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I could not book a flight for two more days, so i opted for the taxi/ferry/bus/ferry/minivan to Koh Lanta. I scheduled through Backpackers travel because they had all these 'recommended by' signs. The girl was from australia and spoke perfect english. I was concerned with getting motion sick, so was very clear about the lengths of travel segments.
6:00 am taxi pickup was fine, but the large car ferry was broken. We disembarked and boarded a tiny boat that already was full. The water was flat, so i opted for adventure over judgement and boarded. It looked like an indian bus at rush hour, people sitting all around the edge, and on top of the giant pile of backpacks and luggage. (which a child got motion sick and threw up all over, so beware where your luggage goes...) I sat atop the luggage, figuring if we sank or tipped I could swim and float on the luggage. The number for the agency was 'not available at this time".
We arrived in plenty of time to catch the connecting bus in surat Thani, as we had an hour of break time scheduled to get something to eat - which was fine because there was absolutely no food or water available at the port! Boarded a large, nice air-con bus and relaxed to Krabi... except we stopped for food. This made sense, and I was grateful, as there was nothing at the port. We took our bags off, as some people were going to koh phi phi. Then the big bus left, and they said it would come back in 35 minutes so to order food. Something didn't seem right, but many things don't here! I got concerned when in 5 minutes - before my food was ready - they told us to board sangtheaws to go to the bus. He said he'd bring my food to go. We ended up driving a few blocks and boarding a waiting bus with Thais on it, in all the window seats. It was not nearly as nice, and the only window seat was the back which did not recline and had 3" literally of leg space. I took it knowing the window would help me not be sick. We were ahead of schedule, it was only 10am, so i figured oh well, i can do two hours on here, and no one else seemed concerned. I got worried when the bus stopped at a few places to pick people up, but figured thai people need to go to krabi too, and this is clearly the long-distance bus. I liked having them on board, it felt less of a western bubble. Uncomfortable, but I fell asleep, and awoke two hours later, excited and expecting to be close. Not hardly. I asked my seat mates and they had seen a sign that said 161 Km to Krabi!!! that would be like we had gone in circles! The bus wove through every little town for hours. I would have got off, but there was no english anything, and very small towns, this might be the only bus! I tried to go back to sleep... how much longer could it be? it's not that big of a province? At 2Km an hur, stopping like a busy city bus... we arrived at a Krabi bus station at 4:30 pm - 6 hours later!!!!!!!!!! The ferry we 'missed' actually left at 11am - so my ticket scheduled by Backpackers was BS to begin with. They said it would be 2 and 1/2 hours more by bus to Koh Lanta - I was sick and on the verge of tears. I called Backpackers, and they told me to 'stop talking. They could not be held responsible, it was because of the ferry'... except the ferry did not affect our time at all. I told them that they had mistaken the ferry time and i would not have made it anyway - they dismissed it, nothing they can do. That's when it was clear not only could i not plan on help from them, they are part of the scam!!! 8pm, in the dark, i was trekking to find a hotel alone in Ko Lanta.
And, of course, when we arrived, our things had been rifled through, and my headlamp flashlight was missing, Thank god my valuables were on me.
BEWARE if they try to do an unscheduled switch, or if the quality of your bus drops dramatically. I will never ride the bus here again, only fly or train.
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