Sun 8 March & Sun 9 March

Sun 8 March – Hat Yai

The 15-hour train trip from KL to Hat Yai, a city of an officially-estimated 200,000 people around 50 kilometres north of the Thailand/Malaysia border, passed relatively comfortably. Spending that amount of time stuck in the one confined place during daylight hours would probably be enough to drive anyone mad, but doing such a trip overnight and catching up on the z’s while doing so makes it a convenient method of transport.

There’s not much to Hat Yai apart from the usual western-ifluenced shopping malls. A large percentage of the afternoon was spent in our hotel room as a debilitating headache had Libe laying low. A good kip saw her back on her feet for an authentic Thai meal at Sizzlers, located in the shopping plaza next door to our hotel along with McDonalds and KFC.

A good feed then saw me off my feet for an hour-long foot massage, costing around AUD 12, while Libe had a hair cut and a wash for around 10% of the price that she would pay in Australia. The foot rub was an interesting experience, one that I’m glad to have had but wouldn’t go out of my way to have again.

In what I have assumed to be a common Thailand event, we were told/lectured by the concierge upon checking in this morning that “next time” we book a room in the Grand Plaza Hotel (and there is slight chance that we will be) we must not book via their website as payment go via Bangkok, who ‘take some cream off the top of the cake’. Needless to say I still remain puzzled why we earned a lecture about this.

FROF (For-ex Rate Ouch Factor) for Thailand:

AUD/Malaysian Ringgit:
o Present: 1 AUD = 21 MYR
o Lonely Planet March 08: 1 AUD = 27 MYR.
Ouch factor = 2/5 (This place still seems cheap).


Mon 9 March – Hat Yai to Krabi

Another day, another challenge. For the first time ever, now-seasoned travellers Ryan and Libe were heading to a town where their accommodation was yet to be settled. OK, technically we have done a similar thing when relocating to Brisbane and stopping overnight in Coonabarabran, but it’s like comparing chalk and cheese. We had tried to book something before leaving but the locals’ efficient use of technology hasn’t quite been established just yet and thus a booking for us not yet secured.

The bus between Hat Yai and Krabi was a generally comfortable 5-hour trip in an air-conditioned bus. Excluding those quite uncomfortable moments when the driver decided that the vehicles directly in front were travelling too slow, and those vehicles approaching from the opposite direction were irrelevant. In these moments, an imaginary third lane was created in the two-lane highway, with the outer two lanes going in either directions compelled to use all of the road’s shoulders. In Australia one such event would prompt passengers to disembark the bus at even the most remote of locations. However, we are in Thailand, and the large majority on the commuters continued to sleep with full faith in the driver’s abilities.

Otherwise the bus ride provided plenty of great viewing of a truly magnificent environment. The camera was never kept too far away.

We eventually arrived without battering and without bruise into Krabi Town, and caught a sawngthaew (in simple terms, an American pick-up truck with two sheltered bench seats either side of the tray) for the 4 km ride into the city centre for 20 Thai Baht (less than 1 AUD). Our first two preferences for accommodation, based on Lonely Planet’s Southeast Asia On A Shoestring, were full on inquiry, but a third random option was easily available. Challenge met!

Krabi town itself is a slow place with not a lot to see – I suppose it’s possibly like Lorne, in that people head there to relax, unwind, and to use it as a base for other nearby localities. So the afternoon and evening were about updating this blog, uploading some photos, battling the regular sewerage smell and having a couple of cocktails at the Old West bar while getting beat 2-0 by Libe at Up And Down The River.

P.S. I’ve no internet access at time of typing, can someone please check spelling of Coonabarabran?