Pot luck with accommodation.

Booking accommodation online while overseas is always a bit of a mystery tour and can be fraught with hidden surprises. You never really know what you are going to get until you turn up and see it with your own eyes. (and nose and ears!)

And so while in the exciting world of Chinese New Year in Penang we booked our accommodation for our first week in Thailand and arranged transport up the Malay and Thai peninsula.

Our first mini bus journey took us from Penang Island across the border to Hat Yai. I had been here before and remembered it only as an uninteresting transit town. Not much has changed apart from some Southern Thailand unrest and several terrorist attacks..                                                                                                                                                             

The highlight for all of us while staying in Hat Yai was skype-ing thebowleys and hearing the news from a sweltering Sydney and all about the start of the school year at Cromer. Thanks Bowleys – it was great to speak to you.

I knew we wouldn’t have time to spend on both sides of the Thai coast so after speaking to some of my well-travelled friends for advice it became clear that we had to visit the West coast and stay near Krabi. Of course the East coast would have been far easier with transport as the train line runs straight up to Surat Thani and a quick boat would have got us to Koh Samui in no time. Still we all know the road less travelled is often more interesting.

This next minivan ride was a bit hairy. There were eleven of us crammed into a rattling, old Toyota Hiace plus our entire luggage. The Carr’s are travelling with a total of 9 bags (Each one colour coded so if I forget how to count, I know which colour is missing.) A young American couple kept Paul entertained at the back of the bus for a lot of the time while Charlotte was stuck in the middle surrounded by sleeping travellers who sprawled out even further with every snore. Lucky she loves to curl up and read. Maisy and I were travelling gunshot and this was the hairy part. Our driver couldn’t speak English and I had only learnt two words in Thai (Thank you - Kob koon ka  and  Good – Dii) and I didn’t need to use either one of these two words in the 4 hour trip.

Our driver spent most of the time talking and texting on his 2 mobiles at 110 km / hour. He had another phone which he was taking text messages from and replying at the same time and another phone he was talking with, not to mention the number of people he knew along the side of the road that he had to talk to. Of course the van had to be a manual and there was no sign of a seat belt. I had planned to do school work with Maisy io this trip but instead I was preoccupied wondering how do I learn to relax and have faith in the way other people live.  I split my faith evenly between God, Allah, Buddha and Toyota and closed my eyes a lot of the way.

Maisy was just a bit bored, the batteries had run out on the DSi and the headphones for the iPod were packed in the luggage. Both the girls are great travellers and simply just accept the smaller journeys as part and parcel of the whole adventure. But this was hard, sticking to the vinyl seats, trying to feel the little puff of cool air coming from the exhausted air conditioner.  I kept promising her that it would all be worth it when we got to the resort on the beach with a fabulous pool and a bed to herself. ( I hoped!)

We got to Krabi and then on to Ao Nang. We showed the driver the address of our “Resort” but he had never heard of it. He made several calls and we ended up at a little jetty. All of our luggage was put on a wooden long boat so we followed it and went on a short trip across a river / to an island, we weren’t sure. Waiting for us at the other end were two motorbikes with side carts. One for our luggage and one for us. Our luggage took off so we hopped on and took off after it. A 10 kilometre trip through remote villages, across narrow bridges, under tall swaying palm trees and past Tsunami warning signs, Paul and I sat across from each other with forced smiles and shaking heads thinking ‘what have we done?’ and ‘where the hell are we?’

Well, we said we wanted to stay away from the identikit villas and tourist spots and get in and feel the real Thai. So here we are after 7 hours travelling. We have arrived in paradise. This place is so remote and beautiful. It was built just after the tsunami and made totally by the locals. We are right on the water facing the west and a horizon dotted with karst islands. There is nothing much around us but small fishing villages and light rain forest areas. The sounds of exotic birds fill the air and the distant hum of a long boat going out to bring in the nights feed. The local staff are all friendly and extremely helpful. There are only 5 other honeymoon couples here so apart from us it is very serene and peaceful. The girls think we are in heaven and yes there really is a fabulous infinity edge, massive swimming pool looking out over the Andaman Sea.

We managed to find a truly idyllic place to stay and we are lapping it up.

IdyllicalLee