From One Koh to Another
July 12 – just another travel day
We have long contended that a travel day is a travel day regardless of how long the trip is. If you take a a 16 hour bus ride, or a 6 hour flight with 3 connections, or 30 minute ferry ride it always consumes a day. Today was the test of that theory.
The ferry ride from Koh Samui to Koh Phangan was 30 minutes leaving from the Nathon Pier to Thong Sala Pier. But that meant we needed to check out, pack up, drive to the Pier, get from the Pier, check in and unpack. These days with the addition of kids and more financial resources we travel in a bit more comfort than in our previous backpacker days.
Not wanting to waste a minute at the beach, we got a 12:30 taxi for our 1:30 ferry (waiting at a ferry terminal is rarely enjoyable) so we spent the morning lazing st breakfast, getting a last ocean swim, and enjoying the beach. Of course, we underestimated the pack out time and we were frantically tossing together bags but still managed to be ‘Kramer on-time’ and by 12:37 were loaded in the taxi. Our route around the southern part of the island revealed that we hadn’t missed much by never leaving our beach.
We arrived at the pier at 1:10 and by 1:30 our ferry arrived from the mainland and we were off. The seas were calm and 30 minutes later we were disembarking on the equally large, but substantially less developed island of Koh Phangan, which still manages to carry its hippy vibe. We found our driver from the Haad Salad Beach Resort who loaded us and a dozen of our new friends onto the back of an open air songthaew. On Koh Phangan all taxi service is via songthaew which is a pick up truck where the bed has been covered and converted to seat 12+ with the passenger luggage tossed on the roof.
Unlike our first hotel pick up, this one was not complementary (150 baht per person $4.50). 30 minutes later and a few hotel drop offs later, we arrived at our hotel. During check in the manager couldn’t find our reservation and when Tom finally showed them our booking.com reservation they said “Not this hotel. This hotel Haad Salad Beach Resort. Your hotel Haad Salad Resort. That way, down dirt road.” Hot and grumpy, we were not in a mood to drag our bags to a different road, but the songthaew had since dashed off.
Tom walked down the road to find ‘reception’ where the ‘manager’ seemed relieved to see us. They had sent a driver but when we saw their handwritten cardboard sign Tom asked the driver ‘Kramer?’ he shook his head, because apparently on the island they only used first names. Tom thought he had booked the other hotel and only now realized this hotel was a 2-star not a 3 star. We dropped our bags in the rustic 2 room bungalow in front of the green colored inflatable ‘pool’ and set off to the beach for some food.
The room was clean enough but the grounds were uninspiring and the ‘resort’ was set back from the beach such that your walked rough another hotel to get to the beach. It was remarkably similar to the bungalow we had rented in Koh Phi Phi 20 years ago, but should have cost $25/night not $75. Everyone had been prepped that our accommodation would be a step down from the Lamai Wanta, but this was a bigger step down then anyone was prepared for.
By now it was 4pm and our stress was compounded by our hunger. We walked through the Haad Salad Villa bungalows – 3 minutes to the beach – to that hotel’s restaurant Thankfully, the beach was lovely and the restaurant was cute and cheap. As our $2 mango shakes were being made, the kids explored the beach and Sue and Tom concocted a backup plan. Our room had a one night cancellation fee and according to booking.com the Haad Salad Beach Resort had rooms available for less than we were paying. There were a few other options so Sue and Evie set off to explore our options while Tom cried in his shake.
An hour later Sue returned with the lay of the land – the hotel Tom thought he’d booked was available and was the best option. We could have it starting tonight or tomorrow but we decided to spend one night at our current place and not pay for 2 rooms and only use one. The management of Haad Salad Resort wasn’t happy, but who cares. Crisis averted, the kids changed into their suits to play in the shallow water of the cove and the adults enjoyed the view.
After the sun went down we strolled 100m from our late lunch spot to a bustling restaurant on the beach. After ordering, Tom walked back to ‘town’ – a collection of 4 identical supermarkets, a laundry place, and a dive shop – to talk about the possibility of scuba diving the next few days. In Thai, Haad Salad means Pirate Beach and the dive shop is the appropriately named Pirate Divers. The manager is a friendly Swede with an equally lovely Thai wife. Yes, it was possible for the kids to do a 6 meter dive at Sail Rock, a famous destination between Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. Koh Tao is a renown dive island and because we are on the northwest part of the island we are equidistant to a Sail rock. The discovery dive was surprisingly affordable ($100 for 2 dives) and because Sue and Tom are certified their dive was even cheaper ($75 for 2 dives). Leave the shop at 7am and return around 2pm. Perfect.
At the dive shop, Tom also learned that the confusion over the hotels is not uncommon. Until recently, our hotel was actually named Smile Resort (we noticed all the signage except the one welcome sign said Smile Resort) and the places are owned by the same people. So the confusion is not entirely ‘accidental.’ As a result we felt much less sheepish about our change of plans.
Plans made, Tom returned to the restaurant in time to enjoy dinner with all the other happy families. As we knew, a travel day is a travel day regardless of the trip length. Our 30 minute ferry ride took us 4 hours door-to-door and another 2 hours to sort our hotel issues. But alls well that ends well.