Krabi to Koh Samui by Road and Ferry

I wanted to share this travel story from Thailand in 2006 in the hope others tourists don't suffer the same problem.  


My group decided to travel from Krabi to Koh Samui by road and then ferry.  We booked a bus from our hotel and took a very slow trip to a very strange bus shelter.  Here we sat for about 1.5 to 2 hours waiting for our next bus.  For some reason the trip was split into two sections and we were slapped with coloured stickers depending on our destination.  There were many tourists shuttled into this bus stop and they were from various different nations.  The bus picture, is the one we were asked to disembark from.  At this point we were very confused and a Thai lady took control of us telling us that the trip was very long and we had to wait for another bus.  I grabbed my trusty Lonely Planet in the hope she could tell us where we were on the map.  She said we were not on the map, which I doubted as this was the regional map for the Thai peninsula which we had just crossed to get to this location.  Next, we were rushed onto the bus (finally) and told we had very little time to get to the last ferry to make it to Koh Samui.  However, the new bus was very slow and had no air conditioning, so most people fell asleep due to the heat.  I stayed awake for some reason and just watched the world go by out the window.  I could hear a lot of clunking under the bus, but didn't think anything of it as I thought it must be an old bus.  
We then arrive at the ferry terminal and told to hurry hurry, to get on the ferry.  The Thai lady who took control from the bus station told us she would arrange a car to pick us up as there are no taxi cabs, but told us we must pay first.  She then rushed us onto the ferry where we crashed in a heap as we had been travelling for 8 hours by this stage.  
At Koh Samui we were taken to our hotels and thought all was well until one of my friends discovered someone's washing bag in her suitcase.  I then discovered that I had been robbed of all my Thai coins, Australian notes, other random things I had purchased as gifts.  The same for my other friends.
I know this is a common problem, but how widespread, I'm not sure.  All our cases were locked or cable tied, but as we have since found out, this does not stop them getting into your case. 
So, my moral to this story is, don't check your luggage into the luggage compartment of a bus unless you remove all valuable and semi valuables from the case.  The scam is that people are stowed behind false walls in the luggage compartment, they drive slowly to allow them time to get out, rummage through the luggage and get back or off the bus when it stops.  Your case, if locked, can be opened by jambing something into the zip so it opens up, then they simply zip it one way and the other to close the zip again.  Google that one for a better understanding of how it's done.  Travel safe!