Traveling to Koh Phangan

The train station! A sight for sore eyes!

Traveling here is always an adventure. Fortunately I’ve been very lucky so far.

I decided to go to the full moon party in Koh Phangan, which is one of the islands in the South of Thailand.  In hindsight maybe I should’ve just gone right to Phuket but so many people have talked about it that I wanted to check it out.  

I started out with a public bus to the train station.  I had some trouble finding the bus stop.  I got turned around walking there and then discovered that the bus Google maps had suggested wasn’t on any of the signs and the numbers I saw driving by weren’t anything close.  Fortunately this was a busy bus stop where they actually have someone from the transit authority who can tell you which bus to take.  Of course, by the time I found her, the bus was already driving by and I had to wait for the next one, but I did eventually get on my way.

Restaurant car? Or Party car?

Second class cabin, daytime set up

I got worried when I got to the ticket counter and the man told me that they only had third class seats on the train.  Normally I wouldn’t pay extra money for second class but this is an overnight train where first and second class have bunks and third class is just the regular wooden benches.  The idea of spending 12+ hours sitting upright on a wooden bench, worrying about my bags, was not very appealing to me.  He had two second class tickets left for the next day but by the time I had decided to take one they were gone so I thought I’d try for the bus.  I spent quite some time trying to figure out how to use the pay phone and calling the bus station only to find that they couldn’t give me the total price or make me a reservation over the phone and I would have to take an expensive taxi to the bus station at the far corner of the city.  I was feeling a bit forlorn and thought maybe I’d just suck it up and try the third class but when I returned to the ticket counter he excitedly told me that he had a second class seat open up!  

I had a couple hours to kill, and then the train was late of course, so I spent another hour on the platform waiting, and wondering if I had somehow missed it, but finally it arrived.

The second class cabins were nice, and quite ingenious!  When we walked in the car we set up with seats, large seats facing each other along each side of the car.  With a table that could be set up between them.  There were small luggage racks on the wall between each set of seats.  After dinner they just pulled down a bed from the ceiling and the seats became the lower bunk.  

Pier in Surat Thani

I had dinner in the dark restaurant car which was playing loud club music and had disco lights in the corner which made for an interesting meal.  It was nice though with wide open windows where I could watch the last of the sun as Bangkok disappeared and turned into smaller towns.  I had a delicious plate of fried rice and then ended up stuffing myself because I really wanted some fruit but they only had huge plates of it.  Of course as soon as I had started eating women started walking around with snack size portions of fruit and other things.  

I returned to find my bunk all set up and it was actually one of the most comfortable beds I’ve had here!  I didn’t sleep very well though because the car was freezing cold (second class has AC).  I must have gotten to sleep at some point though because I awoke to a pounding on the wall and shouts that we were in Surat Thani.  

I had bought a joint ticket in Bangkok, the overnight train to Surat Thani, a bus ride to the pier an hour or two away, and then a three hour speed boat ride to Koh Phangan.  It seemed like everyone had pretty much the same itinerary so we were shuffled around like bleary-eyed sheep, still half asleep, from the train platform, to the bus, to the pier where we waited for an hour or so, and then to the boat which brought us to our various island destinations.  I slept the whole time, waking briefly to move when they told me to, and we finally arrived sometime after noon.  

There must be a better way to fill the boat up with fuel!

I've arrived!