After being woken by the guest next door coughing up a lung at 5:30am this morning, we left our hotel. George was delighted at check out when the hotel gave us a partial refund for leaving early. 😳 Today we took the two hour bus ride from East to West Thailand. It's the very thin bit! It was 1.5 hours curling around the roads uphill. And then 30 minutes flying down the other side. Our bus interior was quite bizarre - check out the ceiling. Every bus has blue curtains as standard. Usually with frilly hanging bits. Luckily we didn't have those dust collectors today. Our destination today was Ranong which is the sea border with Myanmar (Burma). Sadly we can't visit due to the war and the FCDO advising against all travel. As we crossed into Ranong Province we stopped at a checkpoint for the police to board the bus, check us out and had a look at the luggage. The seating system and ticketing on the journey today was quite ridiculous. Mostly tourists board...
On Saturday we left lovely Prachuap Khiri Khan to head South. The second class train option was fully booked, so we has no option but to travel third class. This cost was around £1 per person. The three hour journey down South was hot and quite unbearable at times in the busy carriage. We stood for about 45 minutes, before managing to get a seat next to an open window blasting in hot air. Our next stop is Chumphon. We knew this town was going to be a little quiet. But the purpose of the visit was to sort out a visa extension. The town is mainly used as a ferry departure point for Koh Tao, Koh Samui and Koh Phangan (full moon party). I did look at options to revisit these islands as it's been a few years. However it is peak season so the prices have risen dramatically. Unfortunately our stay hasn't been very exciting. We are staying slightly out side the town (which we knew to be the case) in a modern hotel....