Boat Information Part One

The Lomprayah Catamaran is the quickest boat leaving Koh Phangan. It goes from the Tongsala pier opposite the 7-11 convenience store. In Bangkok it starts from the street behind Khao San Road. You can buy Lomprayah tickets at the pier, at its Khao San Road office or any travel agent in Koh Phangan. The journey from Koh Phangan is done in a day; whereas the reverse journey involves spending a night on the bus. For the journey between Koh Phangan and Koh Samui a taxi journey to anywhere in Koh Samui is included in the price of the ticket which means you avoid the avaricious Koh Samui taxi drivers.

Lomprayah have recently done a travel joint venture with Nok Air. As a result you can buy a combined boat - bus - airplane ticket from Thongsala port to take you all the way to Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok. This costs about 3,000 THB and takes about 5 hours.

Since the Lomprayah is a catamaran it bounces over the waves. When the gulf is a bit rough there is often a considerable amount of people suffering from sea sickness, especially just after a full moon party.

Seatran goes between the three islands of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. The boat is fairly big. The Seatran port in Koh Samui is Bangrak. It's not on the songthaew routes, so unless you have onward transport already organized you need to take a taxi.

The Songserm is a smaller boat and can rock and roll in bad weather. However, it's cheap. The cheapest bus/boat tickets from Bangkok invariably use the Songserm. Tickets from Khao San Road to Koh Phangan can cost as little as 650 thb. However, the combined travel time is 2 hours more than Lomprayah. The Songserm stops at Nathon in Koh Samui. Nathon is the administrative capital of the island and is miles away from the main resort areas. People embark/disembark from Nathon because either the timing is convenient or they have to go to the immigration office to renew their visa.