Conned - or not?

The best laid plans...

We had to travel by road from Khao Sok to Phang Nga and the ferry pier at Tha Dan for the only daily ferry to Koh Yao Noi.

Since there was no simple route, we arranged a private taxi through the hotel and agreed on a price - which was about average for a 90 min journey.

From there it went down hill - the taxi was 30 minutes late which reduced our time margin but then made up for it by driving like a lunatic - while busy with a succession of phone calls - many of which seemed to include our destination.

When we finally arrived at the jetty we were told that the ferry had been cancelled - due to mechanical problems - and that we could either hire a private longtail for the journey at a substantial price, or take a taxi - also a chunky price - to Phuket to catch one of their ferries or stay in Phang Nga for two nights and take the ferry on Monday.

After discussion and some negotiation, we settled for the private longtail at a slightly reduced price and set off on the journey with a nagging feeling that we had been set up.

However on arriving in Koh Yao Noi, we found that the ferry had in fact been cancelled. We had paid about £20 more than the going rate for the boat trip but we did enjoy a private tour of the bay passing Koh Panyi and the James Bond island on the way.