Tuesday, November 30, 2004 (Khao Lak - Thailand)
Trying to sleep whilst upright. Forced to
enjoy
the public bus. The longer the journey, the more pampering required but first we
have to con our way in. Confirming our Surin Islands live-aboard.
Day 267 (77). It doesn’t matter how much
I try, I simply cannot sleep whilst sitting I an upright position. Indeed I find
it very hard to maintain a comfortable position for very long when sitting at
all, let alone trying to sleep. Our overnight carriage did have reclining seats
but they really don’t recline that much and when it came time to settle
down and nod off, I found that I was continually shifting about from one
position to another. At one point, I thought I’d take my chances on the
floor in the middle of the isle but one of the train staff with a flashlight
didn’t seem to think that was a good idea and kept nudging me to get up
off the floor – despite my best efforts at pretending I was fast asleep.
How I made it through the night I don’t know but we finally pulled in to
Surat Thani train station shortly after eight o’clock in the
morning.
We found our way across the
street to one of the little cafés where they arrange transportation tickets
but our travelling ordeal was apparently not over yet. Not only had we somehow
managed to miss the only train out of Bangkok last night that had sleeper
carriages but we had now arrived in Surat Thani just a few minutes after the
very last air-conditioned minivan had departed for Khao Lak. Had we arrived at
Bangkok train station just a few minutes earlier last night, not only would we
have slept all the way here but we would have made the connection to Khao Lak
without any problems too. Now, the only means of getting to Khao Lak was the
public bus. Travelling by public bus is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand,
they are slow, bumpy, noisy and hot. On the other, they are cheap and a great
way to meet other people. Even at the bus stop we met and instantly struck up
interesting conversations with several other travellers. The trip did take us an
extra hour or more compared to the minivan but we still pulled into Khao Lak
early enough in the afternoon to give us time to make our travel arrangements as
well as look for a place to stay.
The
bus stop in Khao Lak is immediately across the road from the Sea Dragon dive
office. All the other travellers that we met on the bus that were coming to Khao
Lak were also intending on diving with Sea Dragon. All the stories we’ve
heard from other travellers about the Sea Dragon dive outfit have mirrored our
own positive experiences and we are happy to be back here and diving with them
again. The couple of staff members that were there at the time we arrived were
already busy with other customers so, with their permission, we left our bags in
the back room and went off in search of a place to
stay.
We just spent the past
twenty-four hours getting from Phnom Penh in Cambodia to Khao Lak here in
Thailand. The last time we were here, we decided we needed some pampering and
treated ourselves to a really nice hotel and some decent meals. I’m sure
I’ll be kicking myself in the shins for this several months down the road
but we’re going to do exactly the same again for the few days that we are
here now. Throwing caution to the wind, and our traveller’s budget
instincts completely out of the window, we set off in search of a nice place to
stay in the 1,500B – 2,000B (€30-€40) range. The Khao Lak
Orchid Resortel that we stayed in last time was very nice but we thought
we’d explore some more of Khao Lak to see what else was on offer too. The
intense heat and humidity made it seem like hours but we probably only spent
forty minutes or so hopping from one resort to the next, trying to find that one
place that had everything we wanted. If it wasn’t the bad location or the
high prices then it was usually the hard beds that put us off most of the places
we saw. In the end, we decided to bite the bullet and go back to the Khao Lak
Orchid Resortel after all. We already knew that we liked it there and it was
within walking distance of the dive centre so we went in to see if they had a
room. Fortunately, they still had rooms available but although we paid 1,800B
(€34,61) per night the last time we were here, this time they quoted us a
room rate of 4,500B (€86,54). Holiday from the holiday or not, this was a
bit too much of a good thing. Neither of us was willing to take this lying down
and this particular situation demanded our very best bargaining skills so the
two of us tag-teamed the duty manager with all the charm and friendliness that
we could muster. After several minutes of friendly banter and telling him just
what a wonderful manager he was and that he was so lucky to be working in such a
wonderful resort that we enjoyed so much the last time we were here and that we
had liked it so much that we came back to stay here again, etc., etc., etc. He
finally buckled under the weight of it all and agreed that he would extend that
promotional rate that we received the last time to us once more for this visit.
1,800B (€34,61) per night for four nights – job
done!
With just a hint of a satisfied
grin on my face, we left our daypacks in our comfortable room and went back to
the Sea Dragon offices to make the necessary arrangements for our diving. We had
contemplated diving a couple of local wrecks the last time we were here but
things just didn’t want to fall into place for us back then so I was eager
to see about those dives again this time. We have four nights before our
three-day live-aboard sails and a couple of day’s worth of wreck diving
would fill that gap just nicely.
The
same guy that we dealt with the last time and that had confirmed by e-mail that
we were booked onto the Saturday departure to the Surin Islands was back in the
office when we returned and he very professionally took care of all the details
surrounding our trip. I was practically already convinced that we were going to
sign up for the wreck dives but his sales pitch and description of what to
expect from those dive sights sealed the lid on that decision and we signed up
for two day’s of wreck diving as well as the live-aboard. The last time we
were here, the only fins that they had which fitted me were a pair of the open
healed variety with the adjustable strap. In order for me to wear those
comfortably, I bought a pair of diving boats. This time, however, that one and
only pair of open healed fins that they have had already been reserved by
another diver. This was quite worrying for a brief moment but the good guys at
Sea Dragon arranged for a new pair of open healed fins to be ordered and
delivered by Saturday. I really can’t fault these guys
anywhere.
With all of our diving
needs nicely sorted out, we were now free to relax after the very long journey
here from Phnom Penh. The sun was by now starting to set and our tummies were
telling us to fill them up - and quickly. Maintaining the spirit of ‘to
hell with the budget’, we found a particularly nice restaurant that served
particularly large steaks with all the trimmings. I spent more on mine alone
than we would normally spend on a night’s accommodation, but since we have
been averaging well under our daily budget for Thailand, a few days of excess
will not dent this too much and we will still come in substantially under our
total projected living allowance for this country by the time we leave. The
diving budget for Thailand, on the other hand, is already twice as much as
originally predicted and still rising. We really have pushed the boat out (no
pun intended) as far as diving here in Thailand is concerned but oh how
we’ve enjoyed it!
Even though
it’s just a few hundred yards, we hailed one of those pick-up truck taxis
to collect our main backpacks from the Sea Dragon office and to take us down to
the beach road where our resort lies. The asking price was 50B (€0,96) but
he accepted my offer of 40B (€0,77) without too much fuss. Back at the
hotel, we had little energy left other than to shower, unpack a few things, prep
the underwater camera for tomorrow morning’s wreck dive and, finally, to
fall swiftly to sleep.
Posted: Tue - November 30, 2004 at 11:08 PM