On the rails again
After a day of 'hanging around' the pool at the
guest house, we took another sleeper train down to Surat Thani, in southern
Thailand. Our desination is Koh Samui, an island off the East coast, where
we're due to meet up with our friends from home - Caroline and Peter,
and Charlotte and Emily's best friends, Oliver and Rachel. When we'd left
home 9 months ago, we'd all said we'd meet up somewhere on the trip, for
them to fly out for a two week beach holiday. And finally, after a huge
wait, the time's arrived! Although we're already in Thailand, we've still
got a longer journey than they will have from England. We've got a 12-hour
train trip, followed by a two hour bus, a four hour ferry, and finally
a bus on the island, which should see us there in 19 hours. They have
a long-flight from England, followed by a plane change in Singapore for
the hop up to Thailand. If we were both leaving at the same time, they'd
arrive at the hotel about an hour earlier, despite the fact that they're
travelling 8,000 kilometres further!