A tale of two trips

Tuesday February 19th

Sorry for reusing the title, but today was dominated by two trips, one that didn't happen and one that did.

Today was supposed to be a half day trip to the James Bond Island. I don't even know what its real name is because it is only referred to as James Bond Island now, its the one from 'The Man with the Golden Gun'.

Well the problem was that it didn't happen. I was sitting in my hotel's lobby waiting for the pick up (supposed to be at 11.15) from 11.00 till 12.15 and nobody came. I was not happy, so off I went down the road to the travel agent who booked it for me (this is why you always pick the closest one, my hotel must have been one of the few not to actually book tours for their guests). She phoned the actual tour company and they clamied they came and I wasn't there. There is no way that could have happened, and I even got the reception staff to confirm nobody came looking for me for a tour. They wanted to only reund me half as it was supposedly my fault and it took an hour and and threats of contacting the Tourist licencing agency before I managed to get 1000 baht back out of 1100 I paid.

The annoying thing wasn't really the 100 baht lost on this, it was the fact that I had stayed in Phuket an extra day to go on the trip. So in reality it cost me about 1000 baht (22 euro) because thats the difference between the daily cost here and elsewhere.

I still wrote a letter of complaint to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, but I'm not sure it will get any response.

As a result I didn't really do anything else that day, I just hung around the town. And to annoy me even further I was wandering around and I didn't see a broken pavement, tripped and caught my flip flop in it and ripped them, so I had to buy replacements, eating up most of the 1000 baht. At least I didn't do any damage to myself (I see a surprising number of tourists on crutches here).

So my last day in Phuket wasn't as good as it could have been. By taking the extra day I had decided to skip going back to the Easten cost of Thailand, and to the islands of Samui and PhaNgan. This means missing the famous Full Moon party, but its because of this that I can't really go. Its so popular now that most places only take week long bookings around it, and I can't afford a week. Anyway, much and all as I liked the trip through the mountains, I'm not doing it again. So tomorrow its off by Ferry to the mainland, and Ao Nang.