Hello from Ko Samui. Ex-paradise island of Thailand that is now inhabited by smelly backpackers like me. That means lots of loud drinking joints, high scooter accident rates, and busy beaches. It could be the Costa Brava. The upside is that I have beach hut for $5 per night, without rats.

The journey here was long. Hitched a ride with Vic up to SP (North of Penang), and stayed overnight. Met his parents. The meeting was interesting - children are such a product of their parents, whether the relationship is passive or rebellious. Then woke up at 6.30am to catch the train up to Hat Yai. The train was late, and got later still as we progressed. I arrived at Hat Yai at 3pm ish, and then began the fight (with the travel agent hawkers) as to how to get to Surat Thani. I started haggling for fares based with an Aussie guy I met in the travel agency. Eventually, after being systematically lied to, we worked out that there was no way of getting to Ko Samui the same evening, and booked a bus to get us to Surat Thani where we intended to get a night ferry to Ko Samui at 11pm. In the meantime, agents were still chasing us and insisting that if we handed over our money to them we would get to Ko Samui the same evening. Not to be trusted.

After a few Changs (local beer), we caught the ferry, and slept on the ferry on the way over here - on the deck. The mad aussie duo that I met up with actually slept on the roof of the boat, until the freezing cold forced them down again from their precarious bed. Finally arrived at the dock at 5.30am and were greeted by a couple of lunatic taxi drivers who charged us approx 10x the rate for a ride to a random beach hut place. Got a room at a place called Charlie's, and got some sleep.

In the next couple of days, we wandered around the island on rented scooters - I managed to fall off a couple of times, and have grazes to prove.
We trekked for 2 hours up some hill yesterday in search of a waterfall. It was 35 degrees. Disappointment is a weak word to describe out feelings when we found that the waterfall didn't really exist, but there was a bit of water running down some rocks. Boo to the Thai Tourist board. At least there was a good view of the city.


No photos to upload yet, until I get back to KL.
- posted by Daniel @ Wednesday, April 28, 2004