Chumphon - Stepping stone to Koh Tao
Trip Start
Feb 04, 2008
1
27
105
Trip End
Jan 19, 2009
Chumphon,
Thailand
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
We were so pleased to see Will and Debs. They were both so brown and seemed like very experienced travellers. They had both been clearly enjoying themselves on their travels and seemed very happy. We don't know what we would have done without them, they negotiated, bartered and helped us out throughout the holiday.
We decided to opt for the train to get down to Chumpon (with a view to getting a night boat over to Koh Tao after arrival).
However, the first train was full so we waited a couple of hours for the next one. Not a problem though because KFC helped us through our wait (yes very traditional thai food!)
After being rather upset by the toilets in the station we settled into our third class carriage. In fairness, we were expecting the third class carriage to be far worse than it was. I mean, what kind of first class train in Britain has men walking round with a constant supply of cheap beer, cigarettes and weird looking food? The train was very open, there were no carriage doors and you could sit in the open doorways watching the world fly by
View from the train
. Best for this was watching the sun go down...Eventually arriving in Chumpon about an hour late we had already decided the night boat was a no go, and we needed to find somewhere to stay. Wandering around the ghost town with the occasional late night bar with 2 occupants we found a hotel listed in Lonely Planet willing to take us in for the night. Having dumped our stuff it was food time, and we wandered round this strange little town to find very early morning nourishment. Suffice to say, the choice of 'American Fried Rice' was as grotesque as you may imagine, and did us no favours, bleugh! Anna & Laura went back to their hotel room to find a tiny gecko in the bathroom (in the toilet roll holder to be precise), how cute!
