Return Trip from Ko Samui to Surat Thani Train Station and Bangkok

A week ago, our 18-hour "amazing race" from Bangkok to Lamai Beach in Ko Samui couldn't have gone more smoothly.  We thought the tour company providing bus transport directly from Surat Thani train station to the Seatran ferry terminal was a really good deal and without the headache of trying to find our own way, since we didn't see any public buses or taxis nearby the train station.

Our return voyage from Lamai Beach in Ko Samui to the Surat Thani train station to catch our 9:04 pm Express 84 overnight train back to Bangkok was a little more "on our own" and time consuming.  

We thought we would have plenty of time to catch our night train, so we thought we left our hotel really early at around 2 pm.  But it took over 5 hours.  We finally arrived at the Surat Thani train station at 7:30 pm, so remember to leave plenty of time for travel!  Here's how it went...

In Lamai, after waiting by the road side for about 10 minutes, we were able to catch a songthaew shared taxi for 60 baht each to the Seatran Ferry terminal.  

We purchased the ferry + bus combo ticket for 240 baht/pp, which included the 1.5 hour ferry ride as well as a 1.5 hour Seatran bus transport to their office in downtown Surat Thani.  There was really no other alternate transport that would take us directly to the train station.  Also, the Seatran ferry has its own pier so there are no other bus companies operating from this place like they would at the main Donsak pier. 

Sharing the ferry ride with a bunch of gamecocks after a big cock fighting tournament 

After stopping what seemed like a million times to let each of the locals off the bus at their desired place on the side of the main road, we finally arrived at the Seatran office in downtown Surat Thani about 2 hours later.  The office closes at 5:30 pm, plus there is no place for passengers to hangout, so we headed out to the street to find a cab.

So far, we hadn't seen one single taxi cab in Surat Thani.  Hmmm, what to do, what to do.  The train station was still 30 minutes out of town.  

As we walked down the main road, we flagged down a rickety songthaew truck and negotiated a ride to the train station.  We thought 100 baht/pp was an excellent bargain!  

30 minutes later, we arrived at the train station around 7:30 pm.   

For being the gateway to the islands, the Surat Thani station is very small and basic.  There is a very clean squat restroom for 3 baht/pp. There is one attendant behind the ticket counter, a luggage storage area, and a snack bar.  That's it.  Also, beware of the hungry aggressive mosquitos!  They didn't seem to be bothered that we had bug repellant on.  

We located the handwritten departure board, figured out that our train should be arriving 3 minutes early (yea, right...) at 9:01 pm on platform 1.  A nice train personnel helped us figure out which part of the platform #1 we should wait at in order to catch Car No. 2 (first class), since the train barely stops for a brief moment.

With our stomachs growling, we walked across the street from the station and found two outdoor hawker stands serving food.  We knew they would have good food because they had mismatched plastic chairs and tables full of people eating.  (Plastic chairs is a pre-requisite for good Thai food).  We stayed away from the ice (best to avoid GI issues while on the train...), but devoured our Thai chicken fried rice with egg on top.  Another option that looked really good was a guy selling the biggest bowl of rice soup with your choice of toppings.  Yummm.

Now, we are just waiting another hour or so to board the train and onward to Bangkok for a morning arrival of around 9 am.  

All-in-all, 400 baht (~$13) per person got us all the way from Lamai Beach to the train station within 5.5 hours.  We had read scam stories online about unscrupulous bus drivers in Surat Thani (mainly from the main Donsak pier where most of the other ferries arrive at), but we didn't encounter any problems.  We may have had to figure out the return transport on our own just a little bit more, but it worked out fine.  

Another option, had we known, could've been to take a VIP bus back to Bangkok and avoided having to figure out how to get back to the Surat Thani train station.  We were told that it costs a little over 1000 baht/pp, excluding the ferry cost.  The bus boards in Ko Samui, takes you straight onto the ferry, then right onto the bus that goes directly to Bangkok.  We couldn't find a link for online reservations, but any one of the myriad travel agencies can probably help out with booking.  

Personally, we prefer train travel, so that's what we went with.

Tomorrow, we are crossing the border into Cambodia, full of potential border scams, so that should be ripe for another travel post soon!