The first stage of my departure from Thailand went pretty smoothly - I was picked up from the hotel at 12, drove all over the island to the public bus station, and waited ages for a bus to take us to the ferry itself - a great big ugly passenger ferry, which was belching thick black smoke all the way to the mainland. The journey was pretty boring, it rained sporadically and I grew to hate a fat German family who were on the bus with me. Not only were they all corpulent and unusually short, the women were dressed in really tight leggings, and they all insisted on throwing their fag-ends and other litter overboard into the sea. Twats. Also, the oldest of them really smelt, and gestured for me to move seats when I sat down on the deck next to the 4 seats they were not occupying, but somehow claimed dominion over. There was also a German guy on the bus with full facial tattoos and a missing hand - I have nothing against him, he was just an interesting fellow.
On arrival at Surat Thani train station, I noticed that my bag had been opened, and my traveller's cheques were missing from it. I think $200 has been nicked, so I reported this to the Railway Police, who took me to the normal Police station, where a guy in an Adidas football shirt took a vague statement, all the while grinning and laughing, probably at the futility of my reporting it as I didn't know the name of the bus company, or when the theft occured - I reckon probably on the ferry though. Even after I had sorted all this out, phoned Mum and asked her if she had the numbers of the cheques (she doesn't, and I have no idea where I put them), it was still only about 8 pm, meaning I still had 6 hours to kill. I did this by reading and, well, staring into space, until I dozed off on a bench, surrounded by marauding Mosquitos and copulating dogs. Nice. My train arrived at 2 am, thankfully on time, and I climbed gratefully into my sleeper bunk and slept until 9ish. We arrived in Sungai Kolok without incident, I got a little lost and ripped off by a Motorbike Taxi driver who took me to the ATM then promptly doubled the price he had quoted me. I simply refused to pay him, and gave him the original RM 10. I got in a taxi to Kuala Besut, which I was quoted as being RM 80 - I was so knackered by this point that I simply accepted, and luckily the guy saw a couple of Swedes waiting further down the street who hopped in and shared the cost (their names are David and Eva, they met on the train down here). We got a speedboat from the pier to Pulau Perhentian Kecil(Small Perhentian Island) which was a nightmare of a ride - the boat had no sides so we were getting soaked, and due to the choppy waves occasionally the boat would leap out into the air and slam back onto the water, jarring our spines every time. It then started to piss down as well, which didn't do much for morale. We finally made it and I checked into a simple bungalow on Coral Bay, for RM 30 (about £4), which has a Mosquito net and room for my hammock, and will do for tonight until I can be bothered to walk across to Long Beach. I might dive tomorrow, weather permitting, although it is £27 or so, but I suppose that's only as much as my dives on Koh Tao were.
I feel really drained, and can't really be bothered to do anything tonight - sort of fortunate, as I don't think there's anywhere to go apart from the 9-eleven minimart and one bar.
No comments:
Post a Comment