6 White People + 1 Crabby Thai Guy = Independent Travel

20 September 2009

Kicking and screaming, we left Railay behind to join back up with the truck for the final three weeks of our Epic Journey.One last night of drinks at the house...sigh...Carol and Amy brought round a fresh young coconut as a hostess gift, which was sadly foul and which Denis still agreed to drink for $20. See following Celebrity Handshake Photo.

Because there was some confusion over the Thai visa situation (it's only 14 days if you enter at a land border, not 30 as it would be in an airport), we needed to get ourselves into Malaysia on the 20th, when our visas expired. The original plan was to go back up to Surat Thani, spend a final night there meeting up with the other 8, and driving to Pulau Penang on the 21st. Things change, though, and so we booked ourselves into private minivans from Krabi direct to Penang, for 800 baht each including the boat journey from Railay. Carol was there to see us off at the appalling hour of 6—that's am. Not pm. AM. Despite all my best efforts, I have now seen a sunrise. It was poetry and magic and all that crap. At least there's photographic evidence, see below. There is usually a later boat, but as this is a religious holiday weekend for Muslims (end of Ramadan), only the ungodly early van was running. How's that for irony? Get it? Ungodly?

I would probably have blocked the entire dawn-escapade from my mind if not for Captain Misery, our own personal van driver. He met us at the pier in Ao Nammao, and proceeded to have a tantrum that we were late (our longtail had waited past the 6am departure time for a shipment of Thais who only rocked up at 6:15—and who all got driven across the acres of sticky mangrove mud that the six of us trekked across in flipflops. But I am not bitter.) Anyhoo—this guy screamed at us, threw David's bag on the ground, and went to start the van in a fiery rage. Effect somewhat dampened when the engine failed, and the boys had to push it started. Not that he said thank you, but I think it stole a bit of his drama. He drove us silently to Hat Yai, about 4 hours from Krabi, and left us at a travel shop to catch the 12:30 van to Penang.

David and I ate at a place called the Rugby House in Hat Yai, and if ever you find yourself in this otherwise featureless town, I highly recommend it. The owner played rugby at school (rare enough in Thailand), and had a good chat to us about it. Turns out that the Thai word for 'love' is similar to 'Rug' and his wife's name is Bea...so the restaurant's name is, conveniently, also a tribute to her. She had cool hair. The juicer had no juice (electricity is not 24/7 in Thailand), so this guy hand-squeezed lemons for David's fresh lemon drink. The curry was beautiful, and all of $2.

Roll on Malaysia, Country Number 21.