We had a 2.5 hr ride in the minibus from Trang which involved sitting at the back just in front of 3 monks who bagged the rear seats, These guys were quite young and strapping types for monks and they spent the journey doing one of the following: a/ sleeping b/ coughing c/ sneezing/sniffling and finally d/ listening to music so loud you could hear it outside of their earphones! (monk rock). It was weird but they didn't bother us and put up with Daz's mammoth rucksack wedged between them the whole time.
The roads were badly flooded in some places - so much so that it looked like a dirty brown river flowing past our minibus. However, the driver seemed undeterred and kept a steady pace until we got to Hat Yai around mid afternoon time.
We were dumped by some shops in the centre of town with all our bags and left to decipher how/where to go next - given that our hotel was near the airport about 10km away. A Thai man offered help in the form of a hailed minibus but this turned out to be an executive one which, after an obvious breakdown in communications, turned out to be 600 baht (around £14) and not the 60B initially indicated by the driver. Kathy knew something was up when she opened the sliding door to see plush leather look comfy seats! We quickly declined the transport offer and opted for a more affordable but a lot less comfortable tuk tuk. We clambered into the shabby old pick up with all our gear then off we went through town, with most other vehicles easily overtaking us, hanging on in the back (which was open so we got a good wash when the rain started!).
We got to the airport and found out the expected fare was 10 times what the driver initially indicated (seeing a pattern here!) so we had to hang around whilst the driver enlisted the help of an English speaking Thai student to get the rest of the money out of us. We went through airport security to get in the building and print off our tickets for flying to Burma (in 2 days time) then hung around waiting for the hotel to pick us up as they offered a free shuttle service.
And here we are! At the hotel, in the middle of nowhere - very quiet/rural area with just a couple of small shops (luckily one sells beer!), some cattle/dogs and a rubber tree plantation!! So far it has rained almost non stop for the last few days so although we have loved our time in Thailand, it is definitely time to move on.......... Myanmar/aka Burma here we come!!!!
The roads were badly flooded in some places - so much so that it looked like a dirty brown river flowing past our minibus. However, the driver seemed undeterred and kept a steady pace until we got to Hat Yai around mid afternoon time.
We were dumped by some shops in the centre of town with all our bags and left to decipher how/where to go next - given that our hotel was near the airport about 10km away. A Thai man offered help in the form of a hailed minibus but this turned out to be an executive one which, after an obvious breakdown in communications, turned out to be 600 baht (around £14) and not the 60B initially indicated by the driver. Kathy knew something was up when she opened the sliding door to see plush leather look comfy seats! We quickly declined the transport offer and opted for a more affordable but a lot less comfortable tuk tuk. We clambered into the shabby old pick up with all our gear then off we went through town, with most other vehicles easily overtaking us, hanging on in the back (which was open so we got a good wash when the rain started!).
We got to the airport and found out the expected fare was 10 times what the driver initially indicated (seeing a pattern here!) so we had to hang around whilst the driver enlisted the help of an English speaking Thai student to get the rest of the money out of us. We went through airport security to get in the building and print off our tickets for flying to Burma (in 2 days time) then hung around waiting for the hotel to pick us up as they offered a free shuttle service.
And here we are! At the hotel, in the middle of nowhere - very quiet/rural area with just a couple of small shops (luckily one sells beer!), some cattle/dogs and a rubber tree plantation!! So far it has rained almost non stop for the last few days so although we have loved our time in Thailand, it is definitely time to move on.......... Myanmar/aka Burma here we come!!!!
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