Thailand: Disaster in Koh Lan

Okay, disaster might be a little bit of a strong word. But it was one of the worst days of my trip.


We got up at 5am or something ridiculous like that. We took the subway to the bus station and got on the wrong train, which delayed us a bit. We got on a bus to Pattaya, which took about two hours (plus  a little longer because of traffic). We got to Pattaya and walked for a bit realizing we needed to take a taxi to get all the way to where the boats leave from.

When we finally found a taxi and finally made it to where you can buy tickets for the boats, we got our tickets and had 45 minutes before the boat was supposed to leave, so we sat down for lunch. We had just ordered and gotten our drinks when the guy who sold us our tickets came over and motioned for us to go get on a bike and go to the boat. We of course thought there was still time. He wasn't communicating with us very well and even though the waitstaff at the restaurant was helping us translate, he left in a huff and we missed the boat in the end. It was highly frustrating.

We got our money back after we finished eating, then walked over to the actual pier to buy tickets there. We got a ticket for 1pm, so in the end we were in Pattaya for over 2 hours, which was not ideal. It's kind of a horrible beach party town, which is one of the top locations for sex tourism, human trafficking, and underage prostitution. And, actually, you have to walk through the red light district to get to the pier. Even though we walked through at mid day and nothing was open and there weren't many people, I felt so dirty and disgusted by the end of our 10 minute walk. Seeing creepy old men with suspiciously young and well dressed young women made me sick. I would highly suggest avoiding that particular area at any cost, especially, I imagine, at night.

We had to wait another hour for our boat, and did make it in the end. It took an hour and a half to get to the island. The water was really choppy and the winds were strong, so I got a headache and was feeling a bit uneasy by the end. I was convinced the boat was going to capsize!

In the end, it was about 3pm when we arrived, but Koh Lan was beautiful. It had little mountains, cliffs, and white sandy beaches. It was everything I thought it was going to be.

When we got there, we headed for the end of the beach that had cool rocks and was completely empty. After spending about 8 hours getting to this beach, with all the hiccups and delays, I got into the water and within 5 minutes, I slipped a bit in the shallow water and cut my leg pretty badly on a rock! I was pretty scared because it was a proper gash. I didn't know at first whether I was going to need to find a medic. I stood in the salt water for a bit to wash it, then I got a tissue from Amy and tried to stop the bleeding. I was so mad at myself for ruining the afternoon on the beach. Obviously the rest of the afternoon my leg hurt and I couldn't get back in the water after I fashioned a bandage out of tissues and band-aids.

Above and below are the pictures of the part of the beach where I cut my leg on a rock. At least there was a nice view?

We went back towards civilization and I sat on one of the chairs in the shade for the rest of the time. I just sat and dried off from my very brief swim and read my book. 

I got a picture of my make-shift first aid work. 

We had to get back on the boat around 5 - it was the last boat. 

We got the boat back, then a taxi to the bus station, etc. We made it back to our hostel around 8 or 9. It was a very long and frustrating day. I was upset I had hurt myself. It didn't really hurt, but I had to take care of it for the rest of the trip to make sure it didn't get infected. Also, in the end we only got about two hours on the island. Almost certainly not worth all the travel time. 

I haven't had such an entirely disastrous travel day before or since. It was truly a bad travel day. Mentally, it took me a few days to fully get out of the funk from the bad day. I don't really know how to think about it. Nothing truly bad happened. It was just a really disappointing day and not very much fun at all. I'll be scarred from that day (on my leg, I mean. It wasn't *that* emotionally traumatic).

These kind of things happen, I know. It's just a part of traveling. It was definitely a learning experience at the very least.