Getting back to Bangkok

Leaving Koh Phi Phi was simply a matter of arriving at the pier at 9am and hopping on the big ferry boat. A smooth 1.5 hours later we arrived on Phuket and hop into a local songthaw for the 15 minute ride into the main bus terminal in Phuket Town itself. All 3 of us had been to Phuket before, and so we weren't particularly bothered about skipping the island (if Mullins had had a bit more time we might have tried to find a nice beach spot on Kata or Karon beach for a day or two though).

From the bus terminal we had a number of options to get up to Bangkok. We could take a cheap tourist bus leaving at a convenient time, or a more expensive government bus leaving a few hours later. We all knew the dangers of taking the tourist bus (i.e. the various scams they pull on you), but after talking to 3 different operators both myself and Mullins had a good feeling about one of them. So we decided to trust our instincts and go with the tourist bus (although we didn't take the cheapest option, opting instead for a slightly more luxurious option).

Well, you simply can't always trust your intuition I suppose! It turned out we were rightly ripped off again, or at least we would have been if we didn't kick up an almightyful fuss. Our first minibus to Surat Thani departed about 45 minutes late, but at least the 3 of us got the best seats. Mullins got the passenger seat beside the driver, and myself and Sarah got to share the first row.

After waiting for about 25 minutes at the transfer point (just a restaurant in the middle of nowhere), a guy arrives in a nice new air-conditioned car to take us to what we think is another transfer point (basically, long-distance tourist bus journeys seem to be made up by connecting various bus journeys). Anyway, it turns out he drops us at a tour office in the city and then just kind of ignores us. There are a couple of girls there too, but none of them have much English, and when we start to inquire about what is happening it turns out there are no seats available on any of the tourist buses to Bangkok that night (at least that's what we think they were trying to say). It all becomes very messy, and after we start going mad, and make a show of looking for the tourist police, and the guy and the girls start coming and going and making phone calls, eventually a songthaw (a big taxi thing) driver arrives and we're beckoned to follow him.

It ends up that he takes us to the government bus terminal a few kilometers away and he buys tickets for us on the cheapest government bus to Bangkok. At this stage we're just thankful to be getting to Bangkok at all, but we all realise we've been ripped off yet again (as we'd paid for a luxury bus, and we could have just gotten the cheaper government bus ourselves from Phuket - although a further complication was that the government buses don't go anywhere near Khao San Road, whereas the tourist ones drop you right there).

As the songthaw driver is taking his change for the bus tickets I grab it right out of his hand and explain to him that that money will now go towards the taxi we were now forced to pay for to get us to Khao San Road (which was were we had originally paid to go). The songthaw driver acts all hurt, almost beginning to cry, saying he won't get paid a penny for bringing us to the bus terminal, but strangely he doesn't put up any kind of fight to get his money. Sarah and Mullins are both telling me to give him back the money, but I've never come across a taxi driver that would give up a legitimate fare so easily. To me it was as clear as day that this was all just part of the same scam, and I was damned if I was going to let these guys get away with even more of our money.

Anyway, it was all quite funny in the end, and we were really lucky to get seats on that bus (although we had to take the seats at the very front of the bus, which have the least leg room). So we arrived at the Eastern bus terminal in Bangkok and after checking the options for continuing directly to Mae Sot, we decided to stay a night in Bangkok (as Mullins needed to get a Vietnam visa sorted out) and get a bus the following night. So we hopped into a metered taxi for the journey back to Khao San road.