The Surat Thani Transfer

Location: Surat Thani, Thailand

NP: Don Johnson Big Band - Island Girl

Mood: Torn

Behind were left the flaming beaches of Koh Pha Ngan, the techno-booming parties and bucket-imposing stalls. Behind were left the restaurants we couldn't quite make our minds up about and the friendly minimarts that sold no bread. Behind was left Sea Garden Resort & Spa and its very helpful staff from whom we bought our transfer tickets.

We took a taxi from Haad Rin to Thong Sala at 11:50, sailed on the Raja ferry from Koh Pha Ngan to Don Sak at 13:00 and jumped on a tourist-filled minibus from Don Sak to Surat Thani, which was meant to serve as a transfer junction for the rest of the trip. We were dropped off outside some kind of a travel agency along with several other bemused farangs.

A mother and her three children on a motorcycle in Surat Thani.

So this was Surat Thani, huh? It looked queer. But at least I was off the excruciating islands and back on the mainland. Mika was glad too, for the price of beer was again cheaper than on the islands, but other than that I don't think he liked leaving them behind.

It was late afternoon already and we were hoping to catch a train to our final destination further south for a few days, at least, but alas, the travel agency's staff told us there would be no more trains today. Actually all of the two daily trains to our destination would travel past Surat Thani in the morning, at 4:27 and 6:28 hours. This, then, meant we'd have to spend the night at Surat Thani which we'd not planned.

Exchanging a few words with some of the the other travellers we decided to jump on the same taxi with the them and head to the railway station about 14 km outside of the city center. Unlike the others we didn't have a pre-purchased ticket for the taxi so they asked us 60 baht per person for the ride, which we paid, but then a female Thai intervened and offered her two tickets for us. When the travel agent handed me back our money and explained, I was confused. I was so confused I didn't even manage to thank the Thai that had helped us before the taxi took off. Damn. How rude I must've seemed.

On the taxi one of the westerners I'd seen kissing a Thai woman on the pier of Thong Sala and waving to her frantically from the ferry seemed genuinely sad. He was an older man and she was an older woman. He'd given some advice to the other farangs at the agency and seemed to speak fluent Thai, but his terribly sad face didn't allow me to make further inquiries. Was it his wife he was leaving behind and for how long, I wondered.

In the agency we had checked our guide book that claimed there'd be a decent hotel just a block away from the railway station, the Queen Hotel.

This turned out to be false. Not that the hotel wasn't there, it was, but that it was decent. It was so far the worst accommodation on this entire trip, perhaps excluding Sea Garden Resort & Spa's sweat-box bungalow which was cheaper. In Queen Hotel we had air-con and the priciest room (500 baht / night for a twin room with two double beds), which could've been bearable if it wasn't for the horrendous bathroom of engineering failures.

It was no matter. It would do for the night. We'd bought a ticket for tomorrow's train at 6:28 (2nd class, fan-cooled, 139 baht) that would take us to our destination - right into the heart of the city of Trang in Southern Thailand. There I hoped to learn all of Trang's secrets and fall in love with the inner beauty of foreign exoticism.