Thursday 21 November 2013

Thailand to Malaysia

Tue wed Thursday

After a beautiful spot of breakfast served by the delightfully happy ladies at the good dream 2 hotel and then almost forgetting to collect my clothes from the laundry I'm on the road again, this time to Penang in Malaysia. A journey which started at 11 this morning and should see me at my drop off in Georgetown at around 8pm, depending on how long it takes to cross the border. Travelling by air conditioned minivan is cramped and I somehow find myself wedged between a young teacher from england and a small tower of luggage which topples onto me through every over exuberant left hand turn the one handed driver throws us into. His spare is used to permanently attach his mobile phone to his head for him to chuckle and snort with an unseen on the other end. His wife? is sat in the front passenger seat along with a young child maybe 1 year and 6 months old wrapped snugly in a milkshake green coloured blanket. It has been raining consistently all morning and for once does not show any signs of letting up.

So the last couple of days in Krabi saw me exploring a little at my own pace. I'd seen beaches, temples and the town so decided to head out a little to the nearest settlement of note, Aonang. Scooter rental from the hostel for the day was an extortionate 150 baht and after chucking my passport down, signing away any rights I may have had and a quick demonstration of the vehicle, I was off on my way like the fat one from Chips, Chops. And no clarkes pie in sight.

The roads around Krabi are far quieter and in better condition than those I have encountered throughout most of the rest of my journey so far and I was comfortable enough riding along the wide open roads which ran through and around the rocky cliffs and towns that were seemingly joined together with power cables supported by wooden poles when they could be bothered to attach them. Finding Aonang was easy too. Not sign posted clearly by any official markings, Tesco had taken the time to adorn the sides of the road leading towards the town with plenty of green and white boards advertising their new lotus store due to open in the town  on the 22nd November. Where there were no advertising boards, I knew I must have missed a turning.

Every little helps.

The town outskirts slipped by without much more than a slight raised eyebrow at the Starbucks which seemed to have touched down in an alien land, but the shops that lay along the road adjacent to the beach front sat easy in their surroundings, even the burgerking didn't carry the usual brash American presence, looking more like a high class shack adorned with a counterfeit sign, it was quite refreshing, just like the giant coke zero I consumed while taking refuge from the powerful onslaught of the early afternoon.heat. I stopped for a while and admired the ocean views before jumping back on the scooter and exploring the surrounding roads for the next few hours, enjoying the breeze before returning back to the hostel with the bike tank topped back up at the local shell garage at around 60p per litre, and that was the expensive stuff. I told it to wear a jumper.

That evening I took massage number 2 and what a difference to my first experience that I had endured a few days before. I was shattered before this massage, after I was relaxed to a level I had only experienced at the hands of trained staff at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. I decided then to extend my time in Krabi just for one more day in order to prepare myself for the long bus journey that lay ahead of me. This final day was spent putting a few laundry items to be cleaned, buying some clothes to replace the ones I intend to ditch in Singapore and playing pool against the waitress in a cocktail bar, that much is true.

Well almost, actually the waitress in the Relax Bar just a minute stroll away from the Pak Up hostel, where the owner had made Barry and I feel most welcome when we had ventured in a few days earlier, and each time I had since. The food there was as warm as the welcome and twice as tasty, especially the ckicken with roasted chilli. I narrowly beat the waitress twice after she offered me a game, the owner beat me 2-1, but in truth utterly destroyed me. I should make it my new goal to get beaten at pool in every country I visit from now on, which may rule out any trip to Bermuda in the future. They have have plenty of pool tables there by all accounts, but the balls to play on them keep disappearing.

Something to do with the triangle.

Back to the trip. We were dumped in a taxi office at Hat Yai and then had a 40 minute wait for our connecting van to pick us up. We have mooore space here and the calf muscles my legs no longer feel they are on the verge of cramping every minute or so, like they did in the udder one. Leather seats too. With a beefier engine. The driver is called pat.

After 30 minutes travelling in the second van and still a long way the border, I feel the initial drop off time is going to be wildly inaccurate. Its still raining and now the night is drawing in. Its going to be long few hours yet before I reach my drop off, and I then need to locate my hotel after that. Randomly I can also smell liquorice, at least its not burning.

18.05. exited thailand

18.20. Entered malaysia and used my antibacterial wash for the first time in this new country. Handy stuff.

According to Pat our ETA is around another 2 hours from here. That's time enough for a little Robbie Williams and lilly allen to wind in the hours. They had to be small to both fit into my tablet.

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you,
sweet dreams that leave your worries behind you,
but in your dreams whatever they be...........
Do not p

By night the freeway to penang from the border could easily be mistaken for a stretch of motorway back in the uk, with similair bridges, roadsigns and flashing yellow lights. Only the sillouettes of the occassional  tropical tree top distinguishing here from blighty.

There's something reassuringly familar about it all.










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