Days 96 & 97 – Thailand

January 9 & 10, 2010 - Hat Ton Sai to Bangkok, Thailand

Although we’re sad to leave Hat Ton Sai, we are excited to continue our adventure, so we catch a long-tail from Hat Ton Sai to Ao Nang and then take a sawngthaew to Krabi Town.

Unfortunately, the buses from Krabi Town to Bangkok are sold out, so instead we take one to Surat Thani, where we are assured more options to get to Bangkok will be available.

We arrive in Surat Thani and realize that although there are more options, they are also rather inconvenient. We’re dropped off at the central market in the middle of town, but the government bus stations and the train station are all on the outskirts of town. We don’t know exactly where they’re located or whether there are still tickets available and by this time we really just want to get back to Bangkok, so instead we opt to take the overnight tourist bus or “VIP” bus as it’s known around here.

However, as we start discussing the details of the bus ride with the travel agent, Eric’s warning alarm starts going off… the details of the bus ride – when it leaves, when it arrives, etc. – aren’t adding up and he’s a little reluctant to pay for the bus. We decide to go check out another travel agent and all of a sudden, the guy we’re speaking with is willing to drop the price a lot. So I, being the eternal optimist, think “what’s the worst that could happen?” and we agree to the ticket with a 20% discount.

Well, it turns out the bus ride was a textbook Thailand “scam”, though I hesitate to use that word as in the end we did get what we paid for – we just had to jump through a couple hoops to do so.

It starts off okay - the bus is scheduled to leave at 5:30pm and at 5:30pm a sawngthaew arrives to take us to the bus station. The travel agent makes sure we understand that the price is included in our ticket, so we don’t have to pay on our arrival.

But that’s where the niceties end.

The sawngthaew drops us off at the “bus station”, which is not so much a bus station as it is a restaurant, conveniently owned by the bus coordinator, at the side of the road on the outskirts of town. There are other tourists there waiting for the bus as well and we find out we’re the only ones that didn’t have to pay for our sawngthaew.

The bus doesn’t end up coming until 7:30pm, which means a number of the tourists end up having dinner and drinks at the restaurant to pass the time… how fortunate for the bus coordinator. We had dinner down at the central market, so we weren’t hungry. And funnily enough, when the bus does arrive, those that purchased dinner are the first allowed to board.

The bus is nice enough, but the toilet does not have a door, only a curtain, so you can just imagine the smell after about 2 hours.

Finally, we are scheduled to arrive in Bangkok between 6:30am-7:00am, which is when most guesthouses open for the day. But instead we arrive at 4:45am, when most of the guesthouses are closed, except for the one we’re dropped off in front of. And would you believe it? The guesthouse is owned by the bus company.

The Lonely Planet and all of the other guidebooks warn you about this, but as Eric and I see it we beat the system by using it to our advantage – we knew what we were getting into, we didn’t pay full price and we still made it to Bangkok. Plus we saved a lot of money on a taxi from the bus station to Khao San Road because the bus company took us directly there. And since we already knew where we wanted to stay, we just grabbed a drink and plopped ourselves down in front of the Tourist Police Station until our guesthouse of choice opened up.

After a shower and breakfast, we spend the rest of the day walking around the shopping district looking for new sandals for me and checking out show times for “Avatar” in 3D Imax. We end up skipping the movie today because it’s too busy and head home for dinner at our usual food stall area.