Just an update since the last blog. When I said that “we’re on our way to the town of Surat Thani now,” I didn’t know that that would include our bus conveniently “breaking down” at a gas station, and after waiting half an hour that the remaining passengers would pile into the back of a pickup truck. Let me explain.
After about 30 minutes in a dark and non-air-conditioned bus, a black pickup truck pulled up beside us beside us blaring the AT40. Next thing we knew, there was a kid on the bus telling us to “get off, get off!” Before we realized, we were herded onto the back of the truck, and off we went with 7 people piled in. After about 15 minutes with my hair whipping my face, we were told to get out as it was “Koh Toa.” Well, it definitely didn’t look like we were at the island. It didn’t look like the pier either, and we definitely weren’t near any visible bodies of water. We stopped at what looked like a travel agency. We were led into an “office” area where we bought or tickets for the overnight boat. Even though we had to pay just 50 Baht ($1.60) more than we would have paid at the pier, stories of scams aimed at foreign tourists were running rampant in my head. We were the only foreigners there, along with two other German girls who were on the bus and also had no clue what was going on either. After about another 30 minutes of sitting around with no explanation, we once again boarded our destined vehicle of the night and arrived 5 minutes later at the pier. Good thing our boat wasn’t leaving for another two hours, but it makes me wonder…were we just part of some scam or is it just the Thai way? Whatever it was, we’re safe, we’ve gotten our tickets and we’re just waiting to board our boat. Hopefully, that’s the end of the detours for tonight.
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