Our provide voyage from Lamai Beach inward Ko Samui to the Surat Thani educate station to grab our 9:04 pm Express 84 overnight educate dorsum to Bangkok was a piddling to a greater extent than "on our own" in addition to fourth dimension consuming.
We idea nosotros would receive got enough of fourth dimension to grab our nighttime train, hence nosotros idea nosotros left our hotel actually early on at to a greater extent than or less 2 pm. But it took over v hours. We finally arrived at the Surat Thani educate station at 7:30 pm, so hollo upward to go out enough of fourth dimension for travel! Here's how it went...
In Lamai, after waiting past times the route side for virtually 10 minutes, nosotros were able to grab a songthaew shared taxi for lx baht each to the Seatran Ferry terminal.
We purchased the ferry + motorbus combo ticket for 240 baht/pp, which included the 1.5 lx minutes ferry ride equally good equally a 1.5 lx minutes Seatran motorbus carry to their purpose inward downtown Surat Thani. There was actually no other alternate carry that would receive got us direct to the educate station. Also, the Seatran ferry has its ain pier hence at that spot are no other motorbus companies operating from this house similar they would at the principal Donsak pier.
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| Sharing the ferry ride amongst a bunch of gamecocks after a large cock fighting tournament |
After stopping what seemed similar a 1000000 times to permit each of the locals off the motorbus at their desired house on the side of the principal road, nosotros finally arrived at the Seatran purpose inward downtown Surat Thani virtually 2 hours later. The purpose closes at 5:30 pm, plus there is no house for passengers to hangout, hence nosotros headed out to the street to abide by a cab.
So far, nosotros hadn't seen 1 unmarried taxi cab inward Surat Thani. Hmmm, what to do, what to do. The educate station was withal xxx minutes out of town.
As nosotros walked downwards the principal road, nosotros flagged downwards a rickety songthaew truck in addition to negotiated a ride to the educate station. We idea 100 baht/pp was an first-class bargain!
For beingness the gateway to the islands, the Surat Thani station is really small-scale in addition to basic. There is a really build clean squat restroom for iii baht/pp. There is 1 attendant behind the ticket counter, a luggage storage area, in addition to a snack bar. That's it. Also, beware of the hungry aggressive mosquitos! They didn't seem to live bothered that nosotros had põrnikas repellant on.
We located the handwritten divergence board, figured out that our educate should live arriving iii minutes early on (yea, right...) at 9:01 pm on platform 1. A overnice educate personnel helped us figure out which portion of the platform #1 nosotros should hold back at inward guild to grab Car No. 2 (first class), since the educate barely stops for a brief moment.
Now, nosotros are only waiting some other lx minutes or hence to board the educate in addition to onward to Bangkok for a forenoon arrival of to a greater extent than or less nine am.
All-in-all, 400 baht ( $13) per mortal got us all the agency from Lamai Beach to the educate station inside 5.5 hours. We had read scam stories online virtually unscrupulous motorbus drivers inward Surat Thani (mainly from the principal Donsak pier where most of the other ferries larn far at), but nosotros didn't run into whatever problems. We may receive got had to figure out the provide carry on our ain only a piddling fleck more, but it worked out fine.
Another option, had nosotros known, could've been to receive got a VIP bus dorsum to Bangkok in addition to avoided having to figure out how to larn dorsum to the Surat Thani educate station. We were told that it costs a piddling over K baht/pp, excluding the ferry cost. The motorbus boards inward Ko Samui, takes yous straight onto the ferry, in addition to hence correct onto the motorbus that goes direct to Bangkok. We couldn't abide by a link for online reservations, but whatever 1 of the myriad move agencies tin likely assistance out amongst booking.
Personally, nosotros prefer educate travel, hence that's what nosotros went with.
Tomorrow, nosotros are crossing the edge into Cambodia, total of potential edge scams, hence that should live ripe for some other move post service soon!
Tomorrow, nosotros are crossing the edge into Cambodia, total of potential edge scams, hence that should live ripe for some other move post service soon!