Tuesday

I suppose Captain Bob’s Booze Cruise is going to be a tough story to follow but I didn’t want to just leave you hanging, wondering how we got home. We woke up at 9 and walked down some of our hotel’s many stairs to the lobby where the restaurant was. They had three different breakfast sets, the largest of which they had been racist in naming the “American” Breakfast. But then again a bunch of Americans ordered it and devoured it so maybe it wasn’t that racist after all.

We packed up our belongings and checked out, then stopped at the first booking office we found along the way so that Fletch and I could book our tickets home, and the rest of the group could book their tickets up to Chiang Mai. We would visit the north eventually, but not this time around. I had a job to get back to. Tickets in hand, we stopped for a second breakfast, because not everyone had eaten the first time around. Joe somehow ended up with a plate of five fried eggs, speaking of American breakfasts.

We had a few hours to kill before our ferry so we made our way to the pier and found an empty bar on the beach to chill at. That didn’t seem to be doing it for anyone though so we gathered up our belongings again and decided to go find a massage parlor. What better way to kill an hour than with a massage.

When we arrived we looked at the clock and debated with the ladies there if we had time for an hour or merely half an hour. An hour would be cutting it close so we settled on a round of 30-minute foot massages. Much to my delight they used some sort of menthol oil which left my skin all tingly.

After the massages we were still left with some time on our hands so found a tree on the beach to steal some shade from. Then we rode the ferry two hours back to Krabi where we had to say goodbye to the rest of our group. Fletch and I rode a transfer from the Ferry station to the Bus station and strategically managed to be the first to board. Fletch asked where I wanted to sit and I chose the upper deck in the front. In making that decision I had forgotten how horrifying bus and taxi drivers are. So for the next three hours we had front row seats to nearly running over every other vehicle on the road. We tried to distract ourselves by watching a scary Twister-like movie called Into The Storm, but the scene out the window directly in front of us was much scarier.

At long last we arrived at the pier, not a moment too soon. There was an entire street of food vendors lined up next to the pier so we decided to check in first, wanting to make sure we requested one of the double beds we had missed on our trip over. It was a different overnight ferry though, this one not nearly as nice. The ceiling was so low even I had to duck, and the room was just lined on either side with a row of badly stained cushions the size of yoga mats, all directly next to each other. I volunteered to go find us some street food as an excuse for a few last moments before being sardined into the boat.

The food vendors all had delicious looking offerings, but none of their signs were in English so I was a little hesitant for what I might end up with. One lady might have even been giving a cooking demonstration because her cart was equipped with cameras and TV screens that displayed every angle of her small cooking space. I finally found a lady who had taken the time to translate her sign into English and ordered a papaya salad and some fried noodles. At the end of the line were multiple carts selling the most colorful fresh fruits so I bought some papaya as well.

Back on board the boat we had a little picnic until a couple officers started walking around to each sleeping mat interviewing everyone. Considering everything that has been happening on Koh Tao lately this seemed a little ominous. But it may have just been routine procedure.

As we started moving we were relieved to find that the boat was maybe a quarter full. Had we had people on the mats next to us it would have been tighter quarters then the seats on an airplane. We helped ourselves to some more treats stashed up from Colorado, and woke up the next morning home in Koh Tao.