[bjw1985]

i posted something yesterday but it seems to have gotten lost..

My friend and I are travelling Asia in May, and we are going to visit Thailand. both of us are 21. It will be our first backpacking trip, so we are both a little scared. Excited too of course.

Here's our tentative plan.

We leave HK on Wed, May 9th at 4:40pm. Get to Bangkok at 6:20pm

Return flight from Bangkok to Hk leaves on thur May 17, at 12:25 pm. and arrives in HK at 4:10 pm.

This is the only thing that is set in stone right now. Everythign below can be changed including order, timing, and even the locations we visit.

Spend the night of 9th and 10th in bangkok

leave for Phuket on 11th.
spend night there

Go to Koh Samui on 12th.
Spend night of 12th, 13th there.

go to Phi Phi on 14th.
spend night of 14th, 15th

Go to Bangkok through phuket on 16th
night at bangkok

return flight on 17th.

Questions
1. I looked on the map, and it appears that koh samui is closer to bangkok than phuket is. is it possible to go straight from koh samui to bangkok? if it is, i guess i would switch the order of phi phi and koh samui.

2. i heard that ferry schedules into the islands are pretty limited (ie only few times a day), can someone help me by pointing me to the right direction to a site with ferry sechduel? we're new to this kinda travelling so dont know where to look.

3. someone suggested to me that i'm ganan be losing a lot of time simply travelling from location to location with my current schedule. he recommended that i simply drop phuket/phi phi/and koh samui, and instead go to Pattaya. So spend the entire time in Thailand in Bangkok and Pattaya. This will give us more time to enjoy Thailand rather than stuck in transportation. does anyone have thoughts on this?