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Published: February 18th 2011
So I have managed to tear myself away from the sunlounge on my personal slice of paradise long enough to update my little travel adventure.. I apologise in advance for the super dooper long blog... get a coffee!
I woke up extra early in Kuala Lumpur so that I was able to squeeze in a breakfast at Yut Lee again (seriously its THAT good) - to get there this involved an hour round trip of walking but so worth it.. I was tired and grumpy after having been woken at 2am by the running water pipes above my head.. another night of that and I probably wouldnt be giving the guesthouse a good review.. but I do have some interesting video footage of me at 2am recording the damn pipes and the god awful running water!!!
After a yummy breakfast of Kopi and Kaya on Toast, I purchased a little tub of Kaya to take to Thailand with me (you don't realise HOW much McKay is loving me right now for it) and I headed off on my 'amazing race' to the Airport... walking to Bukit Bintang monorail, struggling to get me and my two rather large bags onto
a tiny monorail with 100 Asians, walking to the KL Sentral Bus Station and catching the pre-paid Air Asia bus to the airport. I ended at the airport with RM3 left to my name (Plus the RM100 I had got from an ATM the night before in a last minute 'I'm running over my budget' moment).
I sat in the departures lounge and people watched until boarding time.. the two things that amused me the most during that time was that Air Asia called for a Phuket flight to board.. and nearly every single Aussie (and other Westerner) stood up and headed to the gate.. so predictible! The second thing was watching these 3 stupid young backpackers from a European country stand almost ON TOP of the departure gate for our flight, asking the staff every 5 minutes when we were leaving... and they were there half hour before our flight was even due to start boarding doing this!!! Sit and relax girls the plane wont leave any faster by you doing that!
Our landing into Krabi was ROUGH to say the least.. it was really really windy once outside the plane which explained it but I wasnt
the only person nervously gripping the armrests as we came in to land with the wings doing a really good version of a flapping bird! Scary as.... but you will be proud to know I still havent popped one Valium the WHOLE trip! I'm a big girl now! Stepping off the plane felt amazing.. and not for the fact that I had just survived that landing.. more so for the feeling of being back in my second home... I dont realise HOW much I miss Thailand until I get back here..
After landing I grabbed my luggage, I got a free SIM card from a new SIM company (which STILL isnt working!) and went to get a drink while I waited for McKay.. her flight from Bangkok was about 90 minutes behind mine. I sat at a little cafe in the airport and polished off a Vodka Cruiser and a Chang Beer and while sitting there I could just feel the friendliness of the Thailand people and why its known as the 'Land of Smiles'. Not only directed towards me, but just watching the Thai's interact with each other.. I love it and I felt so welcome after only
10 minutes in the airport (unlike KL).
While waiting for McKay at the gate, I positioned myself to have a look at all the men holding up the transfer cards with peoples names. We had arranged for a minibus transfer by the Guesthouse, and were expecting a person to be waiting.. I started to get increasingly worried as the crowd thinned and I couldnt see our names on the board... Eventually McKay arrived and after a big hug and hello my first words were 'Ummmm I think we may already have a problem, I dont think our ride is here!' ... We decided there was no stress, we would just get another bus if needed. I had the airport staff page our driver but alas, noone turned up... Plan B involved getting the Airport organised minibus which should be about 350 baht but they charged us 90 baht for the ticket to get to Krabi THEN another 350 baht from there... being an Airport organised one we were confident that it would be okay.. When we asked how long the trip was she said 'one half hour' - if you dont speak Thai English that is NOT half an
hour but one and a half hours!!
Mai Pen Rai Well as you are well aware, if you have followed my travels, that the Thai's rarely tell the truth when it comes to transport and what really should be an easy simple task for them of taking you from destination A to destination B always, and I mean ALWAYS turns complicated....
We headed out to the bus, handed over our tickets and piled on with 50 others... Once in Krabi about 5 minutes later a guy jumps on the bus and with all the tact of an Army Commando starts yelling out orders "KO PHANGAN, SAMUI, LANTA OUT" or something that sounded like that! I pictured jumping off and finding him and 50 other dudes with machine guns taking us hostage with that kind of hostility! I think somewhere along the way he has got hospitality mixed up with hostility!
