Day 252! Today’s the day! I’m finally leaving Koh Tao, the island I’ve called home for the past 4 months. Today I ventured to Koh Samui, hopped on a flight to Singapore, and then waited around all day for my flight onward to Melbourne… it was quite a long day.

I stayed up fairly late last night at my final jungle party… but that didn’t stop me from getting up bright and early for my morning ferry off of Koh Tao.

I said goodbye to my room and I strapped up my bags for the journey. My friend Chelsea was kind enough to pick me up to the pier, so I got one last motorbike ride in before I left SE Asia.

Two of my friends, Theo and Guada, both Taco Shack instructors came to bid me farewell as well! They were both on the morning boat and woke up a little extra early, it was very nice of them!

A while back I complimented Theo’s glasses and he said he’d get me a pair. I didn’t think much of it, but he gave me this pair as a parting gift. Now I’ll be looking funky fresh on my future travels!

Theo and Guada scurried off to their morning dives and Chelsea stood at the pier as I walked off towards my speed boat ferry. It was a bittersweet moment and I could feel the emotions rising. But also this time leaving Thailand was different.

I wasn’t heading home, I was heading on a new adventure. So I wasn’t crying, I was more excited than anything! Also I know I’ll be back to Koh Tao sometime soon.

I boarded the speed boat, which was going to take us on our 1.5 hour adventure across the gulf of Thailand to Koh Samui.

I used this time to just sit with my thoughts. And then I realized I should write my blog post for the day prior, so I did that as well. It was a fairly bumpy ride across the ocean, but we got to Koh Samui safe and sound.

Now… before I left Koh Tao, I purchased a bus ticket to the Koh Samui airport from the pier for 150 Baht. I decided it was a good idea to put it in the same pocket as my phone… and as I should’ve thought this would happen. Just as I took my phone out to take the picture above I saw my ticket flutter out of my pocket and down into the water below the pier.

I decided to take a picture of it… I had a feeling I would need proof of this accident. When I got to the buses I asked multiple people what I should do and they just kept pointing me towards the bus drivers… but when I got to the bus drivers, they were very confused (since they didn’t speak English) and sent me back to the other people I had already spoke to.

Eventually someone came over that could chat with me a bit and after showing them the picture, the sticker on my shirt that was given to me in Koh Tao, and talking more with them about what happened, they let me stay on the bus.

On the bus I sat next to a couple from the US, Jaz and Misha. They used to be instructors at Master Divers, which is a place where a few of my friends dive at. So we ended up chatting the entire ride about diving, travel, and the US.

We arrived at the airport with a couple hours for me to sit around and wait. So I checked in, checked my bag, and went through security.

The Koh Samui airport is a nice outdoor facility. There’s a pretty walk from the check in to the gates and the gate itself was like a big gazebo. I sat around for a few hours waiting for my flight at 12pm.

I usually try not to eat food at airports since it’s so expensive… but today I caved. It was going to be a long travel day on a cheap airline, so I wasn’t sure what I’d get.

I got some vegi spring rolls for 120 baht and then snacked on some random snacks that the airline had as “complimentary.”

The time came around to board, so we scanned our boarding passes, loaded up onto small shuttle cars, and loaded up onto the plane.

I always love getting to be on the tarmac and walk onto the plane! It brings out the inner child excitement in me about getting to fly in a plane.

I got lucky today and had the two seats on my side of the plane to myself! So I sat next to the window and stretched out for a nice 1.5 hour nap on my flight.

I didn’t realize that Singapore was an hour ahead of Thailand. So when we touched down, we got in around 3pm, we actually landed early!

And this started my aimless wander around one of the world’s best rated airports.

I made my way through terminal 1, where I landed. All of the terminals have shopping, but terminal 1 is mainly just shops. Every high end brand you can think of is here… Gucci, Louis V, Hermes, it’s all here.

I walked past a lot of plants and gardens too as I made my way on the search for cheap food.

I found a 7eleven which had the cheapest options of food. It was weird seeing the prices in dollars and not Baht. But I spent 6 dollars on a chicken biryani and a rice, seaweed, and spicy salmon wrap.

I’m always thoroughly impressed by the meals to go from 7-Eleven.

I continued on from terminal 1 and made my way through terminal two, which is known for its nature exhibits.

I saw a sunflower garden, more shops, and a butterfly garden.

I was pretty exhausted already from the long day of travel so far, so I made my way to terminal 3… why? Because there’s a free movie theater!

It was a nice little theater playing specific movies every couple of hours. When I walked in, it was a quarter of the way through the new Wonka movie. It was alright, but it was really nice to just sit, relax, and unwind.

Once the movie was up, I decided to finally leave the airport.

Now, I had already decided I wasn’t going to leave the airport to go to the city, but I wanted to experience the large waterfall that is a staple of this airport… and unfortunately it was outside of the terminals.

I went through immigration, unfortunately they don’t stamp in Singapore, and walked to The Jewel.

I decided to take a step outside of the airport, I might as well put a foot onto Singapore. It was a nice and humid day out which was a nice change to the cold AC inside.

I then went back through security and went on the hunt for a place to sit and use my laptop. One of the things I needed to complete before Australia was my RSA. This is an education on serving alcohol in Australia and is necessary to do almost every hospitality job.

I had 165 questions to get through and I got about 110 done before taking a break for dinner.

I decided to treat myself to my first western fast food of this leg of the trip… Popeyes! I got a spicy chicken sandwich, which is something I’ve really missed since being in SE Asia.

After eating, I found a new place to sit and work. I finished up my RSA and then went closer to my gate to find a spot on the floor to take a much needed nap.

I fell asleep for a solid 30 minutes and when I woke up to my alarm, I found a man had decided to lay down fairly close to me… not really sure why, but maybe he was getting cold in the airport too.

By this point it was only midnight and I still had over another hour till boarding my flight.

Even though I still haven’t boarded the flight yet, I’m going to end the day here and pick it up on tomorrow’s post! I’ll soon be boarding my flight and I don’t know when I’ll lose wifi, so I want to make sure I get this post up before I leave.

I am sleep deprived, excited, nervous, and ready to be done with this travel day! But I’m stoked I got to visit this extravagant airport. Next time I’m in SE Asia I’ll go visit the city properly.

See you in Australia!

– Elie