We are officially 1 week away from the end of my trip! These first 3 weeks have been so incredible and fulfilling! I can’t wait to see what this final week has in store for me :)!

I started this travel filled day off with saying goodbye to my British friends and my friend Aicha. I checked out of my hostel and made my way to get some breakfast!

I honestly had a late party filled night and couldn’t really stomach more than this chicken fried rice (90 Baht). But it still was very good and a nice meal to start the day with!

While I was eating a guy I met the day before, Sean from Dublin Ireland, was walking by and sat and chatted with me for a bit while I ate! I then wandered to the pier for my 11:30am boat to Ao Nammao pier!

It was such a gorgeous ride to the next pier! The boat actually ended up leaving early so we arrived to Ao Nammao pier sooner than expected! Which honestly just meant I had a longer time to wait around the pier.

I arrived at Ao Nammao pier around 11:30am (we left closer to 11:15am) and my van to Surat Thani was at 3:20pm… so I had a bit of a wait. I ended up just sitting by the pier and relaxing on such a beautiful day!

I sat in this spot for a few hours just listening to music and watching YouTube videos! But after a bit I started to get hungry again so I went and wandered to find food! I’m glad I did because I found a very cheap meal not too far from the pier!

It was a solid fried Suki with chicken! It was also only 50 Baht which was a great price and was very similar to the prices up north (the south has been a lot more expensive, still cheap but not as cheap).

I then wandered back to my spot to wait for the last little bit before a car came to pick me up! I was under the impression that the van would be picking me up… but actually some open backed truck came 😂

I joined two ladies from Holland and we had a nice chat on the way to get dropped off at our van to Surat Thani!

After the 10 min truck ride and another 15 min wait for the van to show up we were off to Surat Thani!

The van ride was about 3 hours and had some fun views on the way!

Eventually we made it to Surat Thani! I was dropped off about 15 min away from where I needed to go for my ferry. I also had about 3 hours to kill before my ferry departed for the long night journey! So I decided to slowly wander to my ferry!

While I was wandering around I stumbled onto Surat Thani’s China town, which was very lively and having a night market! There was a ton of food and clothes vendors and a ton of people wandering the streets!

While wandering through China town I saw a bag of chocolate popcorn for 35 Baht! So I picked that up as a fun snack for the ferry ride (trying to prepare a lot more than I did for the bus to Phuket).

I then kept wandering and found a very lively riverfront walk with a big group of people dancing and living up the night! It was super fun seeing the city so lively as I really didn’t know what to expect of the city when I got here!

I was also very happy to find that there were a ton of cheap food vendors by my ferry! So I decided to treat myself to a few different things 😋

I started with three steamed chicken buns that were just 20 Baht for all 3! I then stopped by a food vendor selling Fried Basil with Chicken for 50 Baht! These are the prices that make me love Thai street food (the prices in the south have been hurting my wallet haha)!

After a nice dinner I decided to board my sleeper ferry a little early to get situated and to make sure I didn’t miss it!

I’ve honestly never ridden anything like this before! But I was pleasantly surprised with how comfy the bed was and how much space there was (there’s not a ton but there’s enough for me and all of my belongings)!

My bed was right next to two very nice English guys and we had a nice chat before the ferry departed! We’re actually all staying at the same hostel so I’ll be seeing more of them. Another English guy came over and was chatting with us a bit too! Honestly a very lovely way to start this journey and all my nerves for this ferry were gone!

If anything eventful happens on the ferry I’ll update you all on my next post! But for now, it’s time for hopefully a nice sleep on a calm sea🤞

– Elie