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After three nights on Ko Phi Phi it was time to move on, and so I got the boat to Krabi. On the boat I met Joe and Carl from San Diego, who had been on the snorkeling trip. I remarked that it was unusual to meet Americans in Thailand, and they explained how long it had taken them to get there (18 hours, I think, via San Francisco, and Tokyo). I guess you'd have to really want to go somewhere to put up with that kind of journey, especially if you only had a two week holiday. This makes it all the more surprising that there are a disproportionately large number of Canadians, immediately recognisable by the flags sown onto their rucksacks. Maybe they get better holidays in Canada...

Picking Coconuts

At Krabi I got a shared pick up to Ao Nang beach and found a reasonable guest house. Rayleh beach is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in the region, but is only reachable by boat. I intended to make a day trip of it, but the weather was still a bit off, so it never happened. Ao Nang beach was fairly rough, so there was no great incentive to spend too much time on it.

I was only going to spend two days in Krabi, and because of the weather I decided to do a bike tour for the second day. I'd had seafood the night before and my stomach was feeling a bit dodgy (or maybe that was due to too much Mekong Whiskey), but not enough to spoil the day. There were just three of us on the trip, me and two Aussies - Sandy and Cath. They were great fun as was our guide. We cycled into the villages away from Krabi, and when it started raining heavily sought shelter under one of the houses. I think our guide knew the people, because once the rain stopped he and they knocked down some coconuts for us (left).

At a market

Later he took us to a market (right) and got us to sample the local food, some of which was delicious, and some of which almost certainly contained something that I was not yet immune to. We cycled back to Ao Nang, gave the bikes and helmets and so on back and went for a beer. On the way home I noticed a sign in a bar which said that because of the elections they could not serve alcohol after 6pm until midnight the next day. It was 6.15. Shit! If I know I won't be able to get a drink I'm usually able to mentally adjust to this, even if part of this adjustment is nipping down to the 7-11 to get a carry out, but having it sprung on me was bad news. However, either the guest house I was staying at didn't care or for some other reason the ban didn't apply, so I was able to drink as much as I wanted, which wasn't so much anyway, because I had an early start the next day.

The guest house had assured me that my laundry would be ready by 6am. Needless to say this was a small exaggeration in that. Firstly the only person awake didn't know which my washing was. So, before it was properly light I was ducking through the clothes lines trying to remember what my T-shirts looked like, and then struggling to recognise them. When I finally located them, of course they were still wet.

The most obvious, or at least the most advertised way to get to the border with Malaysia was to get on the 'bus' organised by one of the guest houses. I never expected it to be that simple and of course it wasn't. Late, but not by much, my pick up arrived and took me to Krabi town. We then waited for the best part of an hour until the minibus arrived and then spent another 30 minutes going round Krabi picking up other people. Eventually we headed south.

This is probably a good time to describe the Thai minibus drivers' technique. Almost all of them follow this to some extent. First there is the obligatory Red Bull or local substitute, which makes sure that they are so awake that they are completely wired. Thai main roads generally have white lines at either side and a dotted white line in the middle. Cyclists and brommers ride outside the white lines, sometimes, but not always, in the same direction as the rest of the traffic. Other motor vehicles tend to the left side of the road, unless behind a slower moving vehicle in which case they move to the right side, whether there is any oncoming traffic or not. The frequency of this manoeuvre depends on the driver and the amount of red bull he has consumed, but will generally be great enough to cause anything between discomfort and panic in his passengers. So I have three tips for anyone contemplating such a trip (see side bar).

This particular trip was advertised as an eight hour trip to Sungai Kolok. In Thailand nothing is that straightforward. Roughly five hours after starting we arrived in Hat Yai and were all told to get out of the bus. Two of us were going to the border and were told we would have to wait for an hour or so because they were short of drivers because it was election day. Yeah, right! I knew the border closed at 6pm, and reckoned that even with the delay I should make it in time. Eventually another minibus turned up and we repeated the previous procedure, half an hour around Hat Yai picking up passengers then taking our lives in our hands on the main road. By this time whatever I'd eaten the day before was making itself known, so I was popping Immodium and trying to forget I was trapped on a minibus.

We arrived in Sungai Kolok with about an hour to spare and were dropped near the border. Getting out of Thailand was straightforward, and then it was into no-man's land and onto Malaysia.

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Last modified on 22nd December 2007 3:31 PM EST

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