Visa Run to Kuala Lumpur, Part Three: The Return

I was unable to purchase round trip transport from Koh Tao to Kuala Lumpur and I couldn't get a ticket  all the way from KL to Koh Tao. So I bought tickets as I went, retracing the route I took to get there. On the way down, the whole trip was set up so each leg was scheduled to coincide with the next. Switching from boat to van and van to bus was no problem because they were linked together. For some reason, this wasn't an option going back.

It started off ok. I caught the big red double decker bus that left almost on time that would take me across the border and on to Hatyai.

After eyeing me somewhat suspiciously and studying the stamps in my passport, the Thai immigration officer informed me I would need a visa if I wanted to come back again after reluctantly giving me another 30 days. Hopefully I can take care of this in a couple of weeks when I get to Laos. For now, I'm good until mid-September. The bus continued on, making just as many stops as we made on the way down, but mostly at places where I couldn't buy food. I slept most of the way this time, so I didn't really care. We got there well after sunset and there was no hope of moving on until morning. The most noteworthy event of my time in Hatyai was seeing an elephant walking down the street in the middle of the city. I've now seen both a random elephant and a random lion in an urban setting. Interesting and sad.

The next stop was Surat Thani. It was the same type of minivan I had on this leg going the other way, but this time nothing went as planned. A lesser, or perhaps better, man than I would have used whatever means necessary to ensure this driver did not prevent the timely arrival at the next stop. But alas I am somewhat lazy, have some morals, and am generally averse to prison. So as it happened, the four hour trip I was sold, became a 7 hour trip resulting in missing the boat to Koh Tao. I did, however, get the pleasure of discussing with my militant tour operator friend my dilemma and the error of the bus company that sold me the trip to this point. Upon my mention of the quantitative difference between the numbers 4 and 7, he immediately got defensive by going on the offensive and telling me it was my fault for the minivan arriving late and then that he had nothing to do with the other company, so why was I telling him this. Dude has issues. I'm so thankful I don't have his life. They did have my Kindle, though, which, as you'll recall from part one of this saga was left on the minivan when I got to Hatyai the first time. My new friend here was quick to point out that had I been travelling with any other outfit, I would have never seen my Kindle again. Apparently every other transportation agency in Thailand is run by thieves. (I do consider myself lucky to get it back, but this guy was still a dick)

So I now had three options, pay a taxi a sum of more than the rest of the entire return trip to get me to the fast boat that I was supposed to be on, stay the night in Surat Thani and catch first fast boat the next day, or hang out around town for 6 hours and take the slow night boat back to Koh Tao. After thinking for several moments on the question of what there was to do around there for 6 hours, the woman selling me the ticket said there was pizza near the pier. I figured there'd be beer to go along with said pizza and I opted for the night boat. My entertainment while I enjoyed my pizza and beer was watching these guys across the street try and kick a ball through a net raised up into the sky. I would have gone over there to show them how it was done, but it was kind of windy with the storm moving in and...

Nothing much to say about the boat. Proving me wrong, it turned out to indeed be seaworthy enough to get us to Koh Tao. And I got to watch the stars from the top of the boat while out in open water away from light pollution. So that was nice. It wrapped up a pretty good trip to a city that was definitely a pleasant surprise.