So we left Bangkok last Saturday to head South to Si Racha – home to the famous Si Racha “rooster sauce” and, more importantly to us, the main port to catch a ferry over to Ko Sichang.  It should have taken about 4 hours total to get to the actual island.

Disaster House

Evidently in Bangkok they have these Tourist Information Centers that really aren’t information centers at all.  We walked in to one with a simple question – which bus do we take to the main bus terminal so we can catch a bus to Si Racha?  The answer – we don’t know, which is a complete lie.  See, the only thing these “information centers” do is try to sell you ridiculously expensive tourist packages to wherever it is you want to go.  Plus, they literally lie to you (well, to westerners, anyway).  They actually told us that no one is allowed to go to the National Parks except for them, so you HAVE to buy THEIR packages.  After telling us they have ‘never heard of’ Si Racha, they tried to sell us some weird package to some weird beach that catered to young, dumb Americans.  The only real reason they have never heard of Si Racha and the islands of Ko Sichang is because western tourist don’t go there, so there isn’t anything to sell.

We may be young, and kinda dumb, but we weren’t born yesterday.

Anyway, because they were no help, and because when we tried to ask others which bus to take they answered with ‘buy these shoes’ we ended up on the wrong bus not once, not twice, but three times.  Not only that, somewhere in there we had to take a taxi because we ended up at the wrong terminal.  Worse, it’s still monsoon season here in the south and we got caught in a flood.  The taxi got stuck, and we had to get out and wade through nearly knee-high polluted water and walk the rest of the way.  You can see in the picture above how exhausted we were, and I believe it was at this point we nearly hated each other.

Lessons learned:

1 – The tourist information centers are full of sh!t, even though the Lonely Planet guide says otherwise (Sorry, LP – we really love you but this time you were dead wrong)

2 – Everything floods every time it rains.  Bring a rain poncho, or better yet, a canoe.

3 – When your tired, hungry, and late, keep your mouth shut if you have nothing nice to say to your partner.  It’s not their fault, and they are all you have.

Check out the bangkok photos: