My next stop was Ko Phangan island. About a 3 hour ferry ride from the port at Surat Thani, I was well entertained by a man napping nearby me with his pet monkey on a lead showboating for all the children who would watch him. By the time I arrived on the island it was nearing dark. I found a taxi at the dock that would take me to my hotel about an hour's drive from the pier. I had a little trouble with the language barrier there and apparently rented the entire taxi- that would normally seat 6-8 people or more for only myself so I ended up being grossly overcharged, but I was tired enough that I was just glad to be to the hotel as quickly as I could. I do say "taxi" in the loosest terms possible here, as taxis on the island are pickup trucks that have covered beds to sit in with rails on the sides for their passengers to hold onto. Unfortunately they do not have tailgates attached, so I was clinging to those railings with every inch of my being while trying to also hold onto my luggage and praying that I wouldn't lose my grip and just bounce out the back as the truck roared up and down hills on dirt roads full of potholes and ditches on dark jungle roads. It took about an hour to get to my hotel and by the time I did the palms of my hands had turned blue from where the paint had peeled from the railings. Not an experience I would wish to repeat too often! Once I arrived at my hotel, however, everything was smooth sailing. I had a private little bamboo hut near the beach and just down from the hotel's restaurant. I was hungry when I arrived, so I headed straight down to the restaurant, had an amazing Spicy Green Papaya Salad and watched the firedancers that were performing on the beach. No pictures, since I didn't have my camera on me at the time, but they were a lot of fun to watch. The next morning I slept in a bit, which meant that I missed the tour to go out snorkeling in the reefs, but I enjoyed my day wandering around the little town there. The island itself was much more commercialized than the other parts of Thailand I had been to and I didn't enjoy it as much as the National Park or the Monkey College, but it was nice and I enjoyed having a day or so to relax. I found a restaurant that was giving cooking lessons that night and was able to go and learn how to make matsamam curry and pad thai alongside a couple of English gentlemen who were also staying on the island. A perfect night for me before heading back to the hotel for a little dessert of bananas simmered in coconut milk. Yum! The next morning I woke up early and took a swim in the ocean right there by my hut. Then I wandered into town back to the restaurant where my cooking lesson had been for a yummy fruit breakfast and then got my second Thai massage at a massage parlor there before heading back to the hotel. I hadn't planned much time on the island since I had spent so much time in the park and with the monkeys, so it was time to move on again. I took the scary taxi back down to the pier (they let me ride in the cab this time!) and then the ferry across to the bus station and the bus up to the train station. I jumped on an overnight sleeper train where I shared a sleeping cabin with a Canadian girl about my age who was surprisingly also abroad teaching in S. Korea. We got along really well and decided to spend our next day touring Bangkok together before heading to the airport to meet our planes. I loved the sleeper train. Such a nice ride for the price difference between that and the flight. And it was nice to talk to the Thai people working on the train and see the cafe workers at the stations selling snacks and drinks through the windows to the passengers onboard. A very nice trip indeed.
