Escape from Surat Thani
July 14
Our trip to Phuket is scheduled through the hotel, which includes transportation to the ferry, the ferry ride, transportation from the ferry to the bus, and the bus ride to Phuket. We meet a van at noon to take us to the ferry and it proceeds to pour. We waited for the ferry for couple hours, and on its arrival, began to realize that taking this travel package was probably not in our best interest. Our ferry is not like the giant Seatran ferry we took over, but a small boat with about half as many seats as passengers. After a 3 hour ferry ride, we are met by tuk-tuk, and crammed in with about 4 other people. We assume this takes us to a bus station, but because the ferry was late, we are now late for the bus, so we are taken to some travel agency. At this point we really don't know what is going on, but are assured that we will be picked up at 6:00 pm. We are then crammed into another tuk-tuk, which makes several stops to pick up other people. Eventually we finally arrive at our "bus station," which is a little dirt clearing with a small shelter and a garage. We now discover that our bus is not a coach bus, but a mini bus, with about 10 passenger seats. This would have been fine if there weren't 12 of us scheduled to go to Phuket. We sit around for a long time, trying to communicate with the bus driver and the other people that seem to be in charge of things there, but with no progress. In our group of 12 we meet 2 guys from Austin Texas, 2 Israelis, and 3 Frenchmen. Communication amongst ourselves is simple, but we are unable to arrive at our own solution, since none of us know what is going on here or who to complain to. Our bus driver basically just stands there with a dumb look on his face. We consider trying to call a second taxi or something to take care of the extra passengers, and then split the extra cost between all 12 of us, but at this point, everyone is very unhappy with how this has turned out. Just when we thought we might actually be able to cram 12 full grown males into 10 seats for several hours, things go even worse. Ryan, who was sitting in the front seat, decides to get out to climb in back to cram in with me and Scott and then next smallest guy in a three seat row. As he exits the van, the bus driver starts yelling at him, accusing him of breaking some piece of the door, which was clear to all of us was just plan false. The altercation becomes violent immediately as the bus driver pulls Ryan out of the van and starts pushing him. What this little man was thinking, I don't know, because he was smaller than me, and the only person smaller than me in our group of 12 discouraged tourists was Scott. The scramble is thought to be broken up almost immediately, but the driver starts to stomp off and asks Ryan to follow him. Ryan follows, but this doesn't look good, and I follow too with the other 10 behind. The bus driver takes us into a garage where he begins searching through junk on a table. When he fails to find a knife, he picks up a claw hammer off of the wall and approaches me and Ryan with it raised back behind his head. The man never actually used it (who knows what would have happened to him if he did), and there was no physical contact after this, but at this point, our only ride to Phuket is now at the mercy of a man with a claw hammer, which he carries around with him for the rest of the night. After a couple hours of pleading with the man to take us and attempting to talk to another man that seems to be in charge of things (who was no help before all this) 7 of us agree to spend the night in Surat Thani and take a bus in the morning, but we have to eat the cost of the hotel for the night. The other 5 guys are left to try and get a taxi to take them to Phuket that night, because they have a flight in the morning. We make the best of our night, have some dinner, and go out for a few much needed drinks with our new friends, Chris and Derek from Texas, and also run into another guy who we had seen periodically that day in our tuk tuk and at the "bus station" from Denmark. This is easily the worst day of the entire trip, but at least we made some friends and had a good time that night.
July 15
After a very long bus ride, we arrive in Phuket early afternoon. We get a nice place next to the beach and enjoy a long awaited swim. Phuket is beautiful, but its so overrun with tourists and beach culture, it might as well be Florida. It was a very good day to relax and enjoy the sun and the water (especially after yesterday), but tomorrow we are going to take a boat to Phi Phi, a smaller island off the coast, which should have some more interesting things to offer.
Our trip to Phuket is scheduled through the hotel, which includes transportation to the ferry, the ferry ride, transportation from the ferry to the bus, and the bus ride to Phuket. We meet a van at noon to take us to the ferry and it proceeds to pour. We waited for the ferry for couple hours, and on its arrival, began to realize that taking this travel package was probably not in our best interest. Our ferry is not like the giant Seatran ferry we took over, but a small boat with about half as many seats as passengers. After a 3 hour ferry ride, we are met by tuk-tuk, and crammed in with about 4 other people. We assume this takes us to a bus station, but because the ferry was late, we are now late for the bus, so we are taken to some travel agency. At this point we really don't know what is going on, but are assured that we will be picked up at 6:00 pm. We are then crammed into another tuk-tuk, which makes several stops to pick up other people. Eventually we finally arrive at our "bus station," which is a little dirt clearing with a small shelter and a garage. We now discover that our bus is not a coach bus, but a mini bus, with about 10 passenger seats. This would have been fine if there weren't 12 of us scheduled to go to Phuket. We sit around for a long time, trying to communicate with the bus driver and the other people that seem to be in charge of things there, but with no progress. In our group of 12 we meet 2 guys from Austin Texas, 2 Israelis, and 3 Frenchmen. Communication amongst ourselves is simple, but we are unable to arrive at our own solution, since none of us know what is going on here or who to complain to. Our bus driver basically just stands there with a dumb look on his face. We consider trying to call a second taxi or something to take care of the extra passengers, and then split the extra cost between all 12 of us, but at this point, everyone is very unhappy with how this has turned out. Just when we thought we might actually be able to cram 12 full grown males into 10 seats for several hours, things go even worse. Ryan, who was sitting in the front seat, decides to get out to climb in back to cram in with me and Scott and then next smallest guy in a three seat row. As he exits the van, the bus driver starts yelling at him, accusing him of breaking some piece of the door, which was clear to all of us was just plan false. The altercation becomes violent immediately as the bus driver pulls Ryan out of the van and starts pushing him. What this little man was thinking, I don't know, because he was smaller than me, and the only person smaller than me in our group of 12 discouraged tourists was Scott. The scramble is thought to be broken up almost immediately, but the driver starts to stomp off and asks Ryan to follow him. Ryan follows, but this doesn't look good, and I follow too with the other 10 behind. The bus driver takes us into a garage where he begins searching through junk on a table. When he fails to find a knife, he picks up a claw hammer off of the wall and approaches me and Ryan with it raised back behind his head. The man never actually used it (who knows what would have happened to him if he did), and there was no physical contact after this, but at this point, our only ride to Phuket is now at the mercy of a man with a claw hammer, which he carries around with him for the rest of the night. After a couple hours of pleading with the man to take us and attempting to talk to another man that seems to be in charge of things (who was no help before all this) 7 of us agree to spend the night in Surat Thani and take a bus in the morning, but we have to eat the cost of the hotel for the night. The other 5 guys are left to try and get a taxi to take them to Phuket that night, because they have a flight in the morning. We make the best of our night, have some dinner, and go out for a few much needed drinks with our new friends, Chris and Derek from Texas, and also run into another guy who we had seen periodically that day in our tuk tuk and at the "bus station" from Denmark. This is easily the worst day of the entire trip, but at least we made some friends and had a good time that night.
July 15
After a very long bus ride, we arrive in Phuket early afternoon. We get a nice place next to the beach and enjoy a long awaited swim. Phuket is beautiful, but its so overrun with tourists and beach culture, it might as well be Florida. It was a very good day to relax and enjoy the sun and the water (especially after yesterday), but tomorrow we are going to take a boat to Phi Phi, a smaller island off the coast, which should have some more interesting things to offer.
posted by James Dixon at 10:32 AM
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KEEP SAFE!!
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