Nothing. It’s normal. The place is always packed. There’s a large tent outside for overspill. It is also always packed. So, experience varies. It isn’t always simply a choice between ‘giving your money away’ on an agent and ‘spending an hour’ doing it yourself. If that were the case then far fewer people would use agents.
Yup. Stay in town and day trip around before you decide, Marc. Those two things don’t coexist anywhere. I’ve been to koh jam several times and enjoyed it.