Travel Day 1108 – Koh Tao to Bangkok, THAILAND
It didn’t seem fair, but the weather was finally really good, I was starting to feel quite comfortable on Koh Tao and yet I had to leave everything behind already…
Empty Morning Beach on Koh Tao Island
I guess I always knew that I would only have a few days left to visit Koh Tao between Suan Mokkh and my flight to Sri Lanka, but because I took the ferry over to Koh Phangan first, I really only ended up with one full day on the lovely beach on Koh Tao. This circumstance seemed especially annoying when considering how much money the transport was costing in the end. While I was already in shock about my daily expenses after coming from Nepal, in the end my biggest expense was actually the transportation cost…
Anyhow, my flight to Sri Lanka was arranged for tomorrow. So being left with no other choice and having already the boat and bus arranged for the morning, the least thing I could do was to stop by the beach one last time. This was actually a great idea, not only because I wanted to say good-bye, but also because it gave me the chance to experience a really nice and empty beach before the party loving crowds had even managed to crawl out of bed…
Speed Boat on Koh Tao Island, Thailand
By the time I was finally heading over to the pick-up point for the ferry transfer, I was more than certain that I would be back on Koh Tao very soon again and with definitely more time at hand. So instead of having another nice beach Daycation, this day turned into quite an Active Travel Day, including a taxi ride, a ride in a modern speed boat and a long drive in a modern, almost futuristic looking double-decker bus. And while the speed boat had 5 big screen TVs under deck which turned the passenger room into a bigger version of a home cinema, the screens on the bus were luckily out of service and we were able to enjoy the ride in peace for once…
But it was overall quite amazing how well everything was set up and how much Thailand was catering to tourists. Literally everything was exactly the way it was promised, everything was exactly on time and apparently everyone paid exactly the same price. Being accustomed to lesser developed and organized countries, I found myself constantly questioning if the ticket was really valid for a boat and a bus. I was questioning if I just paid for a speedboat and would have to take a normal one in the end because a speedboat didn’t actually exist and so forth…
Modern Double-Decker Bus to Bangkok
None of these things that I was envisioning did happen here, although they certainly would have happened India. I just found myself constantly looking around in amazement how well everything was set up for tourists and how many tourists there actually were. Yeah Thailand was not only making it easy for tourists, Thailand was actually embracing them and I couldn’t quite decide if I loved or hated that, but one thing was for sure, the visitors that Thailand attracted were also quite different from the ones that India attracted…
Considering that I was used to normally fight for every little thing, travelling in Thailand seemed almost boring, but on the other hand it was also nice for once to not actually have to worry about anything. Yeah Thailand was a great place for a tourist on vacation while India and Nepal were definitely great places for a traveler… : )
Find all Koh Tao Photos here.