When we woke up in the morning we could feel the last night's farewell party we had. Our friend Jonna was already long gone on her way to Bangkok. We desided to pay the extra 500TBH (13€) for the late check-out and get some more rest before leaving Koh Samui. After few more hours of sleep it was time to pack the rest of the gear and return the key.
We walked to the Chaweng main road and got a taxi meter after few minutes. The driver said the price to the pier is 600TBH (15€), way more than with the meter running, but he was willing to take the dog on board and we were running late already, the last ferry was leaving at 6pm, in 30 minutes.
The pier was on the opposite side of the island and we kept looking at the clock all the time. To make it even worse, it was the birthday of the King of Thailand, the road in front of the pier was packed for the big ceremony there was about to start. So many yellow shirts all around (yellow is the color of the King) I think the clock was already 6pm when we finally arrived to the ticket office. The driver told the Seatran ferry -employees to wait for us.
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| All the way to the other side! |
After a small huzzle we got the tickets, we paid a bit too much, because Milla thought we were going to Surat Than. Our real destination was just the Donsak pier, so we paid also for the bus ride from the pier to the city of Surat Than. Shit happens when you're in hurry. I was waiting outside of the office with Lax.
When we got to the ferry we tried to look for a plug to charge my phone, we couldn't find one and my battery was drained. We didn't remember to look and book a hotel in Nakhon Si Thammarat the last night because of the party. Milla's phone have some issues with the thai mobile network so it was useless at this point. We just had to hope that the taxi driver would have a car charger.
We did have our solar panel for charging the phone, but at 6pm the sun was already set. At this point we started thinking that us making it on time to the ferry, wasn't a good thing after all. We could've crash at a hotel or the beach near the pier and leave in the morning after we'd booked a hotel.
Behind us on the shore we could see the fireworks, in honour of the King of Thailand's birthday (87yo).
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| Solar panel (useless when dark) and a big ass power bank (useless unless you remember to charge it). Both from eBay. |
We finally got to the Donsak pier terminal and started asking for a taxi to take us all the way to Nakon Si Thammarat (120km). It was late but we managed to get a private van. It would cost us 1800TBH (47€), not a bad price when the car can carry 11 people, but there was only the three of us, dog included. It was getting late so we had no other options. We would be at Nakhon Si Thammarat at 11pm so we had to get going.
The driver had a Samsung phone, but his car charger was at home, no suprise there, who even keeps car charger in the car... We told him to drive to Nakhon and take us somewhere to eat, we were already starving. It was the Kings birthday so almost every place was closed, so we had no luck getting a charger or to find a WiFi.
We were half a sleep for the most of the ride. We could only remember some small villages, small food markets and large plantations on the way. When we finally got to Nakhon, the driver pulled over at a small food market, thank the stars or whatever, we're going to get food! The driver pointed us a way to downtown which was close by. He told there's plenty of hotels where we could go asking.
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| 1800TBH ride to Nakhon |
I stayed by our luggage when Milla went to get us some food, she got lots of questioning glances upon her, tourist's aren't so common in these parts of Thailand, at least not this late of night and looking more than lost. One of the food stands had many people in yellow shirts dining, Milla went to ask if any of them speaked any English. This one throaty-voiced beautiful woman called someone out and a girl of Milla's age came to her.
Milla told her she wanted something fast, easy and plenty of it! The girl asked Milla where she was from. When she replied the girl looked shocked and said quietly "I can't even imagine that, I've never even left Nakhon Si Thammarat" She asked again where Milla was from and when Milla said "Finland", the girl yelled out "Teemu Selänne!". How can someone in Thailand, know a Finnish hockey player? I'm pretty sure there's not many fans.
Milla got our food and came back to sit at the side of the road. It was time to eat our late dinner. The dinner got thinner than expected when Milla spilled most of our noodles to the ground... WOOPS!
Well we still had plenty of fried rice, fried egg and some dish we can't really remember.
We had our dinner and so did the mosquitoes when I was waiting for Milla for about 20minutes, so it was time to find a hotel.
After about a kilometer walk it started raining. Like really raining. Great. Rucksacks and backbags and the rain to top off everything! No hotel at sight, no taxis because of the King's day.
We walked some more and found a food cart. One of the men spoke a little bit of English and he showed us the way to the closest hotel, 500m away. We was close to the hotel when the man drove by us with his motorcycle, he pointed us at the right way as he passed.
The hotel looked big and clean and the reception had three young woman behind it. We were wet and tired. I stayed outside with our gear and Lax, while Milla went in to ask if they could help us. They told Milla that the hotel don't allow dogs and that they don't want to help us to other hotels or even let us use a computer in the lobby to book a hotel. We were dissapointed and stunned of the "customer service" this one fine young lady gave us.
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| I'm pretty sure that girl is already fired, but here's the hotel just in case she's not. |
We walked for a while and stopped on the stairs of a closed bank. Milla went to get me cigarettes from 7eleven grocery store across the road. She tried to ask help from there, but none of them spoke any English. After the cigarette we kept on going. We walked and the locals just smiled and waved to us when they pass us with motorcycles, at least now we know the whole city isn't like the girl in the reception. We came to a big junction that had a very big and decorative crossing. Some kids with motorcycles were stunned seeing us with our baggage and the dog and waved to us too.
We crossed the road and saw a sign that said "Thai Hotel" and we went to ask them for help. Milla went in again and the lady at the reception told the same old story, no dogs allowed. For our luck they had internet at the lobby for 30TBH/hour (76cent). FINALLY! Milla came to tell me the good news and I went in. Milla stayed in front of the hotel, in shelter from the rain.
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| Thank you so much for your help, employees of Thaihotel! Here's some free advertisement for you! |
The closest hotel that allowed dogs was 1,5hour drive away, we had no choice so I booked us two nights right away 2000TBH (51€) for two nights, not bad. The hotel staff let us use toilets in the lobby and called us a taxi. The taxi would cost 1600TBH (41€) because he would have to drive back empty at this late time. The clock was already 00:30 when the taxi arrived. We were just glad to be in the taxi, out of the rain and on our way to sleep! We managed to drive once pass the road where the Le Pes Villas is located, but after a quick u-turn we were finally there!
When we got my phone to charger and the WiFi working, we checked the map to see where we ended up. First we drove 124km south from Donsak pier to Nakhon Si Thammarat, then almost as much back north, ending up only 30km from the Donsak pier... That didn't go as planned and cost us 3400TBH (86€) for the taxis. Next time we'll charge all our phones before leaving!
The bungalow we ended up seemed big and clean but all we could think was sleeping.
Good night...
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| All the way South, just to get back North! |
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| Time has a way of showing us what really matters. |
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