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One Day: Traveling from Ko Lanta to Bangkok in 12 hours

By: leelefever on April 29, 2006 - 4:39am

6:30AM: awake after 5 hours of sleep, pack bags.

7AM: Arrive at resort reception to check out and have breakfast. Scrape enough Baht together for bill- 7 nights, 6 breakfasts, 5 dinners for US$280. We heard they accepted credit cards.

7:30AM: Depart for 8AM boat to Phuket in back of pickup truck.

7:38AM: Truck proceeds one quarter of the way, stops, turns around, heads back to resort to pick up forgotten passenger- Jack from the UK. Begin frantic drive to catch boat.

7:58AM: Arrive at boat, both whacked with motion sickness, sweating and feeling green. Banana shaped boat departs into moderate swells and a cloud of diesel exhaust.

8:35AM: Thanks to the heat and exhaust fumes, Sachi promply tosses breakfast out the starboard side window and returns to seat, refreshed.

9:15AM: Arrive in Ko Phi Phi, switch to larger, air conditioned boat. Lee contemplates the adventures of his right flip-flop after a mix up last night that resulted in a mismatched pair of footwear.

9:45AM Jack from the UK sits with us and pours through our Japan guidebook, circling things we should see and do. We both feel much better than before.

11AM: Arrive in Phuket port and try to find a cheaper way into the town center than the standard charge of US$1.25 (50 Baht) per person. No luck.

11:15AM: On the way to Phuket Town, remind taxi driver- no we do not want to see your friend's hotel- no we do not need a new suit. No stops.

11:30AM Begin sweltering search for air conditioned lunch and place to chill out in 90(f) heat with everything we have on our backs-on a Saturday-when fewer things are open for lunch. Find an oasis at a coffeeshop called Kopi de Phuket and stay for a while. Mmmm.

2pm: Try to find taxi to Phuket airport for less than US$10 (400 baht). We give up, it's hot and they let us walk away when we insist on 350 baht- the taxi drivers are feeling the gas prices here too. Listen to "Hey Jude" (Beatles), "Hang On Sloopy" (The McCoys), "Venus" (Bananarama), "Sugar, Sugar" (The Archies) via mix cassette tape. Mmmm.

3:55PM Board plane bound for Bangkok with mostly Thai people. Plane's speaker system is excruciatingly loud. Witnessed the fastest ever bi-lingual safety demonstration, performed through no less that 20 blasts of piercing feedback, each followed by attemps to finish the demo and spare everyone's sanity. Lee wonders why it is that people in front of him on planes insist on putting their seat back with enough force to catapult a pack of peanuts to the back galley.

5:37PM: Arrive in Bankok and survey the taxi situation. A typical dilemma: catch a cab right now for US$12 (negotiated) or wait in a line of 64 people for a metered cab, usually costing US$5-7? We wait- it takes about 15 minutes and costs about US$7.

6:43PM: Arrive at nicer-than-we-need Asia Hotel in Siam Square for 3 nights at US$41 per night. Our reserved room type is not available, so we get a free upgrade to Delux. Sweet.

So this ends a pretty typical and low pressure travel day, minus the tossing of breakfasts. The author is happy that he can now stop referring to himself in the third person.


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