Nightmare journeys, but back on the beach scene

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When we were all templed out we took an early bus south to Phnom Penh and then a tuk tuk to the airport for our afternoon flight back to Bangkok. We spent a night in Bangkok doing what we do best when we are there, shopping!

We had to work out how we were going to get to the southern province of Krabi to meet our friends Faye and James who were spending two weeks there on holiday. We had experienced an overnight train in Thailand so thought this time we would see what an overnight coach was like, and compare the two. We can both safely say that we have never ever been on such an awful journey in all our lives.

We were picked up from our hotel on Khao San Road on time, boarded the coach, and began to navigate our way through the hellish Bangkok traffic. About half an hour into the journey we stopped at the train station, we waited and waited and waited until after about an hour everyone got fed up so decided to get off to see what was going on. Nothing, no reason that we could see for the hold up, Phil and I went to the front of the coach to ask the driver. When he saw us and realised we wanted to speak to him he shut his eyes and pretended to be asleep. Everyone standing outside, the stroppy little man who was collecting the tickets comes over and tells us to hurry up and get back on the bus because he wants to leave......ok so we were the ones holding it up obviously!

The coach was semi comfortable, a bit like being on a plane. The seats went back but unless you are 5ft 5” or under you have problems. There are these neon strip lights running down the full length of the coach on either side, which they decided to turn off at 10pm and the little spot lights didn’t work. So it was either stare into darkness or try to sleep. We tried the second option, after drifting in and out we were all woken up by the strip lights coming back on and everybody being told to get off the bus at 2:30am to get some food. When was the last time anyone ate a meal at 2:30am?

20 minutes later, everyone back on the bus for the second leg of the journey. Lights off, little lights not working, just beginning to fall asleep when a stoned Iranian bloke downstairs decides to fancy himself as a bit of a musician and starts playing bongos and making that really high pitches noise stereotypical Mexicans make in the films. This goes on for about 2 hours, whizzing through the pitch black countryside with a group of crazy people downstairs. Then the realisation kicks in that theyre not going to shut up and we were in it for the long haul.

5am, just dosed off when the bus stops again. Everybody off, we’ve arrived at Surat Thani the main hub for people to make their way to one of the islands like Koh Samui or Koh Tao. As we were going further south to Krabi we thought we would be pretty safe to stay on the bus and wait to go again. Nope, off the bus to hand our ticket in and get a little white sticker stuck on our shirt with Krabi written on it. With our new status of packages we boarded the bus, watching the Iranian man being pulled out of the luggage hold (no idea!) and more driving. 9am we arrived at a little shack in the middle of nowhere, this was our last stop. We were now in Krabi, but instead of dropping you in the town centre that theyd just driven through you get dropped here and then are made to pay for them to take you 1km back the way youve just come.

We had met a Welsh couple of the bus who had been away for 3 days, so grouped up with them to find where on earth we were and where to meet Faye and James. We waited with their bags whilst they went in search for somewhere to stay and we found somewhere with Wifi to see where we were meant to be going. Of course we were in the wrong place, we should’ve been 30 minutes down the road in Ao Nang beach. A short taxi ride later, we arrived at around 11am and finally got to see who we’d travelled 15 hours to get to! We finally got to see the two lovely people who we had travelled all that way to see but at this point, we both needed rather desperately to get some sleep so after lots of hellos and hugs we headed off to bed thinking we would all meet up later. That would of been the plan, but I was sick - again.

The next 3 days for me were spent in bed being ill. Finally recovered we got to head out altogether to Railay Beach and out for something to eat. The next day I was ill again, so Faye and James decided to go over to Koh Phi Phi whilst Phil and I stayed around the pool and just generally chilled out.

We all had another couple of days round the pool and walking about in town gawping at the not so shy lady boys, and then it was time to say goodbye as they had a flight to catch back to Bangkok and then home the next day.

We were planning on staying in Thailand island hopping for the next month, but wernt too impressed with what we found in Krabi so decided to go over the border to Malaysia and back to the Perhentians.

Another nightmare journey, not being taken to where we wanted to go etc etc. We made it over the border after 13 hours of travelling and arrived very weary in Kota Bharu where we had to spend one night and then take a taxi to Kuala Besut and the boat to the islands. We were so happy to arrive, after a bit of a nightmare trying to find somewhere to stay we ended up next door to Petani for one night.

Luckily David had found us somewhere cheap to stay on the big island so that’s where we have ended up. We have been whiling away the days snorkelling, swimming, diving and visiting some amazing beaches and spending most evenings with Kerry, Stephen and David at Petani.

It was my birthday whilst we were here so they put on a lovely meal on the beach for us at Petani and bought me a huge creamy birthday cake and we spent the night sitting on the beach under the stars, catching up and drinking the beloved monkey juice! A storm kicked in close to midnight so we couldn’t get back to the big island on the boat and ended up spending the night and heading back the next morning.

More snorkelling, sunbathing and a rather scary boat journey in a storm later and we are leaving the islands on Saturday and flying to Kuala Lumpur to get Phils camera cleaned, then its off to Singapore for some fun at Universal Studios (another little treat for my birthday!) and to soak up some culture 😊

Our Journey So Far


Kuala Lumpur - Ipoh - Tanah Rata (Cameron Highlands) - Perhentian Kecil - Kota Bharu - Kuala Lumpur - Kuching (Malaysian Borneo) - Kota Kinabalu (Malaysian Borneo) - Kuching (Malaysian Borneo) - Kuala Lumpur - Melaka - Bangkok - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) - Dalat - Danang - Hoi An - Hue - Danang - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) - Bangkok - Phnom Penh - Pursat - Battambang - Siem Reap - Phnom Penh - Bangkok - Krabi - Ao Nang - Kota Bharu - Perhentian Islands

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Comments

[Fantastic you two, what an experience ! Take care........Dad]

Thinking of you both, Lots of Love
Please take care, keep up the great blogs,really good We miss you.....................Mick and Helen Aka Dad and H xxxxx

[Chris and Nikki]

Fantastic picture!

[PhilToria]

Thank you! Definitely on my list to have enlarged and framed :-)