I've always wondered how hectic it would be to travel with a small child. While I was in the train, there was a mother with her son. Very beautiful eyes and he was such a shy boy. I wished I packed a set of Lego Kit from work whenever I travel so I can entertain them when they start crying. The way he stared out of the train window when he was crying made me wonder what was going through his mind. He's so young yet he's traveling so much and he's so full of energy, lucky boy.
Finally the train left Padang Besar and I decided to rest a bit more because it's about 2 hours ride to Hat Yai. Nan slept most of the time while I stared out of the window with plenty of thoughts in my mind. How different it feels like going solo and traveling with someone. There's a sense of personal satisfaction when you travel alone, that's how I feel. When the train stopped at Hat Yai Junction, there were a few people who came into the train asking where the passengers are heading to next because they are from some of the agencies there and they are trying to get people for the minivans. Thankfully I already booked mine and Nan's at Cathay Guest House. Those people are very persuasive but after I told them that I've already booked mine beforehand, they just directed me to exit of the station. The station wasn't packed with people but damn, the smell of fried chickens, yum! I'm a sucker for fried chickens, hehehe. We made our way out of the station and started walking towards Cathay Guest House with the help of the map that I printed out. Parts of it was wet because some banana milk spilled on it, oops. While walking, we saw the mother and her son and she called out to us asking where we were heading to. "Krabi!", we said and she asked where we were taking our minivan from and we told her we booked ours at Cathay Guest House beforehand. She asked the price and asked if she could join us. Of course she could! There was a man who wanted to charge her 600 baht and she knew it was well overpriced because she stays in Krabi and it's her first time taking a minivan to Krabi. It's always a pleasure to meet people while I'm traveling, and of course this one was extra special because I made friends with a young traveler who's way beyond shy but he's such a cheerful boy. We reached the place and most of guests there were people from the train that we took from Kuala Lumpur! There were all waiting for the 1pm minivan so Nan and I left our backpacks there and searched for a place to have lunch. We walked around the town of Hat Yai aimlessly and we settled for Espresso By Nong! It's a Halal restaurant and food served are amazing! Price wise, it's cheap! Comparable to street food prices actually! Once we were done with our lunch, we decided to get Happy Tourist SIM card only to realized that my traveling phone battery is dead!
Back to Cathay Guest House at 12:45pm and the minvan was there already so we boarded it and damn, they really tried to squeeze as much people as they can! It's packed like sardine and for a 4 hours trip, wow. It's cheap but truth to be told, it's not very comfortable I tell you. But I definitely would do that again, for sure. Great views during the journey. We stopped at a few places for toilet breaks and the views are always amazing. We stopped at Krabi Town because there are a few fellow travelers who were alighted there. About 15 minutes ride to Ao Nang after that and by then all of us in the minivan pretty much made friends with each other. A couple from Malaysia decided to go Krabi for Songkran because they have experienced it in Hat Yai a few years back and they wanted to see how it is like in Krabi. Interesting to hear their stories!
We finally arrived at Ao Nang Andaman Resort, affordable and clean place with great and friendly service from the staffs! They were really helpful! We arrived at about 7pm so we checked in, washed up and decided to roam around Ao Nang for the night. Guess where to! Mr. Long Bar of course! A friend of mine whom I might in KL when I went for my Solo Trip in December 2013 recommended me that bar and hell yes, I wasn't disappointed at all! Mr. Long himself was there so we were able to speak to him and Chang the tattooist was there too. I love the ambience of the place, really. Such a relaxing place with good music. Reggae music, hehe. Before we actually got there, we actually got lost along the beach area because we thought it was at Phra Nang Inn but we realized that's Beach Bar and we didn't want to be rude to ask the staffs there about the whereabouts of another bar so I decided to on my GPS instead. (Data charges will be a bomb this month, I'm quite afraid of that.) We spent a few hours there with a few bottles of Chang Beers and Mr. Long's homemade Tequila which was so smooth. Best Tequila ever. Why I am saying that is because I stopped drinking Tequila because I hate the taste and it makes me puke. But this one, best of all! We took the tuktuk back to the resort, bought some drinks and munchies from the convenient store and washed up. Fell asleep while watching some Thai channel that was advertising their call girls or somethiing, hahaha.
Snorkeling stories in my next post!
