Week 7 - Rachel arrives

So I was really sad to leave Chiang Mai and could have stayed on there but it was time to move on. My friend Rachel was coming to Thailand so we headed back to Bangkok. A rather tame journey. We left it to the day we were leaving to decide how to get there. Planning ahead isn't really our forte. All the

buses were booked up as there was some sort of long wknd celebration

going on in Bangkok. Again. We never learn do we. So we got a train instead. 2nd class this time

and it was great. We even got a meal. Although I think that's what made me feel sick during the night but never mind. We left at 9pm and arrived in Bangkok 12 hrs later. The bus would have taken 10. Still puzzles me how train journeys take longer than buses! When we arrived we had an hour or so to wait for Rachel. I checked that there were enough tickets for the 1pm train we planned to get down south. Yes. Plenty. Rachel arrived and after a quick hug and hello I returned to buy the tickets. I didn't want to get them before in case there was some sort of hold up.

""3 tickets to Chumpon please"
"Ahh sorry, sold out"

Perfect.
So instead of waiting a further 3 hrs for the next train, we headed to the bus station and were eventually on our merry way. After 8 hrs of food stops, toilet stops, catching up with life at home with Rachel and of course some neck-paralysing broken sleep we arrived at Chumpon. We had originally planned to catch a night ferry to our destination of Ko Tao but missing the train earlier had thrown this out of the bus window. So I called a guesthouse who said they would pick us up from the station when we arrived. So I did but they then told me we needed to get in to town in order to be picked up. Imagine a bus stop in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. We had a man hassling us to take us to town for an exhaustionate rate. I think Rachel thought we were silly for trying to haggle him down considering our situation but it's so annoying when you know how much it really should cost. In the end we lost the bartering battle and relentlessly paid the guy to take us straight to our guest house. I was glad to put my head down after 2 days of not much sleep.

Up bright and early the next day and we were picked up in a bus and taken to the pier. I was impressed by the boat as me and Stephen had actually imagined some more bamboo rafting to get us to the island... but no. It was very boat-like. 3 hrs and a lot of swaying later we arrived in Koh Tao. As we got off the boat we were rather concerned at all the miserable looking people waiting to get on...