Right, so first day in Thailand.......Words first picture later.......forgot to bring camera cable.... ; P
So. Trip to Thailand started on the 11th, at 830pm. Finally got to KL Sentral station. Train leaving for HatYai was at 845. With no food yet for dinner, it was time for a call to the respective parties at McD's or KFC for dinner. Luck of the draw, McD's. So we're there waiting for the food delivery, 5 of us waiting for two peaople. The conductors are starting to blow their whistles........and train's about to leave....what do ya know, on time for once.......satu member lagi belum datang. We see her running from KFC. And so, we start rushing down the escalator to Platform 1. All 7 of us, lari lintang pukang, carrying one big backpacker bag each and then some, including plastic bags of snackage and fast food. The word on our lips is "Mana carriage 1V ni? Mana dia??! CEPAT!!!" It was an Amazing Race moment, alas, video camera belum sedia lagi! Tape pun belum load!!! We finally find our carriage at the end of the platform, the first carriage. Safe.
We then settle ourselves in for the long train ride ahead, 16 hours to be exact with minimal stops. It's suppose to be direct. I've never ridden a train long haul locally before, let alone with with bunks. So the entire crew, rank 7 in total. The rundown is, me, Alfred, Syat, Tapai, Modi, Iedil and Skin. Iedil soon rounds the number off to lucky eight though, our "liaison officer", Iedil, is fast at work with a Japanese Korean chick doing a soul search round the world trip, and Yuki or Martina soon joins our ranks. I soon find myself nodding off for the night at 11pm. It's been a long day.
When I awake the next morning, it's 945 and we're in the Rice Bowl of Malaysia, Kedah. Syat tells me the trains running behind. Surprise surprise. Our ETA in HatYai was suppose to be 1045, we're seriously behind schedule. It only gets worse from here on out. By the time, we get to the Immigration check point at Padag Besar, it's already noon. And after we finish with imigration, we find that KTM feels this sudden and intense need to change carriages. In true local institution fashion, it takes them one and a half hours to do so. By the time we leave, it's roughly 130pm. From here. it's a 45 minute train ride to HatYai. With no stops on the way, we should make good time.
Hatyai
We arrive in HatYai at 230(local time) with our gang of 8 and all our bags, we squeeze into a TukTuk and head to the bus station to catch transportation to Krabi. We're taken to a travel agent opposite the bus station who offers us an exorbitant price to charter us a mini van to Krabi, our TuTuk guys tells us he can get us a better rate else where. By the end of this escapade, we pay 320 baht per pax for a 4 hour journey to Krabi. I slept most of the way there, and managed to finish watching Wristcutter: A Love Story. On the way we stop at a tourist trap for some lunch. The curries and gulai's were really spicy, nothing better than that to say "Welcome to Thailand" to your stomach.
Krabi
We get to our hotel wiht not much trouble, the ussual, a local travel agent trying to sell us transportation back to HatYai, before we've even stepped foot on Krabi soil. Passing a Outlet Village on our way in, I'm definitely going to try and stop by before we leave. We reach our guesthouse, Good Dream Guest house at roughly 8pm. After dumping our bags and getting showers, we decide to head off to Ao Nang Beach for some seafood dinner. The drive to Ao Nang from Krabi takes roughly 45 minutes. We get there is a totally pimped up SUV.We try and charter him for our return trip to HatYai, he wants to charge us 6K baht, we say we'll think about. We walk around Ao Nang looking at shops and souvenirs, not quite aware of the time. We find a nice seafood place overlooking the sea. The Tom Yam is excellent, as was the squid and fish. The green curry, less so. A satisfying end to the long day we've had. A journey that started almost 24 hours ago in KL.
We head over to the beack street of Ao Nang, to try some Somsang. Basically, coke and rum in a small bucket for 200 baht. The rum is foul and the coke is thin. The last time we're trying Somsang in Krabi Iedil. The establishment offered us some boardgames, like Jenga and Connect Four. We played a few rounds of both, concurrently while Iedil and Syat struggle to finish the bucket. After that, we head back to Krabi town in motor bike TukTuks. It's past midnight and they wants 100 per pax for the trip back, we haggle down to a meager 90 baht and hunker down for the long dark, windy drive back.
