Two day, mid-week, long weekend in Hong Kong. Pro-democracy students have clashed with the Hong Kong Authorities with anti-Chinese sentiment continuing to bubble away. Major networks show the same sensationalised footage on repeat: the same tear gas canisters, the same umbrellas and the same students. I'm at Hong Kong airport sitting in the lounge waiting for a flight to Bangkok.
The trip began with a delayed flight; not tragic, definitely not ideal. Three insouciance travellers with no objective other than to hire a car, drive to an island and be back in Bangkok in three days time for a bachelor party. We, (well I) had arranged airport car hire with SIXT only to be told that there were no more GPS available, this was annoying to say the least particularly since we had specifically asked for a GPS. The attendant suggested we use a map, we suggested him to suggest something else. After much argument we conceded defeat and canceled the hire car and opted to hire a taxi to Dameon Saduak.
Armed with a hot pink Toyota we headed westward towards our hotel some 120 kilometres away. Not surprisingly our taxi driver got lost - After countless stops, calling people, asking random civilians/vagrants for directions we eventually turned on GPS (why didn't we do this earlier?) and guided him to our hotel, arriving just after 2:30 am. The taxi driver then asked for a tip, we laughed and shook our heads.
We woke 5 hours later to start our adventure. First stop, Dameon Saduak Floating Markets, the hotel had a private boat service into the market which worked out well given how tired and apathetic we were towards dealing with tour guides and packages. By the time we had arrived at the markets majority of the vendors and tourists were already doing business. The markets were alive and despite the tag that this was the most "touristy" of the Thai floating markets we still managed to grab some food and pick up the odd souvenir.
Unbeknownst to us we agreed to pay a taxi driver 2800 THB to drive us to Banh Phe. Funnily enough, we slept most of the 3 hour journey only rousing during a traffic jam so it turned out to be a better option. After further haggling with the boat people we finally managed to arrange the public ferry to Koh Samet. Koh Samet could be best summed up with one word, chill. Eat, nap, beach, eat, and so forth. A final taxi ride and we were soon checking into our hotel in Bangkok.
The trip began with a delayed flight; not tragic, definitely not ideal. Three insouciance travellers with no objective other than to hire a car, drive to an island and be back in Bangkok in three days time for a bachelor party. We, (well I) had arranged airport car hire with SIXT only to be told that there were no more GPS available, this was annoying to say the least particularly since we had specifically asked for a GPS. The attendant suggested we use a map, we suggested him to suggest something else. After much argument we conceded defeat and canceled the hire car and opted to hire a taxi to Dameon Saduak.
Armed with a hot pink Toyota we headed westward towards our hotel some 120 kilometres away. Not surprisingly our taxi driver got lost - After countless stops, calling people, asking random civilians/vagrants for directions we eventually turned on GPS (why didn't we do this earlier?) and guided him to our hotel, arriving just after 2:30 am. The taxi driver then asked for a tip, we laughed and shook our heads.
We woke 5 hours later to start our adventure. First stop, Dameon Saduak Floating Markets, the hotel had a private boat service into the market which worked out well given how tired and apathetic we were towards dealing with tour guides and packages. By the time we had arrived at the markets majority of the vendors and tourists were already doing business. The markets were alive and despite the tag that this was the most "touristy" of the Thai floating markets we still managed to grab some food and pick up the odd souvenir.
Unbeknownst to us we agreed to pay a taxi driver 2800 THB to drive us to Banh Phe. Funnily enough, we slept most of the 3 hour journey only rousing during a traffic jam so it turned out to be a better option. After further haggling with the boat people we finally managed to arrange the public ferry to Koh Samet. Koh Samet could be best summed up with one word, chill. Eat, nap, beach, eat, and so forth. A final taxi ride and we were soon checking into our hotel in Bangkok.
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