Island hopping

Rode a train overnight from Bangkok south to the Andaman coast of Thailand. Arrived at a sleepy pier hoping to catch a boat to the island of Ko Muk, but there was hardly anyone around. A woman noticed my look of confusion and let me know that the last ferry had already left, but that she knew of a boat that could give me a ride in a few hours. She inquired about my plans, and after I told her that I didn't have a room reserved on the island, she made a bunch of calls on her cell phone to try to find an open room - it turns out that a lot of places were full. She found something promising and handed me the phone to make a reservation, which I did.

During her calls she found out about a boat that I could catch a ride on that was leaving in just a little while. I thanked her for the help and offered her some money, but she didn't want it. Turns out that she works for a travel agency and was waiting for some tourists to arrive by boat from an island - she was going to escort them into town. What a welcome to the coast!