One of the things people say about Surat is that it’s central, that getting out of Surat is one of the more enjoyable pastimes a traveler or teacher here can indulge in. While that’s a pretty accurate sentiment (in my short experience), there is a sort of danger in accomplishing each “escape” from the city life, and it’s that danger that triggers your spider-sense each time you step foot in a place which has been prepared especially to receive tourists. You feel it in your pocketbook. It raises the hackles on the back of your neck. It’s the feeling of being hunted and this article deals with how to survive as prey on Soi 31, a common point of departure for weekend and local travelers.

Talad Mai (Main Street) is one of the main northeast/southwest-bound arteries that communicates the extreme ends of Surat Thani. “Soi” is the Thai word for “lane” or “side road”, and these don’t have names per se (they’re given numbers) much like tributaries sometimes don’t share a name with the river they feed. Near the center of Talad Mai is Soi 31, where you can find a bus depot which monitors buses departing to and arriving from places like Phuket, Chiang Mai, Khao Sok, and Don Sak (Koh Tao, Koh Samui, Koh Phagnan, etc). It’s a one-way street which empties on its northwest end onto Talad Mai in order to let the buses and tuk-tuks out onto a main street. Its sister street, Soi 33, runs southeast to accept traffic into the station area.

Take a look at this little map. In red you’ll see the street in question and that little green dot adjacent is the actual bus office. This area and the pier are both nerve centers of the tourist flow in Surat. For that, you’ll likely not see tourists in your neighborhood but they always seem to be hovering around the intersection of Talad Mai and soi 31, like fish in a barrel for the travel agency vultures. Sadly, the legit train ticket office faces the opening of soi 31 on the northwest side of Talad Mai, so to go there can be a necessary evil.

The point where the red meets the road is where you’ll be dropped off if you take a tuk-tuk to Soi 31. Immediately (if not sooner) you’ll likely be accosted by someone speaking functional English and trying to determine where you’re going. These people are paid to do that. They are employed by scam travel agencies installed side-by-side all up and down the street. These places will take you where you want to go, but at a markup that in some cases reaches three times the regular ticket price (it can be more, too).

For example, a ticket to Khao Sok National Park in the heart of Surat Thani province costs 150 baht if you buy it from the legitimate ticket counter. Before I knew better I followed one of these tourist hawks, an old woman, into an office and was asked to pay 300 baht for that ticket. My spider-sense was tingling, so I quickly dialed Michael Bartolomei, a Super English teacher who has since left and become a good friend, and he told me and Savannah to get the hell out of there. He won’t be in Surat to protect future teachers, so listen up: he’s the reason this article’s getting written. When we walked out of that first office the old woman tried to get us to follow her into a different office, but we’d already turned our backs on her.

Part of the struggle of adapting here is becoming comfortable wearing a target on your back, so to speak. As a foreigner, or farang, these people I’m calling birds of prey seek you out; they also have families to feed. You can’t know what their story has been or is so to become upset with them for doing their best to satisfy their quotas puts you, for acting on your defensive impulses, in the wrong. Get angry and I promise that you will suffer emotionally, and your attitude will darken. That’s bad news. Try rather to smile and say thank you or mai ow (do not want) and let them shed away from you like water off a duck’s back, as my Canadian father would say. That advice has taken me a long way here, in terms of travel headaches.

Figure 1 - Westerners already taken, waiting for overpriced transpo.

The surest way to pay a standard ticket price is to not talk to anyone on the street who is calling you over to them. I suppose that is sound Thailand travel advice, in any case. Disembark your tuk-tuk and start walking southeast. There are a number of cute little shops and restaurants housed along both sides of the street and probably you’ll see a steady stream of tuk-tuk traffic and minibuses. More travel agency hucksters will approach you and call out to you, so remember to put on your determined face and march past them. Soon you’ll come to a large building set like an island between Sois 33 and 31, around which will be parked many minibuses, tuk-tuks, and large orange buses. The legitimate ticket desk is set in the southeastern end of this building.

Figure 2 - This unmarked, dingy building houses the real ticket counter.

The northern end has open-air curry restaurants, several cheap clothing stores, and some shops that sell a weird array of bric-a-brac at affordable prices. As you can see, its upper floor hasn’t been completed and no one seems particularly interested in finishing it. You can walk through these all the way to the ticket counter, shown below.

Figure 3 - Notice the green awning from figure 2 - this is the legit ticket counter.

If you plan on traveling by bus while you’re here in Surat, becoming acquainted with this little depot ought to be on your priority list. These folks speak barely any English but they won’t overcharge you for tickets to wherever you’re headed. Good luck to you!