Continuing the adventure
So I found a pretty good North-face knock-off backpack in the street markets in Bangkok. Not really sure how long it will last, but it’s definiteily better than what I have now – Cost + 1200 Baht (40CAD). Not too shabby!
We’ve spent our time meeting people in the hostel and going to the weekend market, The Ancient City and the Grand Palace. We’ve been getting a bit frustrated with Bangkok’s transportation system – except for theis skytrain which is AWESOME! Airconditioned and fast, but it doesn’t always go as far as you may want to go. The tuk-tuks look like fun, but try and take one somewhere and the drivers have a different idea. Everyone wants you to stop along the way to look in a shop. Apparently, the drivers are given vouchers for things like gasoline from thier sponsors if they can get the tourist into the shop. You don;t have to buy anything, you just have to agree to stop, go in and look around for 10 minutes. We’ve even tried to pay double, triple, but no go!! Very frustrating!! The taxis are better although we must admit, that when we want to get one to take us somewhere farther outside the city, we leave our hostel and go across the street to the Ambassador Hotel and use their concierge. We feel kind of badly about using their services, but it is one way to get around the hustle.
The evening out of Bangkok, we had to catch an overnight bus to Surat Thani and then onto Krabi where we would catch a longtail to an island beach. The bus was scheduled to leave at 7pm and we got our hostel to call a cab for us. A couple mintes later, one arrived – but refused to take us if we weren’t going to the airport. I guess the lenght of our ride and the traffic on a Friday night wasn’t worth it to him (it does only cost $3 for a 40 minute cab fare). Then another cab arrived and wanted to charge us 3x as much as what we normally would have had to pay. I thought that since time was running out, it would be a good idea to take the offer, but Andre thought differently – yes, this doesn’t end well! So we waved this cab off as well. Shortly after, the waiter from the restaurant that we had frequented quite often came over to say good bye, saw that we were having problemd getting our cab and went out into the street to hail us a cab. But again, when he told them where we were going, they refused and drove off. Eventually a waitress from the same restaurant arrived and this waiter guy and another woman started talking very loudly at the cab driver……we were allowed to go. The guy told us the other lady yelling at the cab driver was his mom!!! These guys were trying everything – now we had 25 minutes to make it to the bus terminal in Friday night Bangkok traffic…………….
…………………..we didn’t make it in time BUT there was another bus arriving shortly!! Whhooooo!! Andre was quite relieved I think! SO we get on board only to sit by the smelliest bathroom ever! It was the last seats on the bus…..we didn’t complain!
The bus ride was the MOST TERRIFYING experience ever! The driver was going about 150km/hr and we were SO happy to be sitting on the lower level of the double decker bus! I asked Andre what I should do if the bus tips, he said to grab onto him. He also told me the next morning that while I had dozed off there were a couple of times that he grabbed onto me because he thought that the bus was going over! This 10 hour bus ride was from hell and we decided no more overnighters on a bus . At least the train has tracks !!
We arrived in Surat Thani 2 hours before our scheduled connection was going to arrive – I think the bus could have taken its time…….!!!! &^%% We catch another air con bus to Krabi and have to wait for another transfer….this time we’re in the back of a truck! And considering that the lines on the road really mean nothing, people pass on blind corners, when other people are coming from the other direction, it’s mayhem. Andre asked me if I had completed the “who to notify incase of emergency” inside our passport……I relied not yet…..he stressed it is something we need to do as soon as we get the chance.
When we arrive at the Andaman Inn after a terrifying 10 hour bus ride, waiting and waiting for transfers in 30 degC heat and then another death defying truck ride to find that aweful bathroom and the crazy wrapping paper on our walls used to wall paper, well I almost lost it! There are geckos and big beetles everywhere….and we have to sleep in this room with broken fan and ripped screens and I have a pot to fluch a toilet!!! I mean we did not want this must rustic appeal at this moment – this was still a vacation time……Even having a drink to laugh about the situation was nothing either of us wanted. We wondered if we would be able to hack it.
We went to bed that evening and didn’t have any encounters with any creepy crawlies although it was extremely hot. The owners gave us a second fan that worked much better than the one we already had. We went for a swim and relaxed by the beach. The food is great and the seclusion is pretty cool. If we want to go the the mainland we have to take the longtail boat……..the last one leaves at 7pm, the electricity in this place is only on from 6pm to 6am although they have the power to keep the beer cold!!!
Our second day is so much better – we’re attributing our freak session to the exhaustion. On our thord day here Andre woke up with really REALLY swollen feet. We’re taking a trip into town to get hi some air con at the internet cafe. When we get here he really can’t walk that well and feel pretty naseous. I get some rehydration packets from the pharmacy since we had left our first aid kits in the bungalow……we had everything else – passports, meds for malaria – things that would be difficult to replace. Since it seemed as though this nausea wasn’t going to pass we checked into an aircon place for the night and I proceeded to fill him with Gatorade and tones of water. He drank about 10L in the last 24 hours and the water retention seems to have subsided. We’re on our way back.
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