Melbourne-Canberra-Sydney bus, Australia 16.1.2015
We arrived to Krabi late Sunday night on the 28th of December. The trip was hell and we didn't know where to sleep but we were too tired to care. Just few seconds after stepping out of the van a man from the hotel in front came asking if we had accomodation. We asked something cheap and nice and he laughing, showed us the road to a guesthouse. We arrived around 11pm but the receptionist was happy to see us and gave us the cheapest bungalow styled room. It was so cute and clean with an own bathroom and towels! Just about 6 euros per night. In the morning we went to buy fresh fruits and nuts from the fresh morning market that was next to our guesthouse. Everyone was so friendly giving free samples of fruits and smiling and not taking tourist prices. Really positive experience.
In the afternoon we decided to head to Ao Nang beach which is the most touristic one. We thought we could get a relatively cheap place to stay but everything was full and bungalows starting from 2000 bahts / 50 euros per night! Also the atmosphere there was not what we were looking for, sexpats, party animals, mcdonald's etc. The beach was nice but crowded. We left back to the city and booked few nights more from our kind guesthouse.
On New Years Eve we decided to leave to an island tour including four islands near Krabi. We chose a good sunny day and paid about ten euros each for a eight hour trip including lunch and snorkeling equipment. It was touristic but the view and islands were so beautiful! Definitely worth it.
Once we walked back pretty tired with no new years eve plans, a local ice vendour living in the neighborhood shouted to us on the street inviting us to join his family festivities. Of course we joined and after a few whiskey-sodas Johannes got in the men's group exploding fireworks and Monica was dancing with the girls and singing karaoke in Thai. They offered us lot of food and I think we tasted the most amazing grilled fish. The family was so beautiful and friendly.
On the 1st of 2015 we left to Khao Lak by local bus to see our friend Maria that had been staying there for a while working as scuba teacher. We had to change in Takuapa but it left us right on the right spot in Bang Niang beach were we walked around asking for accomodation. We found pretty soon the cheapest one in the area that for us was the most expensive place we stayed in whole Thailand. The room was 15 euros / 600 bahts per night but was air-conditioned with a warm shower! Luxury.
We had one long relaxing beach day which we spent all in the sea because of huge waves. Then one day we went to Memories beach by scooter where Johannes tried surfing and got really excited about it. The same day we also visited a national park area with beautiful waterfalls. One of them we swimmed in and fishes came to eat the dead skin of our feet! Like in fish massages.
On the 4th of January we started our journey towards Kuala Lumpur. We took a bus to Takuapa where we changed to one to Surat Thani that had the closest train station. Monica met on the bus a great travelling daughter and mother from South Africa, Nadine and Hope if I remember right, that made my day. In Surat Thani we were dropped in a travel agency were a woman wanted to have our passports right away before agreeing on the price etc. She tried to say that all buses and minivans and trains were full because of people returning from holidays and showed us many tickets she sold for other tourist just before us. We had to ask the price four times before she answered and showed it with a calculator: 3550 bahts /~100 euros PER PERSON. Nothing costs so much in Thailand so we left pretty pissed off towards the city. We didn't know if she was right but we knew the price was outrageous. We took a local bus for 0.50ct to the train station and bought easily train tickets to Hat Yai which is in the South for just four euros /172 bahts.
Finally, we took a night train to Hat Yai. The journey took about eight hours but was late almost two hours.. We were so tired that we slept all night even the seats were not a sleeping place ;) this time we bought 2nd class tickets and it was much better and still ridiculously cheap.
In Hat Yai we tried to buy train tickets to KL but there was only one place left on the whole train. So we went out to travel agencies to negotiate a price for a big bus trip. After Monica negotiating for maybe 10 min we succeeded in dropping the price pretty well, because we were in better position since the travel agents didn't know that the train was full. We booked a big luxury sleeping bus for about 18 euros / 700 bahts each. The train would have cost around 500 bahts but the journey takes 15 hours. The bus took only eight hours. And we didn't have to stay in Hat Yai for one night.
We arrived to Kuala Lumpur on the evening of 5th of January.
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