 |
Posted from Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand.
Bangkok for us was all about seeing then dentist and getting some serious work done for a fraction of the price in Australia, shopping at street stalls, boat rides and fun parks. Its a city i would love to explore again without kiddies i think.
Posted from Ko Lanta, Krabi, Thailand.
What is it about mini bus drivers in Asia? I’m thinking there I an underground betting syndicate which controls them, with drivers forced to race from place to place as quickly as possible. It’s like grand theft auto, but live. It seems quite ordinary for us to be in packed minivan, in the rain, overtaking a motorbike, that is already overtaking a tuk tuk, whilst we go round a corner, up a hill, across double yellow lines…. all way to fast and in a van with bald tires. Such was our ride from Trang to Koi Lanta.
But we made it safe and sound all the same. We got a quick feed at the curry house beside the 7/11 just as our host Lek arrived in a tuk tuk to pick us up. We drove to his home in the jungle on koi Lanta with houses sporadically placed between jungle and rubber plantations. There we met Leanne, Areeya and haroon. Leanne is English, came to Thailand and fell in love, in every way. With Thailand, with Lek, with the lifestyle. Theirs kids Areeya and Haroon were like hard boiled lollies – tough and sweet. It was very comical to here this English accent coming from the mouth of Areeya who looked very Thai.
Dinner was always a wonderful affair, first there was purchasing food from the markets – and you never knew from one day to the next what would be there either. Dinner invariably was curry, fish, chicken and vegetables. Our kids were not so keen on the food initially but soon were gulping it down.
We hired some motorbikes and soon considered ourselves proficient on them, doubling the kids around the island. The little mopeds were quite speedy, though it was rarely possible due to the conditions to go above 50 safely. We spend a day tripping round the islands with Lek, collected some shells which he promptly knotted up into necklaces for us. Very nice touch, he managed to somehow not only make 2 for everyone, he made them perfectly suited to everyone with designed differences in each.
Leanne and Lek shared a relaxed but loving attitude towards parenting their children, not sweating the small stuff which showed in their kids’ attitude to life. Good and bad thing happened, but nothing was to be dwelled on, and fun was to be found everywhere. Our kids and theirs spent hours playing on rope swings, doodling around the house, Haroon was very impressed by Orlando’s car and backugan collection and spent hours playing with them.
20 of May 2011
We left Kota Baru( Malaysia) this morning at 8am heading to the Thailand border in Sungai Kolok in a bus. We are heading to our second Couch surfing family in Koh Lanta – Thailand.
In Sungai Kolok we carried our heavy bags across the border. No Taxies on the other side only motorbike taxies. We were told that they would have no trouble taking us but we declined and decided to walk to the train station. Oh my, we finally made it completely trenched 20 min later, don’t forget it’s the buildup of the monsoon season Hot Hot Hot. Thailand is already turning out to be cheaper than Malaysia and we loved feeling like Kings and Queens.
Our train ride which was second class from the Thai border to Hat Yai cost us only 30 dollars for all of us. The train had open windows and fans above which seem more than enough to keep us cool. On the train there had many heavily armed army dudes. I did ask if i could take photos but got a smile and a big no. Apparently this was left over from the up rise last October in Thailand
It took us about 5 hrs on the train and then we had to catch a mini bus to Trang which is where we stopped for the night as it would take another bus and another 3 hrs to Koh Lanta. I am so excited to be in Thailand finally. We ended up finding a super cheap hotel room, that had 3 king seize mattresses put together, one large bed for all 4 of us. We went down the street to find some amazing dinner and then collapsed into bed by about 11pm.
