18/05/09; they come round when we got back on the train with a menu of 4 course meals for 3pounds!! we couldnt say no! Mine was delicious! it started hammering it down as we crossed the border-typical!! the person serving the food produced a table from under the chairs and put it up between us then put it down afterwards and pulled down the top bunk and set up the bottom bunk so we could have a sleep. we were exhausted so slept from about 9-11- thinking the train was arriving at 12. but the time had changed on entering thailand and we were a bit confused by it all so we arrived at about 11- luckily the guard woke everyone getting off up. we got off and was thinking we would have to lurk about at the station or at the harbour until morning when the first boat left for koh samui- but some bloke approached us straight away and asked where we was going and suggested we get a lift with him to a hotel to get some sleep cos the first boat wasnt until about 8- we was tired so agreed. we paid 150baht- 3 quid each and got put in the back of a truck with 4 american backpackers- they put all our backpacks loose on the roof! i thought they were gonna take us somewhere and rob us or leave our backpacks to fall off and go behind picking them up! but we made it thank god to a small hotel where we paid 3 quid each for the room which even had an en-suite, still no loo roll tho!! they also arrange for us to get bus to ferry in the morning and the ferry journey- all for about 6 quid each!! they said they would wake us up at 7 in time to leave at 7.30 so we just crashed.

19/05/09; sure enough they woke us up at 6.30. we got ready and checked out and waited outside for a bus when two mopeds turned up!!! i got on the back of one and lil alex on the other- he still had his backpack on but my driver put mine in between his legs which was lucky cos i was holding on to the handles behind me for dear life. everyone here drives mopeds- no helmets! luckily they drove ok- not like some of the lunatics- it was an experience!! they took us to some garage place where we had to wait 30 minutes for a truck- with 9 of us and luggage all in the back which took us to another office place where we got on a proper coach which took us to the harbour. while we was waiting at office we was approached by someone who could arrange transport on koh samui to our hostel for 150baht each so we signed up for that (afterwards i was thinking it was probably a con and there wouldnt be any air-conditioned minibus waiting as promised). we got on boat and had 1.5hour journey over to the island. it was gorgeous- the sun was shining and we sat on the deck looking at the scenery.