To our great surprise, the overnight bus to Bangkok was a very spacious one. The long drive was not as awful as we had expected it to be: we received plenty of free snacks and water, the Thai movies were not played straight through the night, and the seats were very comfy. At about 12 am, we were abruptly woken up and given free meal tickets for the bus stop. I will never forget the amused laughs and smiles of the locals as they saw our sleepy, confused faces staring at the restaurant from outside. Every one of them gently tried to inform us (using hand gestures) that the food was free and we must just come inside. Unfortunately our appetites are not so healthy around midnight, and so we opted for the free cool-drinks before hopping on the bus again for another nap.
We arrived in Bangkok around 5:00, and then decided on a whim to rather head straight down to the south. So we hopped onto another bus, for a further 8-hour bus trip tp Chumphon. Unfortunately for us, the bus stops 11km outside of the small town; and so we hitch-hiked our way to the town. A girl from Georgia happened to be on the same bus and in the same position as us, and soon become our companion for the evening. We had a lot of fun chatting to her. Chumphon itself has very little to do or see, except for a small night market and some cafes. We had booked into a hotel for the night, but our friend had opted for the night ferry to Koh Tao.
The next morning William and I explored Chumphon – but with almost no scooter rentals bout, and no other cheap means of transport, we found ourselves stuck in the main town with nothing much to do. It was a very long day before we were finally taxied to th4e night ferry. The night ferry was at least an experience, for it’s basically a floating hostel, full of holiday-goers destined for the islands.