Originally written on December 5, 2004

By 10:00 am we were packed up and waiting by the side of the road for the local bus to Phuket, from there we would catch the public bus to Kao Lak. The local bus soon arrived and we got into the large tuk tuk like bus. Luckily, we were one of the first stops, as within 5 minutes and several stops later the bus was full. Ten minutes later, outside of the resort area the local Thai people got on the bus, and hung on any which way they could, as the bench seats were already packed with tourists. It’s the local bus, but all of the tourists got the seats.

The bus made its final stop in Phuket town (our 1st destination) at the centre market. Part of the market was touristy with sandals, clothes etc for sale, and further down was a fresh fruit/vegetable and likely meat market (we didn’t venture in as we have seen our fill of smelly markets). We perused the shops and slowly made our way to the main bus terminal. Along the way Kirk purchased new sandals (his other’s were only a week old, but they are the prong kind that go between your toes and one foot did not enjoy its new surroundings. So, new Dr. Scholl’s sandals were bought at a good price (12 CAD), we had seen them in other stores for (19 CAD).

Happy with our purchase we proceeded to the bus terminal. There, the touts were out in full force, trying to scam/sell us seats on a mini bus or non-airconditioned crappy bus. All of the signs are in Thai, except one which has the bus schedule for every location serviced by the station. However, you do not know at which of these times this is a 1st, 2nd or 3rd class government bus. This is important as the 1st class buses make the fewest stops, and also have air conditioning snacks and a toilet on board. At the ticket window everything is in Thai, so you don’t know if the person behind the glass works for the government bus, or a tourist bus, and they do not speak English. With the lack of English signs, and the touts constantly harassing you and trying to push you to their bus (they are unfortunately the only ones who speak English), it is difficult to know which bus to take.

We settled on a bus, who knows how and hopped on. It was air conditioned, but no snacks or toilet. I think it was likely a 2nd class bus, as it made several stops. We were headed to Poseidon Bungalows in Kao Lak. On their website they wrote that it was easy to reach them by public bus, just tell the bus driver to drop you off at Lam Kaeng. After telling and showing him the name, the driver nodded that he knew where Lam Kaeng was, so we settled into our seats.

The movie was terrible, Frankenfish, a story of killer fish in the Louisiana swamps. (It still gave me nightmares that night though!). After the movie, what else but Thai Karaoke. I still have the chorus of one song stuck in my head, although I have no idea what it means. “Lao Lek Lao Lek Lao Lek”. After 2 hours we passed the town of Kao Lek and started to get worried that maybe we were going to be dropped off in the middle of no where. The town disappeared and 25 minutes the driver shouted Lam Kaeng and we hopped off the bus, which had a Thai police station, a small rural convenience store and an internet cafe. We looked around for signs that we were in the right place and found none. No Lam Kaeng or Poseidon bungalow signs. We asked around, but no one spoke English. We did not have a map of the area handy, and decided to go to the internet cafe to print it off the Poseidon website. The internet cafe was full of small kids playing online HALO games, and the owner told us that it was busy. Luckily we had a phone card and used it to calll the bungalow, they told us to head further north along the road. This was confusing as the bungalows were supposed to be close to Kao Lak, and we thought for sure we should head south. A man on a bicycle spoke English and knew the area well, but could not help us as we did not have a map. But he would drive us for 200 baht. Hmmm. Kirk spotted a bus going back towards Kao Lak and we decided to hop on and eat lunch in town and figure out what to do next.

After lunch we asked at the local dive shop where Poseidon bungalows were, and how much a taxi would cost. With this information in hand we got a taxi and were at our new home by 5 pm, in time for a sunset swim on the private beach. A great thai curry dinner at the bungalows restaurant and then to sleep.