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Published: March 8th 2015
Today we woke up knowing we had to find and catch a mini bus too Chanthaburi, this again caused a few minor hiccups in particular being dropped off at the wrong bus station for the bus we needed to catch. This forced us to wander down the road in search of the bus stop where our transport would be leaving from, not fun with a backpack over you and its 30 odd degrees. After some searching and a few games of charades with the locals we found our bus. Which, wasn’t really a bus more of a van. We had to wait for about 2 hours for departure so sat it a nearby air conditioned McDonald ‘s.
Departure time came, this bus had a full load of Thai and maybe Cambodian nationals looking to reach the boarder. The van was strategically packed with bags and people being dropped off first and last, needless to say it was extremely cramped. On the plus side it cost Oliver and I a sum of 200bht (£4) for a ticket. Once on the road, I have never experienced a journey like it, I don’t know if Thai people have driving licences or
a highway code but there driving is crazy. The driver and co-driver must make this trip regularly and want to set a quickest time record to compare with their mates as he didn’t let off the pedal. We also had to put up with some racing lines and quite frankly dangerous over and under taking. Some poor souls on the bus were struggling with the Thai Lewis Hamilton's driving and needed to vomit, not pleasant when your sat next to them. The journey had its bonuses, it was cool, cheap, took 4 hours and dropped us straight at our next town.
Chanthaburi is a fairly quiet little town and pleasant change from Pattaya, it is filled with little river front restaurant and precious gem dealers. We found our accommodation fairly quickly and settled in. When going to the lobby to use the WiFi, we bumped into our first Australian. Dennis has been touring Asia on his push bike riding 60-100km a day and he said he isn’t a regular cyclist, quite frankly we both thought he was mad. After introductions were made and a beer had, all three of us went for an explore. We were directed
to where nice places to eat were and found a pretty little restaurant over looking the river. The food again was delightfully fresh and tasty. The staple beer on the trip so far has been Singha, refreshing and perfect with a Thai dish we sank a few while chatting and finding out more with our new friend. After dinner, beers were the only choice on the agenda so we went in search of some bars. Dennis seemed to know where he was going so we followed, to our surprise he had scouted out the towns night clubs. Would have been rude not to go give them ago, seeing signs on the doors saying no guns, does make one think what kind of town he has come too. The locals were friendly and really do like westerners they offer drinks and want pictures with you.
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Johnny Mac
non-member comment
A good read Tom. Sounds like you're having fun. Is there an opening for me out there in the 'Driver Training' field do you think ?? Take it easy and look forward to your next entry.