We jump out and were ushered to the biggest bomb of a people mover van you have ever seen, no windows that would open (they were locked shut with plastic ties), no aircon and the whole thing was definitely not roadworthy! Along with 3 others we were
conveyed 10 minutes up the road to .... the side of the road.... again we were ordered out with military precision to another more luxurious van.. A big white fancy roadworthy one... We then just sat... and I mean just sat! On the side of the road! For at least an hour! Meanwhile the two bus drivers just sat outside under the shade of a bus shelter chatting... After an hour all 5 of us were pretty mad and so one of the others got out to ask them what they were doing?! With that, they said their goodbyes and we were off.... I am thinking they were just catching up for a chinwag and thought that the 'dumb farangs can sit there... and we will see how long we can get away with this'
Another 5 minutes down the road and they pulled up again behind another people mover.... here there were a whole group of people abusing the bus driver... I recognised one of the guy as being on my flight... which means they had been fkd around for an hour and a half longer than even us! WTF.... After another 5 minutes we were on our
way.. until our bus driver decided it was time to get petrol (WTF) .. Finally we were on our way again.. all very unhappy! I kept saying to McKay 'oh well at least we are together and still catching up.. just not over drinks and a sunset' lol gotta stay positive sometimes! Halfway through the journey we got hold of Annie, the manager of our Guesthouse and she asked to speak to the driver... She was really apologetic towards us but it seems there was some confusion over our transfer and we were meant to phone her once at the airport (our email does not say this).
Two car ferries later we arrived on Koh Lanta only for our driver to pull up on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere AGAIN! By this stage I was out the van grabbing at my bags saying 'Fk this lets just get a tuktuk' We had been going for over 4 hours! This whole time the driver had been saying to us 'just a minute' and talking on his phone and when we asked him specific questions he would just say 'me no speak English' CONVENIENT TO SAY
THE LEAST!
Another van pulled up behind us after 5 minutes of sitting there and they got luggage from out of our vehicle to put in another... crazy stuff... The driver then promised us that we were on our way.. He then drove straight past the turnoff to our guesthouse.. Well you can imagine what I was like by this stage.. I was telling him to turn around but he kept waving us off as he was too busy talking on his mobile phone! Eventually he pulled over, we explained he had missed our guesthouse and he did a uturn.. He then had the cheek to drop us off on the side of the road and make us walk the rest of the way!
We turned up at the Guesthouse at 8.30pm to Annie full of apologies as to the situation! She upgraded us to a better room (and has just informed me this morning that we are there the full 4 nights) and gave us fruit juice and fruit patting my belly and telling me that the fruit was good for me to lose weight!!! Ummmm didnt I just lose 10 kilos?! Guess I need to lose
more in Thailand hehehehe....
We quickly freshened up and decided to get a tuktuk to Long Beach and go to Thai Cat.. it was one of my favourite restaurants the last time I was here so it was an easy option! McKay told me that on all her trips to Thailand she has only ever really eaten curry and Pad Thai so its now become my mission to feed her everything I can! We ordered a 4 chilli SomTam (too hot!) and a Butterfish fried in garlic and pepper! It was divine! Washed down with some cold beers was just what we needed before getting a tuk tuk back to Saladan town in search of Banana Pancakes for dessert! After our pancakes we headed straight back to the guesthouse and passed out! What a day!
Paradise Is Right Here
At exactly 5.30am our unexpected alarm went off... the local Mosque blasting out its prayer call over a loudspeaker... the guy sounded like he could crack a thousand mirrors with his voice ... and we lay in bed giggling away at how funny he was... we passed out afterwards then woke at 7.30am to our houseguest
Mr Gekko going off in our roof... Up and out onto our beautiful balcony we were presented with coffee and toast within minutes.. We smothered the toast in my Kaya both groaning and moaning at how good it was, and also had some fresh fruit we had bought the night before from a small stall next to the Banana Pancake man... In daylight we couldnt believe our luck of our little bungalow.. it was completely gorgeous and about 50 meters (if that) from the beach... While eating breakfast, we got chatting and I was telling McKay about the cute boy that I met in Melbourne airport... I was saying that he might end up in Bangkok at the same time as us.. I ended up showing her a photo of him (he is seriously cute) and when she saw his photo, she had a kind of blank look on her face... I was expecting her to say something like "ewww he is NOT cute" but instead she says "OMG" (in her best American accent), she then says "that guy was in front of me in the queue at Bangkok airport".. I was like "No way" and she was like "Yes
thats him, he had these tattoos on him and was just wearing a small backpack.. carry on luggage size, I heard him saying he was flying to Surat Thani to someone" ... As far as I knew cute guy (Mick as he should probably be known) was catching the overnight train to Surat Thani... We couldnt believe what a small world it was... I facebooked him to see if he had done the train or plane option and sure enough it was him! Whats the chances!
We then decided to go explore the beach.... We both were speechless (that doesnt happen often) when we emerged from the little pathway from our guesthouse to the beach to the most spectacular beach we have ever seen.. it was postcard picture perfect and the weather was amazing.. We are staying at Klong Dao Beach which is a large bay so the water was just still as still can be and bluer than the sky on a perfect summers day! We decided to head left up the beach (we are about halfway) and see what was around. When we reached the far Southern end we found Ancient Realm resort which is one of
the resorts I had looked at staying at.. We decided to eat lunch here so ordered up cocktails and salads... we shared Chicken Satays and three different salads (SomTam, Larb Gai and Seafood) .. The service was a little slow, and while the cocktails were cheap they were TINY (less than half the size of most normal ones) but the food was really really good.
