Off to the beach again. .....eventually!

  Chumphon, Thailand Wednesday, November 19, 2014

We left Bangkok at 6am on a bus bound for Chumphong about 200km south of the city. It was to supposed to take 6 hours and then we would get a catarmaran to Koh Tao, arriving on the beach at about 3:15 pm. You know what they say about the best laid plans ..... It started off ok. We got the bus. The bus left Bangkok. Then about an hour later - crunch - the gearbox on the bus went. We were stranded for 3 hours before a new bus turned up. This one was much swankier too! However, we all knew there was no way we were going to make that ferry. Even if we had not broken down there was only a half hour wait at the ferry port so no way could the driver make up the 3 hours lost time. As we got going again we received a message from bus HQ that the driver was going to make a stop for everyone to have lunch and the bus company were paying as an apology for the delays. Wow! a bus company that takes responsibility when things go wrong we like it. Lunch was no soggy sandwich affair either. When we stopped a huge array of dishes had been put out on some nicely laid up tables for us and everyone tucked in. Except Jody as the vegetarian options were a bit thin on the ground but never mind - rice is vegetarian. We continued our journey with the knowledge that the bus company had promised to look after us but not knowing what that meant. There were a couple of lads on the bus that worked in a dive school on Koh Tao who had been very pessimistic about the bus company doing anything to help us and kept saying "yes but this is Thailand" whenever it was put to them that the bus company has the responsibility for us. But after a good feed they had calmed down a bit too. We arrived at the ferry port about 4pm (a whole 12 hours since the alarm went off!) and it was bad news.... The ferry had long since sailed and we had 2 options. Wait until 11:30pm for the night ferry. Or let the bus company put us up in a hotel and we get the 7am ferry instead. One girl burst into tears (???) but for us it was a no brainer. We had not booked any accommodation for tonight so it would be a free nights' stay on the mainland for us. Not what we had planned but all part of the adventure for us! Then we had images of a grotty B&B somewhere but no... we pulled up in front of a very smart hotel and our room was quite nice too. We found some supper locally and turned in early as it had been a long day. We needed a good nights' sleep ready for yet another early start in the morning. The bus company laid on buses to get us to the ferry port at 6am and we were finally off. The crossing was 1 1/2 hours long and it was pretty rough. Many people were being sick but once again, other than feeling like we had just ridden the world's longest roller coaster, we were fine as usual.We arrived on Koh Tao and dodged all the guesthouse touts and taxi drivers. It was bedlam there! We had already agreed that breakfast was the priority then after all the chaos and excitement that surrounds a new boat coming in had calmed down, we would walk the streets and find somewhere to stay at our own pace. Once again, Asia proves to us why it's the best continent on the planet. We had just finished mopping up our egg when we were approached by a man of senior years let's say. Clive. He had a brochure of his apartments and was touting for business. He said since the recent tragedy the island is so quiet and the usual volumes of tourists have disappeared. So he was offerig a one bedroom apartment for just 600baht a night. The pictures looked lovely and we were tempted so we asked him to come back to us in an hour as we still had to finish breakfast. We had a quick google of his place and the reviews were good. It was however not on a part of the island we had contemplated as it was pretty remote. No bars or shops there. So when Clive came back, he said if you don't like it I will bring you back and no hard feelings. So with nothing to lose we jumped in his car and off we went. We were not really prepared for the road he took. It was incredibly steep and not really a road in places. Every time there was a choice of roads to take, Clive took the least obvious. But just 15 minutes later we had arrived.We were not sure where as Clive stopped the car and announced we had arrived but we could't see anything. That's because we had 200 steps to climb! OMG! We set off with 2 young lad running ahead with our cases like 2 little Sherpas up Everest! We arrived at the top and found reception/the restaurant/laundry/hang out area. The manager then lead us down another 50 steps to the apartment. As soon as we walked in we were sold. We forgot about the road, we forgot about the steps we just saw the beautiful apartment, the stunning views and heard the waves below us. The apartments had been build onto the cliff and part of the bedroom wall was one of the massive boulders on the side of the cliff. Equipped with our own mini kitchen we could hunker down here for weeks. It is one of those places that even though it was a nightmare to find and an exhausting climb to reach, it was well worth the effort and we just had to stay here. WOW!! [gallery columns="4" ids="9339,9341,9343,9347,9353,9359,9368,9371,9380,9383,9392,9406,9412,9420,9423,9429,9436,9443,9449,9463,9473"]