We decided to take a minibus service to Ko Samet from Bangkok. We have spent about an hour to shop around and find the best deal. Every travel agency sells this trip and virtually every second place in the Khao San Road area also acts as a travel agency. The prices were greatly different from agency to agency the most expensive quote we got was 450Bath/Person the cheapest was 280Bath, that is a great difference isn’t it? This price also includes the price of the boat trip from Ban Phe to Ko Samet. The buses leave at 8.00am and 2.00om every day. We took the 8.00am service and instead of a minibus we got a VIP Bus which was in an terrible condition. About half way the driver pulled over and stopped at some roadside cafeteria, very likely the driver was paid by the cafeteria owners… There were no price tags on the items on the shelf so needless to say that we paid triple the price for everything. I wanted to take a few photos but the owner chased me out saying “No Photo”.
After about 5 hours of travelling we got to Ban Phe. Someone from a partner travel agency showed us to the boat which took us to Ko Samet.
To summarize this experience I have to say that I felt like a lamb throughout the journey. Most of the time I haven’t had a clue what’s going on, why we got a VIP bus instead of a minibus why we stopped by a gas station right after we had a 30 minutes break at the above mentioned lovely Cafeteria, and I do not even want to know how many times We were being lead on 😀 That’s Thailand for you 😀 😀
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