We then headed back to the little bar out the front of our guesthouse, called the Indian Bar where we planted our asses for the rest of the day... taking time out to cool off in the gorgeous crystal clear water a couple of time... It was at this point that I made the silly decision to get a bikini wax from the massage place next door... When I walked in and told them what I wanted they called on a walkie talkie to a girl to come do it... and she was taking awhile so they made me take a seat to wait.. I then saw one of the girls start to tell another how to wax (ummmm she is NOT experimenting on me thanks!) ... I got up and said I was
in no rush and just to let me know when she arrived... hoping at that point she would NEVER arrive.... Eventually they came to get me and let me tell you, the adrenaline was pumping! Argh! I was behind a lace curtain for the world to see (and the guy getting a massage 10 feet from me)... and I was scared... I am not sure how hygenic is was, but the wax was drying (and ripping hair) before she was even finished coating the wax.. When she laid the cloth strip on the thick half dried wax, let me just say... I am not religious but I was praying my ass off that my skin was going to remain there!!!! I survived to tell the story but its not really something I would go out of my way to experience again..
Later on that day we both had massages from the same place then we settled in to front row sun lounges for a beautiful sunset... just as we got comfortable these four stupid tourists came walking up the beach... and low n behold decided that right in front of us would be a GREAT place to set up
a big green ugly net and play some stupid game of handball over a net... in our way of the sunset... Grrrrrrr.... Who seriously does that?! Oh thats right.. those same rude people you encounter all over Thailand from a specific contenient of the world.. and they say Aussies are rude travellers! No we are the ones kicking back at the bar, trying to enjoy a beautiful sunset with our cameras!!!!!! They didnt even get the hint when everyone from the bar had to keep getting up and walking around the game to get quality shots without their ugly faces in them! We met Pas, the owner of the Indian Bar, a very laidback cool hippie dude running a seriously cool little bar... He asked me about my tattoos and I asked him to translate my Thai foot tattoo (this is seriously amusing to hear all the Thai's point at my foot and say "ahhhhh TRAIN" lol.... When he translated him I told him the story and now my new nickname is Train! McKay went down to save sunbeds this morning and Pas was saying "Where is Train?!" Too funny!
After sunset we decided to head out to the
main road and search for some good local food... not far from our guesthouse we found a little family run shack called Thai Is San specialising in Northern Thailand Cuisine... It was pretty much a shack with Mum and Dad cooking and kids serving and the majority of people eating there were Thai... it won us over....
We ordered up with sticky rice, Som Tam, Deep fried Chicken, Tom Yung Goong and Deep fried Fish with Garlic... With a couple of large beers to wash it down we were in heaven. I showed McKay how to eat with her hands and we devoured the whole thing .. The bill came to 575 baht (less than $20) and it was probably one of the BEST meals I have had in Thailand! We really wanted to try their Crispy Pork but they had run out (which means it must be popular) so our mission today is to get there before it runs out!
You go home if you not afford
After dinner we headed into Saladan town to do some shopping and try set me up my SIM card (that was a fail)... We both bought Cowboy
hats for the beach (wait til you see mine! It is all Glittery.. my Mum will LOVE it) and some tshirts before getting Banana, Coconut, Chocolate Pancakes (with real fresh coconut in it) and then we had a great idea... All day we had seen people floating in the giant pool (which is the bay) on those floating sunbeds so we decided to try buy some.. we saw them in a shop across the street... We went over and asked the guy how much... He tells us 450 baht and then when we say too expensive he takes us to the back of the shop and shows us some flimsy cheap ass things and says 'if you cannot afford you buy this one 350 baht' ... He was being quite rude and very arrogant and said to us at one point in a really condescending voice "Maybe you just SWIM" while making swimming movements with his arms!! We ummmed and ahhhed before deciding that they were still too expensive for Thailand! The guy then turns around and says to us 'Maybe you should go home then if you think too expensive... you go home if you not afford', turns his
back and walks off... We were gobsmacked and couldnt stop laughing, but scurried out the shop like naughty school children! Our jaws were still scrapping on the tuktuk floor as we headed back to the guesthouse defeated!! Attitude!
After a strong cocktail at the Indian Bar to soothe our bruised egos, we headed to bed... defeated by the angry little rude Thai boy.... BUT today is a new day! And on that note, if you are still awake... I am off to the beach! My sun lounge is calling me! Don't forget to flick to page two of this blog for more photos!!!!
Love Reet & McKay x
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Wendy Ennis
non-member comment
You always make me laugh
Ohh Reety, you always write in such a great way. I love reading your blogs and actually can just picture it as if it were happening to me as it usually does lol. xxx