Planes, Trains and Songthaews?

Just wanted to share the details of our 26 hour journey from Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand to Ko Samui, a resort island in southern Thailand. Hopefully this will be the longest travel day we ever need to subject ourselves to. For the record you can fly but it is at least 200 dollars a person, which our budget does not allow, so for under 100 dollars a person we did the following:

Thurs. 8th 15:00 - Take uneventful tuk-tuk ride to the train station.

Thurs. 8th 16:30 - Board overnight train to Bangkok in Chiang Mai. We have 2nd class sleeper, which is pretty nice, you do not have a private room, but you have your own private bunk. There is a nice wide bed and a guy comes out with fresh sheets and blankets and makes the bed for you. Had a good night sleep on the train.

Fri. 9th 7:00 - Get off train at Don Muang airport station. This is Bangkok's old airport with is only used for a few domestic flights, so spend a long time walking around the now abandoned international terminals to find the domestic terminal. Whole place feels like a time warp to 1988.

Fri. 9th 10:00 - Board flight to Surat Thani, the nearest mainland city to Ko Samui.

Fri. 9th 11:30 - Get off plane and get on bus to take us to downtown Surat Thani.

Fri. 9th 12:00 - Arrive in Surat Thani and get lunch of fabulous roast duck from a local Thai street type place. Also, get combined bus/ferry ticket to Ko Samui.

Fri. 9th 13:30 - Board bus to take us the 55km to the ferry. Nisha unintentially pisses off English girl behind us by reclining in the seat to take a nap. Brit bitches under her breath and we laugh about her later. I guess only she has the right to recline her seat on a bus.

Fri. 9th 15:00 - Arrive at ferry dock and get on ferry to Ko Samui. It is an old Japanese setup, so it takes me a minute to figure out why I know what some of the signs mean even though I don't speak Thai. Good to know a little of my Japanese stuck.

Fri. 9th 17:00 - Arrive at Ko Samui. Can't pay 500 Baht for cab to take us across the island to Chaweng beach, so take a songthaew for 100 Baht each. We are the last ones on so Nisha gets a seat and I end up standing on the tailgate platform hanging on to the roof rack bars, with a local Thai guy. This is actually a much better place to be since Nisha ends up being squished by the same difficult English girl from the bus.

Fri. 9th 18:30 - Our 40 minute ride to the other side of the island takes and hour and a half due to flooding from the recent rains. Really aggravating when you are in town for 30 minutes but don't want to get off since you can't figure out where you are. Finally check in to hotel.

We were mentioning on the way that this trip would be my Mom's worst nightmare. Not only because of all the modes of transportation, but the fact that only on the train and the plane did we actually have reservations.

Needless to say, a day of bumming around on the beach is going to feel pretty good.