The 12th was a crap day. We had to leave Koh Tao at sparrows, and head across to Phuket (from an island on the east of the Thai peninsula to an island to the west). I won’t bore you with the details, but honestly the only practical way of getting there was the trip we did, which was marketed at being about 8 hours, but which took us 15 in the end! I was Logistics Officer for the trip, so of course it was all my fault. And I couldn’t plug Cath into a cocktail to keep her happy either!
Consequently there are very few pics. We were sleepy to begin with, and frustrated and sulking to end with, so it’s probably for the best anyway. The ferry is multi-level and has a suntan roof where half the youngsters headed – but 6 hours of sun on a ferry can’t be a good idea. Then below there is an upper, “VIP” room which you can pay a little more for which has more comfortable seats, or lower “cattle class” room which is where most people sat. Both are air-conditioned so the lower one was fine. And the difference in seat comfort was advertised, but they looked almost exactly the same. They were very much like long distance bus seats, only covered in faux leather plastic, not material. Our ferry had a TV up front and a DVD was put on for the trip.
Anyway, we ferried from Koh Tao to Koh Pha-ngan, then swapped ferries for the trip to Koh Samui and on to the mainland where we caught a sparkly bus from the dock to the train station at Surat Thani. That’s where the train comes through, and is essentially the junction between the islands on the east and the islands on the west. So we expected all of this.
From then on things got more and more ridiculous! With no explanations from anyone other than barked orders and stickers on our clothes showing where we were ultimately headed (like luggage at an airport) we were herded onto a bus. Thinking we were on our way to Phuket we all settled down for the supposed 4 hour drive. Ten minutes later, having not even left the town, the bush pulled into a dodgy bus depot and we were herded back off the bus and into mini-vans. Whereupon we again set off. So help me not even 30 minutes after that the mini-vans pulled into another strange stop, we were all told to get off and wait for our bus. And we waited. Some Indian guy seemed to be in charge and we all had to get up and write our names into a book he had. Then he said the bus was coming and we must sit down and wait. We must have waited nearly 2 hours. In the meantime he said that the bus would drop us at the bus station, but if we paid him more, the bus would take us to our hotels.
Now I realised he was being cheeky and I’d read that the taxi ride from the station to our hotel would be less so I refused to pay. Everyone else did, though, even though they complained about having to do so. The guy got really aggressive and when the bus arrived and everyone else got on he insisted we had to pay to get on or wait for another bus. I knew there wasn’t another bus so I glared him down until he finally allowed us on, telling me I was a “cheap bastard”.
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| The Magical Mystery Tour bus we thought we were taking to Phuket. Probably would have made it quicker! | Local fare at our dinner stop at about 8pm |
Finally we were on our way again, and to cut it short it took about 6 hours instead of 4, and the driver honestly brought his girlfriend along for the trip, and must have stopped at least 5 times. Once at a house where he jumped out to chat to his mate for 10mins while we all sat in the van watching him, twice to buy smokes and drinks for him and his girlfriend, another time for an official “dinner stop” at a small market on the side of the road and then again at the agency in Phuket to pick up another lady to show him where all the different hotels were. She wanted to know where my ticket was for the direct to hotel service and I said it had fallen off. We finally got to our hotel (Karon Living Room on Karon Beach) at midnight.
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| Me being all, like, ironic choosing a Hello Kitty bike to ride | Two or three year old elephant just coming back from getting a drink |
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| Saddled up and ready to go | Very chilled aboard “Beyoncé” |
Now Phuket isn’t a SCUBA or snorkelling town. I would liken it to Ibiza off Spain where the British go to get drunk in clubs all night and then sleep on the beach all day. And the different bays we drove through to our hotel (including Patong) definitely made us think of that. So we lost no time at all in finding a scooter and heading off around the island. Phuket town is hectic with traffic, so we headed south rather to the quieter bays and resorts. And there are millions! First stop, however, was at an elephant “sanctuary”. You get to feed and ride elephants and then donate more money to the “upkeep” of the place. I did some reading about the elephants afterwards and am glad for that because I didn’t read very good things about how they are kept and treated.
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| Cath ready for action with her umbrella/parasol | The couple who came with us. Note the hook they use to steer them with by pulling on their ears |
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| Got to ride me an elephant! Not too uncomfortable but kept falling forwards | The guy in front getting water snoffed all over his legs. I’m next |
From the elephants we rode the scooter (Cath could join me this time and didn’t have to hike up 
) up to the highest point of the island to a giant Buddha. This was ubber-holy so once again Cath had to cover up. The views were spectacular and even though they’re doing maintenance on the statue it was still spectacular. And all marble.
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| Buddha watching buddha watching… (sorry, couldn’t resist) Not sure who the statue photo-bombing to the right of Cath is | Quite a serious size, this boy – 45m tall |
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| If I had my head covered like that I’d keep my hands up in front of me too | Impressive view from the top |
From the Buddha we headed onto the eastern side of the island and quite by chance found the most awesome lunch spot. It was full of locals when we arrived, so was definitely the right place to stop.
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| Very laid back | Happy to be in the shade for a bit |
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| Lunchtime view | Bloody hairdresser must have cut my hair too short at the back… |
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