One Night in Bangkok
I’m in Bangkok!
What? You might be saying. Or if you don’t know the geography of Thailand and where Bangkok is, and where I was, you probably don’t think it is weird.
Anyway. I STILL haven’t posted about Ko Samui or Ko Tao. I will.
We left Ko Samui and took the boat to Surat Thani, a little cruddy town with a train station (finally! The trains don’t go to Phuket area). It was there that Jim and I faced and very complicated and confusing transportation conundrum.
Jim was going to go on a multiple-day diving trip to the Similan Islands, and the home base would be the town of Khao Lak. However, I knew I would be bored silly with 2-4 days by myself in a town that is ..well… it doesn’t have much, other than a beach. (Months later note: Yes, Khao Lak was the worst hit area of Thailand by the tsunami.)
And, to top it off, I was sick of Thailand. More on that later, probably in “travel tips,” ha ha.
So we went back and forth… maybe I would take an overnight train up north and stop in Phetchiburi for a few days, since it sounded interesting. But all the night trains were booked that night and would have dropped me in P-town at 2 AM anyways, and I sure as hell didn’t want to hang out in Surat Thani a whole ‘nother day. And I didn’t really want to make the trip to Sydney alone, since that would be a boring 7 hour flight by myself.
Finally I decided to just go to Khoa Lak and see what happened. We took the bus there and it was sweltering outside. The absolute WORST part of backpacking is searching for a place to stay right after a long bus, train, boat, or plane, in the baking sun, with a 1,000 pound backpack. IT SUCKS.
We walked around a while, and finally decided to put all the bags down with me and Jim would search alone. No reason for both of us to be sweaty pack mules.
As I sat there, with the bags, being so incredibly hot and sweaty and needing a shower, bugs buzzing around (it probably stunk too, it usually does) I thought of my hatred for Thailand. The hatred comes and goes. I’m sure the longer it gets from my trip here, I’ll only remember the good stuff. More on that later too. (By the way, I don’t REALLY hate Thailand.)
As I sat there, I decided I wanted out of this country and I shoulda trained to Bangkok and left!
I sat there a long while, waiting for Jim to return, thinking he must be even hotter than me.
Then a guy on a motorbike flies by with a grinning little monkey in the sidecar named Jim. Ha ha, it was the cutest thing. So the motorbike guy was from the hotel Jim found and picked me up with the bags.
We rented a motorbike and Jim signed up for a 3 day live aboard diving thing, and I think he is getting his advanced certification too.
Then I had to figure out how to get out of this country!
Tags: Thailand
Kelly
Is the name of the town really Phukit?
yes, it si Phuket, pronounced poo-ket.