Day 23 (22/04/08): Koh Phangan to Bangkok
I woke up for the first time on the island without a hangover, and had a relaxed morning packing up my stuff. I checked out, and met Helen for a quick breakfast, we even managed to catch some BBC news! The taxis on the island, like in all of Thailand, are converted utes. The back tray has a roof attached, and two padded benches running down their length. We caught one of these to the far side of the island, a short trip geographically, but it adds years to your life as the driver hoons and careens his way over the tight mountainous road.
The boat terminal in the main town of the island was absolutely packed with other young travelers, eager to leave the island now that the Full Moon was over. Luckily we managed to get tickets, and somehow in the massive thronging crowd, even managed to get on the right boat. Which in hindsight, wasn't really a problem, as they kept pushing everyone onto boats. There were very quickly no seats left on ours, and all the deck space filled up, and then all the passageways and aisles, so I spent the four hour boat trip reading my book on the stairwell, and then sitting in the passage by the toilet. It wasn't too bad.
Our ferry ticket also included a bus ride to the train station. I had done with trip before in a taxi, and it only took 30mins or so. However, it took closer to two hours in this bus (whose air-conditioning was as effective as an asthmatic hamster coughing on you), as we made a detour via the bus station. Instead of buying a package ticket, which included the train to Bangkok, Helen and I had decided to just do it ourself. Of course, all the hundreds of other backpackers leaving the island had booked the package, and so when we got to the train station, we found out that that there were no train tickets left, and none for the next day either. We had planned on spending the 12 hour train overnight train journey in a nice second class sleeper cabin, something with a nice horizontal bed. That dream was now dashed. At least I wasn't tempted to brave third class again, as even that was all sold out.
Luckily, we were approached by a man selling bus tickets to Bangkok, while quite expensive for a bus (slightly more than the 2nd class sleeper train ticket), it was our only option, and we grudgingly agreed. The man assured us it was a good bus, first class in fact! We bought our tickets, and spent the few evening hours eating at a roadside stall and sweltering in the heat. At almost exactly the right time, an old manky bus, looking somewhat like
Otto's pulled up outside. Helen and I shared a look of dread, we didn't want to spend 10 hours on an old school bus, especially after paying so much! All the travel horror stories of bus scams and phony bus services filled our minds. However, almost as though fate was playing a joke on us, right behind the old bus, a big, double story sleeper bus arrived and we were herded on.
The bus was comfortable enough, good air-conditioning, complimentary water and snacks, good toilet and even a stewardess! There was plenty of leg room, and the seats reclined a bit further than your standard airplane seat, which was just as well, considering this bus trip would take as long as my flight from NZ to Singapore! Unfortunately, as comfortable as the seats were, my Western genes betrayed me. I was just too tall to really rest my head comfortably, and slouching to make my head reach, really cramped my back. I did manage to get some sleep in the night, but I regretted not being organised enough to book my comfortable second class sleeper ahead of time!
The day was spent in a pretty leisurely fashion. I had a good sleep in, my first decent one in days. I had been told that there wasn't much to do in this sleepy capital, and so Garth and I booked a sleeper bus leaving that night to go to Pakse, the next destination of mine. I had originally intended to go out to one of the big temples just outside town, or perhaps the Buddha park, but after sleeping in, checking out of the guesthouse, eating some food and catching up on some emails, it was already the early afternoon. So I just spent a few hours walking around the city, meandering aimlessly through the less touristy parts. I quite enjoy just walking around new places, you get a feel for the vibe of the place and see what the 'non-tourist' parts look like. I walked past a couple of quite impressive buildings, and stopped at the 'Black Stupa', a very old stonework Stupa that is now a roundabout.
Walking back to my guesthouse in the mid afternoon, I heard someone yell something at me and ran after me down the street. Not knowing exactly what was going on I turned around and was confronted with the face of an old friend from New Zealand, someone who had gone to College House with me in my first year of uni. A fellow engineer (albeit only a chem eng), he is working on a mine site in northern Laos through and Australian company and was down in Vientiane for a few days. He had a colleague with a car, and so we all jumped in and went down to a pub for drinks (incidentally, the same pub I was in the night before). We had a good chat over a few drinks and laughed at all the old stories and caught up on the news of mutual friends we knew. It was definitely one of the things I least expected to happen in the sleepy streets of Vientiane!
Unfortunately after a few hours I had to leave and meet Garth for dinner before our bus left. We found a great curry place and proceeded to eat a lovely curry with samosas and naan bread. Brilliant. We said a quick goodbye to Charlie and Lou, before leaving for our bus. As is usual with any transport here, we waited for a good half hour at our guest house before the tuk-tuk arrived. We piled into this, and after picking up more and more people to the point of overfill capacity we arrived at the bust terminal. There was some confusion as the person issuing the tickets didn't have a matching ticket for my receipt (like everyone else I had booked and paid at my guesthouse). Nevertheless, after a few of them argued in Lao, I was given a ticket and sat down in my recliner seat of my VIP bus for the next ten hours.
