Sunday, January 15, 2012

Spent the whole day killing time at my hostel, waiting for my sleeper bus to depart from the train station at 7 PM for Ko Samui. Chatted in the common room with a Canadian who had been in Thailand for three months. He recommended seeing Ko Chang, a small island to the east, and skipping Pattaya, in his words a place where old white men go to get native girls. Got some insight from his stories into the way Thai family members support each other, and why so little money is saved per paycheck. Ate some street food at the train station for dinner. Somehow boarded the sleeper bus almost last and got one of the two broken seats that couldn’t recline. So I was strapped in upright like Frankenstein for seven hours until some people got off and I could take another seat. I met the nice guy sitting behind me, whose seat was also broken, but who was taking it much better than I. He was Vietnamese, but had grown up in England. We spoke a little about Vietnam and the things I’d seen there. I’d actually seen more than him. We arrived in Surat Thani at 6 AM.