from breaking out between them and a Brazilian man.
The ferry was easy, and I sat in the “basement” talking to the Irish guy about teaching in Korea, and the ins and outs. We saw many islands, but the windows were too high to casually look out, so I’m sure I missed a few while I sat. The songthaews (like motorbike taxis), shuttles, and taxis were all waiting for us when we arrived in port at Nathon. I caught a taxi to Lamai Beach, and met some amazing people on the way. A Canadian couple with a cute baby are renting a house between Lamai and Chaweng Beach; the Brazilians are in Lamai, and an older woman who has been here a dozen times gave a a lot of tips for where to go and such. It was lovely. I easily found 2 of the cheap guest houses I read about online which were super cheap, and The Cottage @ Samui had a room available for 300 baht (10,500 won, or $9 USD). It was kind of a dump. It was a freestanding small bungalow, with a private bath. Actually, it was private from other humans, but I was definitely not alone. There must have been 1000 ants climbing down the walls, as the wall and ceiling did not meet in the bathroom. It was fine for one night, but I was half afraid to sleep for fear of being attacked by bugs.
I met Jasmin right away (my friend from Korea), and we got some delicious pad thai and an amazing fruit shake. She’s here for 6 weeks doing a Muay Thai camp, so I got to meet some of the guys she’s training with. I walked the south expanse of beach looking for hotels for the rest of the week, without luck. I did however find a lovely masseuse along the beach, and had an incredible shoulder and back massage for 300 baht. Hearing the ocean while being rubbed down is definitely one of the finer things in life. The south end of Lamai Beach is rather rocky and shelly, so my feet were hurting before long, but oh well.
I was able to take a brief nap before going to the night market with Jas for dinner. All the food was super cheap, and mostly delicious. A small boy tried every trick in the book to get me to buy a shell and flower necklace, which I would have liked to buy if he were less pushy. But I didn’t on principle. He wanted 20 baht (700 won, or 60 cents), so it wasn’t about the money. I don’t want him to grow up thinking that he can make people do things by being pushy and rude. That sounds so stupid, but he reminds me of my kids at my schools, and I felt responsible for teaching him that lesson. Whether he’ll learn it or not, I don’t know.
Among his tricks was rock-paper-scissors, which is too funny because when my kids try to bargain out of studying that’s what they propose also. However, for those of you who haven‘t played in 20+ years, you must realize that there’s no set strategy for winning except to play your opponent. If you can read them, you can anticipate their move. Which I did. He was bummed when he lost every time. And I didn’t buy a necklace.
I was able to get online at the hotel, and talked with my mom for a bit. I had problems connecting to Yahoo mail though, so I’ll have to do that today. I finally slept for a bit after worrying about bugs landing on me while I slept. This morning I got up and checked out.
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