A taxi driver who was aware that we were running late took us from our hotel at the Koh Tao Cabana to the pier. He took us to the wrong pier, and almost boarded the wrong boat to the wrong destination. Thank goodness for that little Thai woman running towards us, waving a ticket and shouting as we boarded the gangway. Goodness knows where we may have ended up. Phuket, probably. Or maybe… somewhere else. Who knows?
Once we did board the correct boat and it started to lurch violently through the water, we moved directly to first class to avoid the seasickness. However, there was an Englishman in first class who had succumbed to the undulations of the sea, and spent the entire trip throwing up noisily into a bag. Now there was only so much of this we could stand- I did offer him some advice I had learned to combat le mal du mer- get some fresh air, look toward the horizon, but he ignored it and continued hurling. Shortly afterwards, the choppiness of the sea almost caused me to join him in his malady, and I spent most of the journey on deck following my own advice, unwilling to move an inch for fear of disturbing the careful balance within my stomach.
2 hours later after our boat journey began, we docked somewhere (I honestly don’t know where) amidst squawking taxi drivers vying for business, and had to change boats, having a half hour window between arrival and departure. We risked getting completely lost and left behind to dash into town for some seasickness tablets.
The next journey went blissfully as I slept the entire way- good old seasickness tablets!
We awoke to find ourselves at our destination- Surithani. Or so we thought. Our itinerary said that we would be picked up “as we disembarked the ferry”, so we ignored the cacophony of Thai’s telling us to get onto this bus or that bus, confident that we were being picked up. I did feel a little twinge of nervousness as the buses departed with every other tourist on board; leaving just Harriet and I left on the pier, but trusted that the itinerary was correct.
What we didn’t know is that for the first time, the ferry had arrived early and had not docked at Surithani- it had docked at Donsak, half an hour away from where we were supposed to be. The buses that the Thai's had tried to get us to board were going to take us to Sirithani pier- where our driver was waiting for us.
So Harriet and I waited patiently at the wrong pier for no-one to arrive. After two hours passed, we started making phone calls and discovered our issue- and the travel agent sent someone to come and get us. It was a young Thai gentleman and our transport was his pickup.
We were both squashed into the cab of the Thai gentleman’s pickup, Harriet against the window and me in the middle with my leg constantly pressed against the gear stick. I thought that this would be a safety hazard, but the driver proved to be much more dangerous than the lack of space. He didn’t like any particular lane; he liked to drive in about half of each. Throughout the trip, he was more interested in either hooting the horn with his elbow, chatting on the mobile or chewing on leaves than watching the road- it was an adrenaline filled ride!
Luckily we arrived accident free to the Surithani pier, and onto our transfer, arriving into the tree house in the rainforest at night….
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