Into Thailand

The trains into Thailand were also booked weeks in advance, so once again it was time for the long distance bus.  From KL to the border town of Hat Yai was quoted as taking about 7 hours.  9 1/2  hours later, including several duty free shops and border control on each side, we stumbled into Hay Yai, tired and dirty. 

Passport control at the Thai border turned into another one of those heart pumpers.  If you cross in Thailand by land without a visa, you can only have 15 days in the country, so we had been sure to get our visas in Perth from the Consulate which would get us 60 days.  We stood in the line thinking we were  all fine but the border guard who was dressed in what looked like a military uniform, spoke virtually no English and when we said we wanted 60 days, she looked at us like we were martians.  When I pointed to the visa stamped in the passport, she yelled something that sounded like “Receipt!  Where receipt!”  After I again explained, we got the visas before we left Australia -  “look here in the passport” and again pointed, she again looked at me like I was the most stupid person on earth and yelled again. 

I thought, wow this is not going to work out and we’re going to be lucky to be let in the country let alone get the standard 15 days!  She suddenly jumped up and walked out to talk to someone else; came back in and started stamping.  We got our 60 days but we have absolutely no idea what she was going on about!

We had booked 2 rooms in a good 4 star Novotel hotel online in KL to stay at in Hat Yai (very cheap last minute price!). We got in about 6.00pm, & lucky for us, the coach stopped right out in front of the hotel. We had an easy night of room service & all early to bed.

The next day was New Year’s Eve and we were to take a mini-bus to Krabi (4 1/2 hours).  It turned out to be one of those days – to add to the day before!

First thing was the check out at the Novotel – we had booked and paid online last minute, but they were insistent we had to pay again.  We had to catch the minibus at 9am and we were still discussing the online payment at 8.50!  In the end we just had to say that we were going, we couldn’t miss our bus – so we’re hoping we don’t get charged somewhere down the track.

Typically, the bus was not on time but eventually turned up 25 mins later.  The driver jumped out and indicated to us that there was no room in the boot (mainly because all the seats took up the bootspace) so our packs had to go on the roof rack. 

We through the kids’ packs in the van and put our big, heavy packs on the roof and the driver jumped in ready to go!  We asked him about tying them down and he said “No time!” and indicated to us to get in and hurry up.

I was completely freaking out, thinking there is no way our packs could survive 4 hours without being tied to the vehicle!  Luckily the driver was just taking us to the bus depot to catch yet another minivan – but I can tell you that the 5km it was to the depot was pretty nerve wracking with every bump we went over!

Thankfully at the end of our minibus journey – we found Pan Beach Bungalows in Krabi where we recovered from 2 crazy days of bus travel.