Bangkok to Khao Lak

After a stopover in Bangkok we headed to the south on January 15th. After searching for a cheap ticket down to Khao Lak we left in the evening at 6pm. Micha was able to go after two days in the room recovering. The bus was a so called half sleeper with seats to put back, but not really comfortable.

We arrived in Surrathani at 6.30 am waiting for the transit bus. The tourist got separated according to their destination. So we got transport with 5 other people to a agency where they tried to sell us the minivan leaving immediately with no stops to Khao Lak.

We decided to wait and safe money. We did pay actually for the ride, so why pay more? The funniest part was that our bus stooped at another agency to pick up 8 tourists for Phuket. These guys were pretty angry. They had to pay 200 Baht on top off what they paid in Bangkok to get on the bus to Phuket. Yeah, this is Thailand, watch out not to get ripped off. It will happen to you anyway…

Khao Lak is 5 hours with the bus. The bus was crowded so people had to stay some hours. We jumped on the bus early so we got a seat for the trip. Some minutes before arrival a tire exploded so we had to wait till this got fixed. After 20 hours we arrived in Khao Lak.

We missed Kate because they closed the office till 3 pm. So we went for breakfast/lunch till 3 pm, but they came to open the office at 4 pm, one hour late. We met Kate’s boyfriend and Kate came from her dives around 5 pm. We were quite happy to get to her apartment to take a shower.

Unfortunately I got what Micha had. So now it was me not leaving the apartment. The way to the beach appeared so long, but I had to get out into the sun. Next day we went to see the International Tsunami Museum to get background information about what and how this all happened in 2004. Very fascinating was police boat 813. The Tsunami pushed it 1.5 miles into shore. The captain headed full speed to the ocean, but got pushed back anyway. There are still more than 40.000 people missing.

P.S.: For having enough pills for the Island Nadine got birth control pill in Bangkok. It costs hear 4,6 Euro. The same product costs in Germany 6sixtimes as much. Unbelievable!