We woke up bleary eyed at half 6 and made our way out to the hotel lobby to await our minibus. It turned up on time and we clambered in the only two seats available, the two next to the driver. He seemed fairly stern at first but we soon noticed his soft side as whenever he saw a temple he would bow his head and put his hands together in prayer - which was somewhat alarming as he was driving. He also kept pointing things out on the horizon and mumbling titbits of information in half Thai/half broken English that Tom and I just had to smile and nod at.

We arrived at our first destination and discovered that we were only two of a large party of tourists across 6 over minibuses. Tom and I managed to escape the tour guide setting and explode by ourselves, finding some pretty epic temples and Buddhist statues.

We stopped off at another 4 temples during the day which were all huge and impressive. We are still at a loss at what being a Buddhist actually means - all we know is that they like the colour orange and like sticking pieces of gold leaf onto their statues. We also stopped off for a lunch which was surprisingly ok as it was part of the day's package and we decided to share a Chang beer which was probably a bad idea seeing as it was so hot and we were probably dehydrated. It soon caught up with us as he both fell asleep on the bus back to Khao San Road.

We were nice and early for our night bus to Chumphon so we stopped at a bar for juice and spring rolls as a snack and then went back to the hotel for a quick rinse and change of clothes so we wouldn't be disgusting for the bus. We then found a back alley called Susies Walk off Khao San and went for an explore to find a quick meal, which we found at a lovely little restaurant and both had some yummy noodles.

We returned to the hotel to await our pick up to the bus station between the time of half 7 and 8. 8 came and there was still no sign so we got the receptionist to chase. They had obviously forgotten as 5 mins later a man came running by to walk us to bus check in. This was a surprise for me as night buses generally just pick you up at the allotted time and you get on the way. Turns out Thailand is less organised as the next couple of hours was a shambles!

After queuing for check in and being herded to the pick up area we were finally on the bus - which definitely wasn't the sleeper buses I was used to! I managed to get a few hours sleep whereas Tom struggled to get even one. At half 4, in the pitch black, they turfed us out at the port in Chumphon, even though our ferry wasn't until 7. Luckily Tom and I managed to bag ourselves two of only a few deck chairs to lie down in until 7, whereas the rest of the passengers had to crash wherever they could. It was a slightly surreal experience to say the very least! Yet again, I managed a small kip whereas Tom failed. Yet again.

As dawn came up I rewarded Toms stamina with a latte at the nearby cafe. Soon after, the boat arrived and we were on our way to Koh Tao! ☀️