We taxied over at 5am to the coach pick up place, checked in and sat down outside to wait with everyone else, mingling with travellers for first time having been plain-old tourists for a couple of days. We’d already bought the tickets online – 900 bht (£18) per person for the Lomprayah coach and catamaran from Bangkok to Koh Tao via Chumphorn. About 6 hours on the coach, 90 minutes on the catamaran. They do a 6am departure that arrives mid-afternoon on the Islands or an overnight one that takes much longer on the road but saves a night’s accommodation — sounds good but we had opted for the daytime one. We later met a couple that took this night bus and they said it was difficult to sleep and involved 3 hours of waiting around in the night at the catamaran place.
We sat and waited for our coach to appear. We watched a cat disappear behind some rubbish bags before pulling something out and nibbling at it. He then chased off another cat that came into his territory. The cat then came over our way and before I knew it the cat was spraying on my backpack…really nice. A big rat appeared and went behind the rubbish bags and found some breakfast too. Yuk. Definitely ready to leave Bangkok and the fumes and pollution – I had a heavy chest from just a couple of days there.
I was told once that people either love or hate Bangkok: having found our feet and adjusting for jetlag for a couple of days we agreed that we needed a second visit before determining which way we felt, but that we wouldn’t be hurrying back.
The coach made good progress and gave us our first glimpse of the Thai countryside and natural beauty. After just one stop on the way (there was a toilet onboard as well) we arrived in Chumphorn. We drove through the town for some time and then turned down what seemed a small country road – almost a dirt track – before pulling into a large space with some buildings by the water and a long, thin pier. Not a port as such then, seemingly a private jetty a long way out of town.
The catamaran staff gently sorted us out, checking us in and giving us a colour-coded sticker to determine where we were getting off the boat – Koh Tao, Koh Phangan or Koh Samui? Minutes later we started walking up the much-longer-than-it-looks pier to the waiting modern-looking catamaran. Glorious sea-front, beach, water, trees. Paradise? We collapsed into some seats and enjoyed the crossing and the glimmering water on our way to somewhere a million miles from where we’d come.
