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Bad experience: Joint ticket from Ko Phangan to Phuket

westerlywin-
ds

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Just a heads up to other travelers who want to purchase a joint ferry/bus ticket through Songserm to travel from Ko Phangan to Phuket , we encountered some rather unscrupulous minivan drivers after arriving in Surat Thani, via Don Sak en route to Phuket. We were shuttled from one "bus stop" to another, where the 8 of us were greeted by a group of touts (supposedly all working through "PP Service" tours) looking to extort more money from us to take us to Phuket Town. They told us that "the bus was hours away" and that they could get us there faster for an additional 300B per person. (Joint ferry/bus ticket thru Songserm costs approx 650B from Ko Phangan to Phuket) None of us would go for it and asserted we had all already paid to get to Phuket. More lies ensued, some intimidation tactics and over an hour later they boarded us onto a minivan that had been sitting there the entire time. No late bus, just con artists at work.
Don't know if Songserm is aware that this is happening, we've booked tickets through them before and hadn't had this happen, but I would advise using Lomprayah or Raja ferry joint tickets to Phuket in the future as this was a major hassle.

#1 Posted: 26/5/2010 - 04:58
SBE

mahout
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I think the problem is with more to do with PP Family tours than Songserm. There have been a lot of complaints about that particular tour company in the past.

#2 Posted: 26/5/2010 - 06:11
westerlywin-
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Their vans read "P P Service" and we stopped at their office on the outskirts of Phuket Town, so I can't say for certain if they're at all related to PP Family tours.

#3 Posted: 26/5/2010 - 15:41
tezza

under-employed
Posts: 904

Yep, Phi Phi Family Tour has such a bad rep for this sort of crap plus underbus luggage riffling that I now put a caveat on anything I say about travel beween the southern Gulf islands and the adjacent Andaman.

The difficult thin is that when you buy your ticket at either end from a bungalow, other-name tour group or small steetside travel desk/agent it's often impossible to know who your actual carrier will turn out to be. And asking often leads to misleading info.

#4 Posted: 27/5/2010 - 07:53

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