Travel day: From Monsoon to Tropical Paradise

Poor Manda needs head rubs

It turns out drinking too much Thailand river water will make you sick. Really, drinking any kind of water in Thailand, that isn't bottled, will make you sick. That's what Manda found out the hard way. Monica and I were woken to the sounds of Manda making friends with our toilet either very late at night or very early in the morning. She attributed her ills to the massive amounts of nasty, brown river water she swallowed yesterday when tubing. (She's much too experienced a traveler to drink Thai water out of the tap)

So our second full day in Khao Sok didn't start out all that great. On top of Manda's tummy problems the heavens decided to open up. And a couple of hours after being woken up by Manda we were woken by the sound of heavy rain. Really heavy rain.

There is probably something that should be understood about Manda, Monica and I. We are from Seattle. Which is known throughout the States (maybe throughout the world) as a rain-soaked city. But what people don't understand sometimes is that Seattle rain isn't like other rain. Seattle rain is often a mist that seems to fall slowly from the sky. Sometimes it seems to be a never ending drizzle. Seattle rain starts in October and ends in May. It makes everything damp, but it doesn't often pour and it very rarely floods.

Rain! So much rain!

This Thai rain was not like rain I'd ever experience. This rain poured. It came down so heavily that just the short walk from our hut to the main lounge soaked me to the bone. And I was wearing a "waterproof" jacket. Waterproof for Seattle maybe. Thanks a lot REI.

The combination of the rain and Manda in the fetal position led Monica and I to decide against further hiking. It seemed unfair to just leave Manda in the hut while we went out and battled nature without her. Also flash flooding is a big problem this time of year and the tons of water falling from the sky made me think that maybe there was a reason for the warnings.

So instead I had a quick chat with Spider Woman about transport to Koh Samui, our next destination. Monica settled our bill. And we packed all our stuff up once again for a painfully long travel day.

Koh Samui is an island off the east coast of Thailand. It has everything you would think of when imagining a Thai beach: white sands, aqua blue surf, mind blowing sunrises. Otherwise known as tropical paradise, especially to three backpackers who have spend the last few days in a rain soaked jungle battling leeches.

But in order to get there we had to (metaphorically) run the gantlet of Thai transportation. We booked a "travel package" through our friend Spider Women. The package included transport from Khao Sok to Surat Thani, where we caught a ferry (also paid for) to Koh Samui. I felt like we may have been slightly ripped off. I'm pretty sure they jacked up the price at least 300 baht (~$9) per person from what we would have paid if we traveled on our own and booked everything independently. Under different circumstances we would have passed on a package deal. But with a sick Manda we didn't want to try to figure it out ourselves, and take the chance of messing up terribly and ending up stuck somewhere less than comfortable.

The travel was relatively drama free, aside from taking about 10 hours. From our Jungle Huts we were packed into a "Mini Bus", which is a sort of cross between a taxi and a bus. It has about 12 seats with proper belts and leg room, but they managed to squeeze a fair 18 people in. Monica, Manda and I were lucky enough to get first, so we all got proper seat belts and room for our knees. Can't say the same for the German tourists that got in at the next guest house over. They sat on little, really little, fold out seats that wouldn't have fit half my butt. The Mini Bus ride took us to a stop over location with over priced food. I have no idea where the stop over location was. Some very small, rural town. From there we waited about an hour to board a larger Gray Hound-esq bus which took us to the ferry.    

First look at Koh Samui

The travel between Khao Sok and the ferry is a bit blurry now. I spend I good deal of time rubbing Manda's head while she drooled on my shirt. And some time napping (probably drooling on Monica or the German dude). And worrying that I left my passport in our Jungle Hut (turns out it was in my bag). And dreaming about the drinks I'd order while sitting on the beach.

By the time we got to the ferry our spirits were looking up. The sun was out and we could see the islands of Koh Samui and Koh Tao in the distance. And all that separated us from the island paradise was one ferry ride.