A travelling day. The train took us over some interesting terrain, and eventually we stopped at the Thai border, where we had to all disembark with all of our belongings, and pass through customs. There was a sign stating “hippies” were not allowed into the country, and then a list of things that made one a hippy. Long hair and wearing a singlet are apparently not very good. Wooden shoes are also frowned upon, as well as poor looking shorts. I thought about taking a picture, but didn’t want to run the risk. Despite my drab appearance, I managed to get through immigration without much trouble.
Talked with the older man, John from England, who slept in the bunk across from me, and he was heading to Krabi, which was one of the places I planned on going to too (I still wasn’t 100% sure where I would go in Hat Yai). He said he spoke a bit of Thai, and offered to share a cab with me to the bus depot from the train station. We had about an hour to wait while Thai immigration took our bus away, and brought it back to us, and in that time we managed to wrangle two Swedes, Jolina and Robin to join us on the trek to Krabi. Since our numbers were now four, John thought it might be cheaper and quicker for the four of us to take a cab.
Back on the train, we got to Hat Yai at about 11:15 (an hour later than we were supposed to), and headed to the taxi depot. They wanted 4500 baht ($146 Canadian) to take us to Krabi (about 5 hours away), so we told them we’d just take the bus instead. Got an offer for a minibus for 270 baht ($8.75) each. We decided to do that instead, but had an hour to kill. We were pretty hungry so we grabbed some money from the ATM and got some food at a small restaurant (I use the term loosely) in Hat Yai.
At 12:30 we took the minibus to Krabi. Fairly uneventful – but interesting to pass entire families on a motorbike (quite common to see – I’ll get a picture eventually). Our driver drove like a maniac, but the price was good, and the bus was air-conditioned (although poorly).
In Krabi we overpaid for a taxi to a local hostel that John knew of. They were fully booked, but John knew of another place. This place was a tad more than myself and the Swedes wanted to pay, so we parted ways with John and the three of us found another place up the street for 220 baht ($7.13) per night. Checked out the room, and it was clean and more than I needed (two beds for little old me), but who can argue for the price? I had a shower, then turned my laundry in to be cleaned for me. Much needed, I assure you.
In the evening Robin, Jolina and I headed to the night market to meet up with John and get some food. Had some nice bbq fish, chicken, and pork (with rice of course), and washed it down with a banana shake. Total came to about 85 baht ($3.50 Canadian) per person.