So. Trip to Thailand started on the 11th, at 830pm. Finally got to KL Sentral station. Train leaving for HatYai was at 845. With no food yet for dinner, it was time for a call to the respective parties at McD's or KFC for dinner. Luck of the draw, McD's. So we're there waiting for the food delivery, 5 of us waiting for two peaople. The conductors are starting to blow their whistles........and train's about to leave....what do ya know, on time for once.......satu member lagi belum datang. We see her running from KFC. And so, we start rushing down the escalator to Platform 1. All 7 of us, lari lintang pukang, carrying one big backpacker bag each and then some, including plastic bags of snackage and fast food. The word on our lips is "Mana carriage 1V ni? Mana dia??! CEPAT!!!" It was an Amazing Race moment, alas, video camera belum sedia lagi! Tape pun belum load!!! We finally find our carriage at the end of the platform, the first carriage. Safe.
We then settle ourselves in for the long train ride ahead, 16 hours to be exact with minimal stops. It's suppose to be direct. I've never ridden a train long haul locally before, let alone with with bunks. So the entire crew, rank 7 in total. The rundown is, me, Alfred, Syat, Tapai, Modi, Iedil and Skin. Iedil soon rounds the number off to lucky eight though, our "liaison officer", Iedil, is fast at work with a Japanese Korean chick doing a soul search round the world trip, and Yuki or Martina soon joins our ranks. I soon find myself nodding off for the night at 11pm. It's been a long day.
When I awake the next morning, it's 945 and we're in the Rice Bowl of Malaysia, Kedah. Syat tells me the trains running behind. Surprise surprise. Our ETA in HatYai was suppose to be 1045, we're seriously behind schedule. It only gets worse from here on out. By the time, we get to the Immigration check point at Padag Besar, it's already noon. And after we finish with imigration, we find that KTM feels this sudden and intense need to change carriages. In true local institution fashion, it takes them one and a half hours to do so. By the time we leave, it's roughly 130pm. From here. it's a 45 minute train ride to HatYai. With no stops on the way, we should make good time.
Hatyai
We arrive in HatYai at 230(local time) with our gang of 8 and all our bags, we squeeze into a TukTuk and head to the bus station to catch transportation to Krabi. We're taken to a travel agent opposite the bus station who offers us an exorbitant price to charter us a mini van to Krabi, our TuTuk guys tells us he can get us a better rate else where. By the end of this escapade, we pay 320 baht per pax for a 4 hour journey to Krabi. I slept most of the way there, and managed to finish watching Wristcutter: A Love Story. On the way we stop at a tourist trap for some lunch. The curries and gulai's were really spicy, nothing better than that to say "Welcome to Thailand" to your stomach.
Krabi
We get to our hotel wiht not much trouble, the ussual, a local travel agent trying to sell us transportation back to HatYai, before we've even stepped foot on Krabi soil. Passing a Outlet Village on our way in, I'm definitely going to try and stop by before we leave. We reach our guesthouse, Good Dream Guest house at roughly 8pm. After dumping our bags and getting showers, we decide to head off to Ao Nang Beach for some seafood dinner. The drive to Ao Nang from Krabi takes roughly 45 minutes. We get there is a totally pimped up SUV.We try and charter him for our return trip to HatYai, he wants to charge us 6K baht, we say we'll think about. We walk around Ao Nang looking at shops and souvenirs, not quite aware of the time. We find a nice seafood place overlooking the sea. The Tom Yam is excellent, as was the squid and fish. The green curry, less so. A satisfying end to the long day we've had. A journey that started almost 24 hours ago in KL.
We head over to the beack street of Ao Nang, to try some Somsang. Basically, coke and rum in a small bucket for 200 baht. The rum is foul and the coke is thin. The last time we're trying Somsang in Krabi Iedil. The establishment offered us some boardgames, like Jenga and Connect Four. We played a few rounds of both, concurrently while Iedil and Syat struggle to finish the bucket. After that, we head back to Krabi town in motor bike TukTuks. It's past midnight and they wants 100 per pax for the trip back, we haggle down to a meager 90 baht and hunker down for the long dark, windy drive back.
Back in Krabi, Iedil wants us to check out Fu Bar, which is just behind our hostel. We go. We walk past a place called Jam Club that's playing Syat and Alfred's kinda music, Tiesto. But Iedil walks on. Only to find that Fu Bar ain't open. Iedil comments that Krabi and Ao Nang is quite quiet even for low season. With Iedil disappointed we head back to Jam Club for some drinks and good music. After Martina's had a couple of beers and a few rounds of cards, we decide to call it anight. The clock reads 330am as I fall asleep and we have an early morning tomorrow, 745 call time to try and get tickets for the 9am ferry to Phi Phi Island. It';s been a really really really long day.
Next stop, Phi Phi.
