1st June 2007

Today has been an absolute NIGHTMARE!!! We arrived at some random place around 6am where everyone piled off the coach and into these shoddy 'van' efforts. Then we drove to Sunat-Thani, not sure how long it took as i was dozing! But we arrived and everyone split off into separate vans to different destinations. We got into ours, our rucksacks were tied onto the roof of this thing, only for the rain deciding to chuck it down and completely soak our bags! Grrr. Anyway off we set (or so we thought) but then stopped again at another run down shack, where there was a few pissed off looking English people. We were forced off the van and into Reception where we had to confirm our destination. Then the woman told us we had to pay a further 400 Baht - when we had already paid in full 650 Baht for the whole trip!!! And the woman said we could not go to Phuket Town we had to go to Patong Beach (still in Phuket), which we were going to go to anyway. So reluctantly we paid up and got back on the 'van'. By now we were very annoyed, and aggravated from lack of sleep and silly con women!! Then from Sunat-Thani it took a further 4hrs drive along with a couple from Ireland, 2 guys from Norway, another guy from Spain, a Korean, and some English girls. Oh yeah and some old guy from Norway who was doing everyones head in. He was drinking beer right from the start - (8am!) Then was puttting his legs over everyone and picking his scabs! Eugh, i was heaving. Then he spilt his can over the guys sat next to him, and was chucking his empty cans out of the window, only to get a severe shouting at in Thai from our driver! So, yeah, he was a pain in the arse to be blunt. We eventually arrived at the beach, and as we had got chatting to Rob and Tracey from Ireland, we decided to go to the same hostel that they were going to. Arrived there, again simple bed and en suite, good air conditioning etc. Free shuttle bus running to the beach and back every hour, as we are up a hill from the beach, so thats good.