Island time

Getting going

Today we travel from Chiang Mai to Koh Samui, an island in the Gulf of Thailand.  We had organised a hotel car to take us to the airport at THB160 instead of Grab’s rate of ~THB200, which was a surprise.

With breakfast starting at 0730, we organised a pick-up at 0750 to allow a quick bite.  All went so quickly with the ride, check-in and security that we were airside twiddling our thumbs at 0815, which was 1h30 before our departure time of 0945.

The cheap way to Koh Samui

Flights from anywhere to Koh Samui are expensive because the airport was built and owned by Bangkok Airways.  Domestically, no other airline flies there.  And internationally, Silkair, their codeshare partner is the exception apart from some Chinese charters.

It is more time-consuming but much much cheaper to fly to Surat Thani or Nakhon Si Thammarat and take a bus and then ferry to get to Koh Samui:

AirAsia had non-stop flights from Chiang Mai to Surat Thani but it leaves rather late in the day which makes for a very late night arrival into the island (if not the next day).  AirAsia sells the flight-bus-ferry combo with no margin on the extras.

Nok Air had good fares from Chiang Mai to Surat Thani via Bangkok, with connecting bus-and-ferry tickets available but at an exorbitant margins.

We opted for Thai Lion Air who had the best fares from Chiang Mai to Surat Thani via Bangkok.  We purchased the but-and-ferry ticket from Raja Ferry’s website directly.

(1) Fly Chiang Mai to Bangkok

Our first flight with Thai Lion Air from Chiang Mai to Bangkok Don Mueang departed and landed early.  Seated in the last row of the Boeing 737-900 ER, we experienced quite a sway coming into land.

The other observation seated in the last row was that the lockers and overhead panels on this very long plane weren’t in a straight line through the cabin (maybe you can see it if you enlarge the picture above).

• Could the plane be poorly built?  I don’t think so because I’ve flown on many 737s of the same generation that aren’t kinky like this.
• Could it be that the plane is so long that it flexes and fittings have mis-aligned?
• Or maybe the 8 year old plane (HS-LVH) it’s had major maintenance “D check” and not put together in the best way?

Perhaps readers can help with the answer to this!

(2) Transit Bangkok and fly to Surat Thani

All went smoothly except that they don’t through-check luggage and issue connecting boarding  passes domestically.  We had to exit arrivals with Kim’s luggage, go up two floors to departures to re-checkin.  We returned airside 45 mins after touchdown and settled into one of the lounges for a couple of hours.

Our flight closed-up about 7 mins early ahead of our 1400 departure.  Then it started pouring outside.  This may have held things up with air traffic and we finally pushed off 20 mins behind schedule.  A long queue for take-off meant we were airborne 45 mins after our scheduled departure.

The short flight landed in Surat Thani 30 mins late, meaning that  we had only 20 mins till our pre-booked bus departure to the port for our connecting ferry.  I rushed out landside and had 10 mins to spare to collect the bus tickets.  Kim was out soon after me with his bag in tow.

(3) Transfer at Surat Thani and van to Donsak Pier

Raja Ferry’s coach operator Phantip seemed to have several vans and buses hanging around.  I’m  not sure whether they are there to cope with whatever number of passengers turn up, or whether there are other destinations.

Numbers warranted a minivan.  With a couple of spare seats, we left on-time for Donsak Pier on a 1h15 ride.  We encountered a few showers but fortunately ended up at a dry Donsak Pier.

(4) Ferry from Donsak Pier to Koh Samui

We collected our ferry ticket and were advised that we had 30 mins till the ferry departure at 1800.  Waiting outdoors, the ferries in port were both bound for Koh Pha Ngan.  Our ferry turned up at 1800 and unleashed a huge number of trucks from it main deck before we were allowed to board.  Kim had to carry his bag up two flights of stairs to get to the passenger deck of the old Chinese (?) ferry.

Knowing now that the ferry has nearly an unlimited number of seats and perhaps likewise with the bus/van, I probably wouldn’t pre-book the ferry in future.  I’d probably just check the schedules and make sure that I had enough options amongst the various (three?) bus/ferry operators for the time of arrival.

We set off at 1830 for a journey at snail’s pace to Lipa Noi pier on Koh Samui.  We arrive 1h30 after departure.  Overall, it appeared we were 30 mins later than the 1930 arrival time, due to a delayed departure.

Lipa Noi pier was dead quiet.  I had hoped to eat before going to the hotel but there wasn’t anything around.  There were a few vans offering transport at THB600 (ouch!) to our hotel 25 mins away; no tuk-tuks, taxis etc.  Raja Ferry had offered the transfer at THB200 pp but I wasn’t sure if the coverage included our area, and it was probably seat-in-coach meaning we’d circle around before getting dropped off.  But that may have been a wrong decision.

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Finally in Koh Samui

Leaving the Lipa Noi area, the road was narrow and the houses and shops were one step down from the standard in Thailand.  It felt like rural Indonesia.  When we eventually turned into the main road, I felt like I had left rural Indonesia for Thailand in just a blink.

Coming into Lamai, there were plenty of restaurants and bars.  Again, they were open but deserted.  Finally at Coconut Beach Resort, the place was eerily quiet too.  We wondered if we had made the wrong choice staying at this property or in the area.  As it turned out later “Not at all!”, we enjoyed the quiet village feel by the beach but with all the convenience of shops and eateries within a few minutes walk.

We shared a meal on the beach before retiring into our spacious but spartanly-furnished room.  It had been a long day; about 13h door-to-door but it wasn’t too difficult.

I couldn’t help noticing the change in people coming from Chiang Mai to southern Thailand.  In the north, people are nearly Chinese in appearance whereas in the south, they look rather Malay.  But despite the Malay appearance, most are Thai Buddhists.  As for the ones that are Muslim, they are still proudly Thai and not Malay (“Yawi”) as in the troubled south-east region.