Apr 24, 2012 - En route to the islands

We left the resort in Khao Lak paying our bill of 11,900 Baht (about £210) which was for a weeks accommodation, breakfast and dinner nearly every night, tons of water, lunch 2 or 3 times and my Chang beer bill so not a bad result. We gave the staff 1000 Baht tip and they were well chuffed so we spread the goodwill about a bit. We had sussed out the bus and all we had to do was get to the top of the road and wait for a bus then flag it down and check that it was going to Surat Thani. We walked up from the resort which was a trial in itself....

Mar 12, 2012 - Bangkok and then the Night Train

I like that you can order anything for breakfast here and it's normal-- today we shared a grilled chicken baguette and pad thai. We had to check out by noon and the night train was at 7:30pm, so we didn't have a chance to shower right before the trip (and it really is hot here, so that would have been nice...) Instead, we took advantage of our hotel room for as long as we could, returning to it after wandering this morning to enjoy the AC ad the cold water. Refreshing! We dropped our large bags off at the travel agency where we booked the...

Feb 1, 2012 - Leaving Koh Samui

Today we went back to Bangkok. Took a while but we got here with minutes to spare. One of the options given to us when we booked our flights from Chiang Mai to Koh Samui was to fly back to Bangkok via the airport in Surat Thani. We were able to get cheap flights ($40 cdn) from Surat Thani to Bangkok versus the $80 flight from Samui to Bangkok. The fly in the ointment on this was that we had to get from Samui to Surat Thani on the mainland. We had all day to do it and it just about took us all day. The other fly was that the cost of getting...

Jan 31, 2012 - Thailand - Days 20 & 21 - Surat Thani

Jason ended up getting really sick last night once we got settled into our hotel room. He thinks it’s ‘land sickness’. I did not feel that great either however I have been lucky enough not to experience the stomach issues Jason has on our trip, rather I seem to catch horrendous chest colds which I just got over one before going on our scuba trip. I spent the 30th going through all our photos and updating the blog (getting it ready for Jason to upload) while Jason slept all day, having a fever on and off. Finally at around 5pm we went out...

Feb 10, 2011 - Surat Thani.

10 February. After that we have had a good breakfast, we checked-out from the Supar Royal Beach Resort. First we had to book a transport from the hotel to the minibus station in Khanom, a trip about 10 km. At the bus station we had to change to another minibus and shortly we was on the way to Surat Thani. Newly arrived to Surat Thani, we changed to a taxi for further transport to the 100 Islands Resort & Spa. Very much thanks to, that Lek speaking Thai, it became rather easy to get there. The 100 Islands Resort & Spa, which I had on my...

Nov 22, 2009 - Trip to Surat thani

It was a lovely evening and the waters were calm for our ferry ride from Thongsala to the Dongsak pier. It is a very organized process, and the bus was waiting there to take us to the bus station in Surat thani. The bus is an hour-long ride. We were met in Surat thani and taken to the tour agents. It was here that we were told our visa run for tomorrow was cancelled. The strong wet weather we had experienced on Koh Phangan hit other areas, and the village and pier in Burma was no longer functioning, so no visa run. Cory and Elaine are...

Feb 23, 2008 - The day with the animals

We were woken this morning by the guy that owns the river house, we had omelette and eggs for breakfast. We then were loaded into a truck and were on our way to see the elephants. We arrived at the elephant sanctuary and our first sight was of a huge elephant with its little baby, which had to be Dumbo! We climbed onto a raised platforms where 2-3 elephants were resting there trunks on, we clambered onto the elephant and sat on the seat being enough for two and then the driver got on. The elephant was quite hairy which neither of us...

Feb 22, 2008 - The road to Malaysia

This morning we checked out of the bungalow in Lamai and then found a travel agent. We discussed our options for getting to Penang. In the end we booked a ferry to Surat Thani, and then from there an overnight train to Butterworth in Malaysia. Once we had a plan, we had several hours to kill. We went to this Irish bar in Chaweng that some guy we ran into on the boat to Samui, a friend of SH's, recommended. Once the guy had mentioned Guinness we were both pretty focused on having one. We took a taxi to the pub, had a couple of beers, and...

Sep 28, 2007 - Bangkok - Surat Thani - Koh Samui

------------------- Ho perso tanto tempo a mettere le foto che non ho piu' tempo per scrivere! Comincero' la prossima volta, anche se non so come faro; visto che le cose da raccontare sarebbero moltissime. Un breve riassunto sugli spostamenti: da Bangkok sono andata a trovare questi miei due amici ex coinquilini a Londra (bart e barbara). Li ho trovati sull' isola di Ko Samui, dove ho scialato e mi sono trattata sin troppo bene, e ho passato la maggior parte del tempo in mare, in motorino a girare per l'isola (bellissimo) e a mangiare. Ora...

Aug 31, 2007 - Surviving Surat Thani (Matt)

I pause in a parking lot beneath a buzzing, crackling tangle of power lines and turn back toward the hotel. I wave. Blank windows stare back, reflecting blue sky and cloud of the early morning sky. Behind one, Laura may be waving back. Or she may have already drifted back to sleep. I hope it is the latter. It is too early to be awake. Just in case, I wave again before turning away, facing the waiting ferry that will take me to Surat Thani. I climb the rickety, rust-eaten gangway and try to walk as lightly as I can before hopping aboard the...

Aug 27, 2007 - Surat Thani

We were taken to a bus station in Hat Yai to catch a minibus to Surat Thani and then go to Koh Phangan. It was this tiny cramped little bus and it was about 5 hours to Surat Thani. It seemed to take forever. We got to Surat Thani where we were supposed to catch our ferry but were told we missed our boat by 2 hours!! We then realized that we were totally ripped off with our tickets that we bought and we had to buy another ticket for the ferry. We were quickly taken by another driver about an hour in the same direction we had just come from...

Apr 13, 2007 - Samui and Bangkok,Thailand

We left early for our flight to the island of Samui. . We arrived to the mountainous island with many coconut palms. The water was Caribbean blue and there were quite a few other islands in the distance. It reminded me of the Caribbean or maybe Hawaii. After we arrived at the Peace hotel we walked past the pool to the beach and there was a stiff breeze. There was a mix-up with our bungalow. Our first one had an open bathroom plus bugs, but the one we moved to was very new and nice. They had a pavilion for spa services.We walked down to the...