After 2 days of being in Bangkok without seeing much of Thailand besides the nightlife and blowing up more money than planned, we were beginning to get jittery. So on the third day, we woke up purposefully in the morning, at an uncharacteristically early hour for us, skipped breakfast, promptly checked out of the hotel and reached the train station. We were bent on not spending a single minute longer in Bangkok and getting on a train to Surat Thani in the south as soon as possible. To our great disappointment, we were told that the next train to Surat Thani would leave only in the evening. This meant that we were now forced to spend the rest of the day in Bangkok itself.

Setbacks like this have by now become so common to the Breakdown Gang, that they don’t bother us for too long. So we found ways to keep ourselves busy till the evening, and finally boarded the train when it was time.

Train ticket

According to me, trains in Thailand are really not in the same league as those in India. The Thai trains run on meter gauge tracks, which means they’re really narrow. Our train, although being long-distance was quite short, with perhaps only five or six coaches. Even the cruising speed was really slow, and when it accelerated, it sounded more like a bus.

The seats inside were wide, but not particularly comfortable. On long overnight train journeys, it is normal for the seats to be converted into sleeping berths, and as you’d expect, doing that was possible. But while the procedure to do so is totally intuitive on Indian trains, it seemed like one needs to get a college degree to do something so simple on our train. So we joined all our co-passengers in struggling with the seats for a good while, before the coach attendant showed up and fixed everyone’s seats.

Despite all its shortcomings, we did get a good night’s sleep and were refreshed when we awoke. About 15 minutes before our destination, the coach attendant walked along the aisle announcing Surat Thani as the next station. But he made the announcement in such a sing-song voice that it took a supreme effort on our part to not burst out in laughter.

From the Surat Thani railway station, we took a taxi to the Don Sak pier. From there, we got onto a ferry that brought us to Koh Samui island. The locals here were very uncooperative for some reason, and refused to help answer even our simple queries. Eventually we figured out that the cheapest transport in the island is the Songthaew (which is like a big shared tuk-tuk). We took one of these Songthaews to Haad Lamai - one of the 2 most popular beaches on the island.

The ferry ride was the perfect time for me to stitch onto my backpack the first of hopefully many flags

Arrival in Koh Samui

Kini goes to great lengths to get that perfect shot
what a pity we'll never find out how the pictures turned out :(

Riding on the back of a Songthaew

After a long and tiring search for cheap rooms, OJ & I came across iBed. It was a fairly new backpackers’ hostel, but it was far from cheap. A quick look inside revealed a stylish, swanky establishment with all modern comforts. Despite the steep price, it seemed like the perfect place to stay, and we wasted no time in renting four beds in a private’ish space. The problem with staying in a posh place like iBed was that we didn’t feel like getting out of there much. Given our track record of lazing around even in the crappiest hotel rooms, one can imagine how it was in iBed.

The entrance to iBed

Our private space

The not-so-private aisle beds

It can get really hard to get out of bed when it comes with a TV

Free to use computer + Crazy guys = Nonsense

The first night we went to check out the night life in Chaweng, Koh Samui’s main beach. The second evening we went to the Lamai beach, swam in the sea, lounged in the pool, chilled in the bar and bought tickets for a snorkelling trip the next day.

Walkway to the beach

Ek soch

Aur ek soch

Ab jab sabhi soch rahe hain, toh main bhi kyun na kuch soch loon?