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Published: February 12th 2011
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On my last day in Penang I took the CAT to visit Fort Cornwallis and take a gander at some of the colonial buildings before trying out the asam laksa (Penang laksa, one of the island's best-known dishes) at one of the hawker centres near Chulia Street. This is a sour and mildly spicy noodle soup made out of mackerel, prawn paste and tamarind. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was very nice and I wondered why I hadn't tried it before now.
The Thai border crossing and minibus trip to Hat Yai were uneventful, and with a little help from a Swiss traveller who was on his way to Bangkok it didn't take long to find the guesthouse recommended by my guidebook for one night's stop over here, the Cathay Guesthouse. The lobby area was definitely promising, colourful and with plenty of information for travellers; there were several visitors books, computers for internet and Skype etc. There were no single rooms though, and although I was looking forward to having a room after 7 nights in the dorm in Penang (my Tripadvisor review of Hutton Lodge is
here) I took a dorm bed once more. The room
Fish Dish, Hat Yai
At 'Pee Toom Restaurant' was a major contrast to the lobby, really basic and the bathroom looked and smelled ghastly. Even if they'd had hot water I don't think I would have used the shower here! Just as well I'd only booked in here for one night.
The first thing I noticed after the minivan crossed the border into Thailand was the script on all the signs and displays, which gives the place a certain exotic flavour that you don't get in Malaysia. Looking back, this was that much more evident in Hat Yai than in Krabi (where I'm writing this), and although of course I was in the part of the city where the most guesthouses/hotels etc are located the restaurants etc had a decidedly local flavour. I chose one where there were a few locals eating and the chili fish was, yes, quite hot but delicious. Even the Post Laserdisc bar, which had an English-language sign outside and, on the night I was there, a band playing covers of familiar hits, had plenty of Thai customers.
The 11-seater minibus started from outside the Cathay and by the time it picked up from a third hotel it was full, such that
there wasn't enough room at the back for all the luggage and my pack was sitting in the aisle between the seats. The comfort level wasn't helped by the fact that though the roads are mostly reasonably smooth, there are some big holes that make it feel like the van went over a speed bump without slowing down - these vans must need repairs to their axles and suspensions often! Anyway we arrived at Krabi without breaking down and after finding the official tourist information place (the one with TAT - Tourist Authority of Thailand on the sign; there are about six shops here all with 'tourist information' on the sign but only one is the official one!) I realised that this bus station was a few km from the town centre and I'd need some transport to get to the guesthouse.
There are no local buses in most of Thailand the way there are in Britain or in Malaysia. Instead, there are converted pick-up trucks with two benches, one on either side, and a roof over them. These are called songthaew ('two rows' in Thai) and tend to leave when there are enough passengers rather than running to
a schedule. I took one of these to the centre of Krabi and found my way to the Good Dream guesthouse. Krabi is definitely popular with farang (foreigners) and there is a far higher proportion of westerners to locals here than anywhere else I've been thus far. As Christine commented on my last post I kept myself quite busy in Malaysia and here I slowed it down a little with a few days of not doing a whole lot or going much further than the beach resort (Ao Nang) a few km away. The sea as you can see from the photos is so clear here; it really looks like a picture from a holiday brochure. Set back from the beach were all the kinds of businesses you might expect at a resort like this; however the one thing which would have been really useful wasn't, as far as I could see and I looked around for a while, available. That is, somewhere I could secure my money, passport etc so I could go for a swim!
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Anne & Vic
non-member comment
Great to see the photographs and to hear you have been enjoying a relaxing time. The Thai food looks and sounds delicious too, we know you had favourite Thai restaurants in London so you must be loving actually being there. We look forward to your next update.