Koh Phangan to Bangkok

Today was a travel day as we made our way from quiet, unhurried Milky Bay on Koh Phangan Island back to the busy crowds of bustling Bangkok for our final 5 days in Thailand. We left the resort at 11 am and finally checked into the Feung Nakorn Balcony Hotel just after 8 pm, having travelled by troop transport truck, high-speed catamaran, highway bus, plane and taxi to make the journey!

They put stickers on you when you get your tickets from the islands which helps to see at a glance if you're in the wrong line-up, boat, bus etc. - it is confusing with lots of tourists going every which way and not many of us speaking any Thai! The boat was a bit slowed by wind conditions and we enjoyed quite a few little saltwater spray-washes along the way as we sat outside on the back deck to avoid nausea!

The Lomprayah high-speed catamaran called in at Koh Samui on the way, so we got a brief glimpse of that island, much more developed and populated than Koh Phangan. The island and mountain shapes are startlingly steep-sided and covered in palm trees and other tropical vegetation, so the contrast between the lush green land and the turquoise sea is quite dramatic!

The little airport on the Thai mainland where the bus took us was easy to get around, and had excellent coffee at the Doi Chaang shop, and then it took just over an hour on a Nok Air 737 to get to municipal Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok. Finding a taxi was easy since they have floor lines directing you to ranks of taxi-assigners, but our driver didn't know where our hotel was located, despite the address and little map we had in Thai, so she drove us to the general area, and then consulted a tuk-tuk driver at some length before finally taking us to the right address!

We are in more of a residential area than before, so found no restaurants open at 9 pm, until we happened across the golden arches while walking aimlessly about! Tomorrow we'll find an alternative to McThai/McDonalds, but tonight we were happy to find it!

Not many photos from the day, so I have also included one of a little sheet of Buddhist wisdom (in English and Thai) that we saw tacked to the post in out Mae Kampong homestay house - enjoy!