Wandering....

Trip Start Jun 13, 2005
1
4
52
Trip End Jul 27, 2005


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Thailand  ,
Thursday, June 16, 2005

After I posted yesterday we cruised around and talked to a billion travel agencies. We finally found the best option and booked passage on a sleeper train to Surathani. We board the train here in Bangkok tommorow evening at 8pm, we have two upper beds (the smaller ones) with fans, we arrive in Surathani at 6am, where a bus from our ferry company will pick us up, and then our ferry to Ko Samui departs at 10am. Then we will be ON THE BEACH!!!! From Surathani we can also catch the local bus to Phuket, all of this is very safe and cheap, so beth and i are happy. Airfare there was just more money than we were willing to spend, this way weve each spent about 13 bucks, and we dont have to pay for a guesthouse for a night, so it works out quite well. The travel agency will also be able to take care of our visas for Vietnam and China, and the price even including their fee is much less than we would have paid in the U.S. Then we took a quick break in our guest house, and then ventured away from our area which our guide book warned us had not so good food, we foudn the area with much better food, and settled on a resteraunt. It looked quite nice, the food was amazing, and at less than 2$ for any meal around here, the price was right. BUT... unfortunatly beth saw a few roaches cruising around, which i was apparantly oblivious to... all is well though, nothing we havent dealt with every day for four years living in New Orleans. We then ventured back to the room, checked out where we wanted to do the next day, and passed out.

I suppose the going to bed early thing has mixed blessings... I did wake up at hte crack of dawn, and i saw the sunrise over our teak guest house. Our guest house is like a whispered secret hidden from the harsh concrete streets 50 meters away. It was breath-taking. I found myself sitting outside watching the light caress the carefully crafted teak from probably 5-6am just sitting... I havent done that in soooo long. Then beth woke up, and there was showering, and dressing, and planning some more, and looking at maps. We decided to wal, and we walked for... hours, we got lost, we were found, we saw amazing sights, we met amazing people... It was exhausting, but even-more-so rewarding. We saw the Imperial Palace... where you MUST wear long sleeves etc... SO HOT! We found a police officer who spoke no english but was running all over the place trying to point us in the right direction. We evaded scam-artists trying to give us a cheap ride on a tuk-tuk and then bringing us to tourist traps. We found a great tuk tuk driver who took us around for a couple of hours for 50cents!!! He brought us to the giant golden buddha, the Golden mountain (where we scaled up a kajilion steps, but ran into some adorable monks who seemed very pleased when i greeted them in thai and with the respectfull bow and hands to forehead), we kneeled and meditated and prayed at the lucky buddha, hopefully he'll send some luck our way on this journey. After the imperial palace, we got a bit lost again, and then found ourselves... again, and made our way back to the khaosan. We just ate some lunch (im digging the big glass noodles with chicken and soy sauce), and we're now obviously sitting at the inernet cafe across the way from our guesthouse. Tonight well venture to china-town for some dinner, and then try to stay awake past 7 so that we wont be up at the crack of dawn again this morning. Also, MUST get a great book for the beach.
Print this entry Bangkok hotels