Surat Thani tends to be a town Western tourists pass through quickly, on a mad dash for the islands (the most commonly used ferry services for Ko Samui and Ko Phangan leave from Don Sak, just over an hour's drive into the countryside from Surat Thani city).
The town itself mostly seems to have a reputation for scammy travel agents, but don't let that put you off. Surat Thani is a decent place to explore for a day, and offers friendly locals and great food.
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| Hello, Wat Sai |
Visit a wat or two, explore the wet market, check out the waterfront, and build up an appetite. You'll need it for the main night market, which runs every evening, just west of the transport hub one (one of the two central bus stations). There are several other smaller night markets, scattered all around the town centre (there's probably one within 5 minutes of your guesthouse), but the main night market is well worth saving your calories for.
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| Hi, tiny temple near the waterfront whose name I never got |
I ate crab khanom jeen, bursting with crabmeat and covered in pickles and fresh vegetables, crunchy unripe fruit with chili sugar, and juicy pork sausages, then waddled back to my hotel in a very good mood, having spent less than 80b.
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| When you're the fabulous one in your peer group... |
If you've got an extra day to kill, you could catch a sorngtaew from transport hub two (almost across the street ftom hub one) to Chaiya, where there are a couple of temples to visit, a small museum in the grounds of Wat Phra Borommathat, and in theory a small folklore museum (but it was closed when I visited, with no hours posted, and a couple of aggressive dogs lurking about, so don't make a special visit for this museum). The sorngtaews take roughly 90 minutes, 75 if you're lucky and they don't sit around at an intermediate stop waiting for other passengers.
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| Wat Phra Borommathat's main stupa |
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