August 25: ”All good things must come to an end” and so did our time at Bottle Beach. It is with mixed feelings that we pack up our things and get ready to leave. The natural beauty of this place, with its white sandy beach and greenery, we probably won’t find in our next accommodation as it is more touristy there. At the same time, it feels good to be moving on. During our time here, we have lived without AC, monkeys taking things from the balcony (although fortunately not from ours) and even though the accommodation was very cheap, food and water cost three times as much as in Bangkok, but are only half as good. But when we look out over the beach one last time while the pickup slowly takes us into the jungle, there are no negative thoughts left, only a sense of well-being and gratitude that we have been able to experience this fantastic place.

We have booked tickets for the ferry that will take us from Koh Phangan to Koh Samui. After around a one hour drive, we arrive at “Thong Sala Pier” from which we are to depart. We look for the ferry we intended to take but quickly realize that there is no ferry for us. Instead, a Speedboat has moored at that location. We mutter to ourselves that something must have gone wrong, this is not how we intended to be transported. But the staff waves us in and soon we are sitting in the speedboat with a dozen other travelers. Maybe there were too few travelers so it wasn’t worth driving the ferry today? Who knows.. With a roar, the three 250hp engines that hang down into the water at the stern of the boat starts. The engines die now and then and there are flashes at regular intervals from the loose, oxidized cables that hang a little here and there at the steering position. Despite that, the boat picks up a high speed, that means we arrive at Koh Samui in under 20 minutes. The boat trip is bumpy and makes us all giggle as we sit and bounce.

When we get off the boat at the pier in Nathon Town on Koh Samui, the rain pours down and the marina’s WiFi is out of order. Damn, we who had planned to book a “GRAB” a little quickly and go to the accommodation and rest. Our options now are to walk 40 minutes with wet clothes or to start negotiating with a regular taxi. No one seems keen on the walk so a taxi is flagged down and a price is negotiated. Since we all can’t fit in a regular car and need a minibus to transport us, our transport costs are always twice as expensive as for a smaller family. This means that we try to use BOLT and GRAB as often as we can to get a fixed price right away. This time, however, it goes well and the taxi driver gives us a price we think feels fair.

We will now be staying in a “villa” at an apartment hotel in the northeastern part of the island with about a 5-minute walk to Thongson Beach. Here we have both AC and a pool, something that we think we will enjoy a little extra during the few days we will stay here.

//Sabdreasworld