Let The Train Take The Strain?

Back in the UK, buying train tickets is easy. In Thailand it’s a bit hit and miss! Whereas a week or so ago I successfully managed to book an online ticket from Hua Hin to Surat Thani (en route to Koh Samui), today I have wasted most of the morning trying to buy a ticket for when I return to the mainland next week, from Chumphon back to Hua Hin. 2 websites tell me that the train in question is already full. The rail company official website tells me that I cannot buy tickets until 48 hours before departure. I subsequently managed to talk to a very helpful ‘real person’ who made the required reservation for me and even gave me both a reservation number and seat number. Splendid, I thought until he casually mentioned that the ticket must be collected from a train station within the next 24 hours otherwise it would be cancelled. “But there are no train stations on Koh Samui” said I which threw him totally as I piled headlong into a brick wall which is exactly where I am stuck now. To calm my frayed nerves I then set about the task of buying an online prezzie for my granddaughter’s 1st birthday. What a joy to navigate an easy UK website until…. I ticked all the right boxes including the one that asked if I wanted the delivery address to be different from the billing address and happily pressed the ‘order confirmation’ page which confidently told me that the gift would be sent to my billing address! So, back I went, inputted exactly the same info only to be told the same thing. In this case, there was no helpful person on the end of the phone as there was no answer to the number on the website!! Lesson learnt? Brick walls are the same the world over so I’m going to the beach to help a man with a bonfire!

I have been to Koh Samui many times and witnessed the enormous changes that have taken place over the years, not always for the better in my opinion. Almost every bit of the coastline is taken up with tourist buildings of one type or another, some of which seemingly oblivious to the fact that, generally speaking, people who come here like beaches.

And when you are able to find a few undeveloped spots,

they don’t always give off the blissful sun kissed feel that you see in the brochures.

Where I am staying is an oddity. On the AirBnB website it is billed as ‘Peaceful Garden Bungalows’ and there is certainly a rustic feel to the place

with an abundance of animals and wildlife close by.

It’s only a small place – 6 bungalows set in a garden about 300 yards from a quiet beach.Totally idyllic, especially if you like Muay Thai (kick boxing) training, tough exercise regimes and regular boxing with a bit of yoga thrown in. Because, right in the middle of an otherwise pastoral scene is a fitness centre

which operates more or less non stop from 0800 – 2000 every day except Sunday to the accompaniment of assorted grunts, groans and other ‘enjoyable’ exercise noises. Hardly the ‘Peaceful Garden’ as advertised but you can’t win them all! All a bit odd, as was the sight of the local council worker watering the power lines