Transport

As I've mentioned, we decided to stay in Trat the night before going to Koh Mak so we didn't have to rush in the morning and Mr John is seriously not a morning person, in fact I often tell people that some days I wake up grumpy and other days I let him sleep!

You don't have to do this and in fact you can get a taxi (around 750 baht) direct to Laem Ngop pier or a bus to Trat Bus Station, be accosted by a helpful person there and pick up tickets for your boat trip.

My regular readers will have guessed I much prefer the "big bus" to a mini-bus.  I think it has something to do with motion sickness which I am susceptible to if my field of vision is limited.  Anyway, the good news is there is a big bus to Trat from Chanthaburi Bus Station (which is near the Stadium).  Another bonus for me is that your luggage can be put away whereas the on the mini-bus you have to have it on your lap and if the driver deems it to be too large, he'll charge you for an additional seat even though it gets put just inside the back doors.

Chan bus station

I should point out that the Information window in Chan is manned by some very helpful people who have good English, so don't ever feel over-whelmed.  We went with Cherdchai Tours, sounds impressive right?  Well, its not really but the bus is clean and could possibly be described as "shabby chic".  Our tickets, one way, were 74 baht each (roughly GBP£1.50 / AUD$2.50 / USD$2.30). 

No refreshments were served but we had Thai music videos for the hour trip much to Mr John's dismay who quickly reached for his headphones!  On the return trip, we used the same company and whilst we didn't have to endure any music videos it cost us 80 baht each and we got a sealed cup of water each presumably that's why it was more expensive on the way back.

Being an island, the only way to get to Koh Mak is by boat.  There are a number of operators and we used two different ones.

Ao Nid Pier, Koh Mak

Boonsiri run from Laem Sok pier.  One way costs 600 baht (roughly GBP£12 / AUD$20 / USD$18.50) per person on their high speed catamaran.  We quite liked this boat which was air-conditioned and had comfy seats and the price included the taxi ride from our hotel to the pier.  The trip took around 50 minutes and arrived at Ao Nid Pier. 

We'd messaged a copy of our tickets to Goodtimes Resort and they were there waiting for us I recommend you do the same regardless of where you're staying

Our return trip was with Panan speedboat.  This trip cost 450 baht and took us to Laem Ngop pier.  It really was a speedboat and you sat on your bench seat the whole way.  We were grateful it wasn't raining!  Although cheaper, it was not my preferred transport option.  A shared taxi back to Trat Bus Station was 60 baht per person and they are waiting at the pier for you, so no problems there.