Thailand forum

That's really helpful, thanks very much for that Exacto. We will be going to the train station from Bangkok airport (after flying in from Hanoi) so am sure it shouldbe easy enough to find Hualamphong station.
Thanks again.

some pretty good advice from russellb, depending on what time of day your are arriving and assuming that your flight arrives at don muang airport. if you are arriving at the new airport, however, i have no idea how you'd get to hualamphong directly.

if you do wind up getting to hualamphong early, there is baggage storage there, which makes it easier to take advantage of the extra time and go explore bangkok a bit before your train heads down to surat thani.

Yes and no. If you book in advance at the 'advanced ticket office' at Hualamphong then yes, you can buy a ferry ticket to Ko Tao or Ko Pha Ngan. But you don't need to. When you get off the train in Surat Thani there are scores of agents waiting to sell you tickets. They're not a rip-off as long as you look for the ones from Songsaerm (or something like that, I can't remember the exact name). They run transfers to the ferry and back and the tickets can be single or return. Open returns are no more expensive.

If you're going to Ko Pha Ngan then it's easier to go via Surat Thani. For Ko Tao you should think about getting off the train at Chumphon as there's a boat from there that goes direct to Ko Tao (the boat from Surat Thani stops in Samui and Pha Ngan, takes longer and is usually packed).