Tag 333 - Change of accommodation @ Aonang Paradise Resort

Heeellooooo everyone

Today we had a pure transfer day on our schedule, which, typical for us, was filled with a few little hiccups but ultimately worked out perfectly ☺️

Just before going to sleep last night, we quickly checked the timetable for today's ferry so as not to experience the same surprise as on the outbound journey. The ferry was scheduled to leave at 11am, 12:30pm, and 2pm. We wanted to try to catch the 11am ferry, but we already knew yesterday that it would be hardly possible.

The alarm clock attempted to wake us up at 9am, but after just three hours of sleep, we quickly turned it off.

Our next attempt started at 10am - this time successfully, because now we really had to leave.

We got ready, packed everything, checked out, and drove our scooters for 20 minutes to the harbor.

There, we encountered the first hiccup: The ferry for 12:30pm was completely fully booked, the only option would be at 2pm. Since we had no other choice, we bought the ticket because we absolutely had to get back to the mainland today.

I personally realized the problem that would come up due to the delayed departure much later, but fortunately Kevin caught on right away. The ferry takes 2.5 hours for the crossing, and we estimated another 4-5 hours of driving time with the scooters for the remaining 220 kilometers. As it begins to get dark at 6pm and it only progresses very slowly in the darkness, we wanted to make as much progress as possible in daylight.

Kevin took the ticket, on which it said 2:00pm, and rearranged everything (there were multiple tickets) so that you almost had to search for the time. We were counting on the not always accurate work of the Thais. We drove to the ferry, queued up, handed in the tickets, and walked onto the ferry as if it were a matter of course. Lucky us, our plan worked! Now we could sit back and enjoy the ride. During this time, we finished yesterday's blog entry and relaxed a bit before the upcoming scooter ride.

The ferry arrived at the harbor at 3:15pm with some delay, and we drove off immediately.

Actually, we were already quite hungry, but we decided to suppress it for now and see how well we would make progress.

After about 70 kilometers, the planned arrival time had already shifted from 6pm to 6:30pm. We are always amazed that the estimated times in the navigation device (here in Thailand) are hardly achievable, and we really drove the majority of the way at full speed... We planned to start looking for a place to eat slowly because we were still hungry and a break would have been great too... However, we didn't find anything nearby, and it was already 4:30pm - we decided to continue.

Just when we thought that the time wasn't soooo bad, Kevin started to slow down. At first, I thought he was looking for a place to take a break, but no... This was our second and fortunately last hiccup for today:

Kevin's scooter had run out of gas, and we hadn't seen a gas station for at least an hour... We quickly switched scooters: I took the one without gas, and Kevin took the one with gas. Then he towed me by sitting on the scooter and pushing my scooter in front of him with his leg.

The whole game took some time, but we were lucky and found a shop on the roadside after 15-20 minutes. It was a small uniform shop that didn't really look open... The other shops we had seen since the breakdown were all completely closed... We drove up to the store, asked shyly for gas, the Thai man laughed, brought out a crate of bottles, poured about two liters into both scooters, and we were able to continue our journey. We also bought two drinks right away because by now a break was really necessary - no matter what this would mean for the arrival time.

We found a really nice resting place right next to the road. The break wasn't long, only 15-20 minutes, but it felt incredibly good!

At 6pm, we tackled the last 80 kilometers and still hoped for as many kilometers as possible in daylight.

Promptly at 6:30pm, the sun was gone, and the journey became slower and more uncomfortable. The problem is that the roads have holes or gravel on them. And outside the cities, there is no lighting. In addition, we didn't want to take off our sunglasses because of all the mosquitoes, small stones, and other things that just fly towards us on the road...

Yesssss, we made it! At 7:30pm, we reached the scooter rental place in Ao Nang. Initially, we expected some discussions because the scooters were practically new when we got them, and they have suffered a bit in our hands. We had this suspicion because of various bad reviews we had read about the rental place here, we were really prepared for anything... But apart from a 200 baht fine for the delay (we were supposed to return the scooters by 5pm), nothing else was added. We paid the fee and walked to the hotel, which happened to be 600 meters away from the rental place.

Once again, everything worked out, we checked in and treated ourselves to a well-deserved break. Later, we went out again and finally satisfied our hunger at a food market nearby.

At 11pm, exhausted and satisfied, we fell into bed ☺️

Tomorrow we will continue, because we are traveling to the north of Thailand to Chiang Mai 🥳

Until theeeeen ☺️