This morning we said goodbye to island life and southern Thailand and made the long journey north. We were picked up at 8am by a minibus and driven to the pier. We checked in and waited for around 40 minutes and then we were driven about 30m down the pier. The boat was due to leave at 9:45, and at 9:20 it still hadn't turned up. We were told we would arrive at the airport at 2:30 which left us just enough time before our flight and the lack of boat was stressing me out. However at around 9:35 it turned up and the turnaround was so quick that we were off by 9:43.
The journey back to the mainland took about an hour. We arrived at Donsak pier at 10:45 and hopped straight into an minibus to drive to Nakhon Si Thamarat airport. Koh Samui does actually have its own airport but the flights were a lot more expensive so we opted for for a longer journey at a cheaper price.
The journey to the airport took less than an hour and a half. We arrived at the airport at 12:10. Our flight wasn't until 3:45. We weren't able to check in yet so we just sat around at a contender for the world's smallest airport with very lax security until we could check in. Once we checked in we just returned to where we were sitting until it was time to board. Then we went through a door, through security and onto the plane.
The flight took off on time and was half empty. It seems the only flights from that airport are to Bangkok, where we were going, so it wasn't really surprising as there were quite a few flights a day. We landed around 5, collected our bags and then made our way from arrivals to departures as we had another flight to catch. This flight wasn't until 19:50 so we hung round the airport for another couple of hours. This airport was much bigger (as you'd expect from a Bangkok airport) so there were more shops, cafes and things going on. We spent slightly too long hanging round and had to power walk to the gate as they started boarding before we were there. There was still a queue at the gate when we got there though so it was fine. We took off again on time and landed around 9:05pm in Chiang Rai, our final destination. We had been travelling for over 12 hours at this point and were both a bit knackered.
Once we had collected our bags we got a taxi to the hostel. We checked in and I opened my bag and discovered my moisturiser had exploded in my toilet bag. Thankfully it had managed to stay contained in the toilet bag but everything had to be wiped and washed, which Lauren kindly helped me with.
It was around 10pm by the time we finished the clean up operation so we hurried down to the night market as we had been told it shut at 11. On the way we passed the clock tower which was very fancy and gold. When we got to the market everyone was packing up. The market was huge and there were some stalls still open but most were shutting up shop. We wandered about for a bit and stumbled upon some live music in a square with people of all ages dancing. It was a very repetitive dance; it was pretty much just stepping with the occasional turn but it was nice to see everyone having a good time and joining in. We stood and watched for a few minutes before returning to the hostel, showering and heading to bed.
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