Laem Thong Hotel Hat Yai

... going to go next. <br> That takes this entry to this morning. I woke up at 7:30 a.m. in Ko Samui, said goodbye to my English friends and boarded the first of many modes of transportation of the day. First it was a mini-bus, then a big bus, then a ferry, then another big bus, then another mini-bus, and 13 hours later I am in Hat Yai. The transportation around this part of the world can be very frustrating ...

We arrived in Hat Yai around sunset and were delivered directly to the bus station. Checking at the ticket window, we booked the last bus to Phucket-departing at 1930 and arriving at the awful hour of 0430. We had about 3 hours to kill before the bus departed and we hadn't eaten yet that day, so we headed out to the streets in search of an air-conditioned restaurant. We didn't ...

... half a glass of water in their general direction. This, of course, only served to startle them into yet another futile attempt to run in opposite directions, resulting in a fresh wave of cries and yelps. Ha ha! How ya like it now *****? Buuut...that's probably enough about dogs....for now, anyway. Let's see, oh, I know, another fun experience came about after a couple days of watching my grimy, salt-encrusted facial hair store up water to be doled out in annoying ...

... the mainland and then went all the way back down to another little island. The boat harbour is nothing like what you can imagine, it is simply a little passageway in between the only two houses of the "village" that at low tide allows you to jump on a boat that only leaves when full. You can put everything on that little boat, including scooters. Why not ? This is the only way to get to the island. Once on the island, we decided to walk cause it looked really ...

... to us, and spoke to us in mandarin. blah blahblah! She offered us a ride home! What are the chances man! We were thinking if we could trust her.. but i mean, it's just a middle aged woman and her husband, how can we not like retaliate right? haha.. so yeap thats how we got back. It was a good day. Leaving for Krabi tom! -Wei P.s. I must imagine its so tiring for you guys to read all these long stories. I promise to make it short!

... to open our bedroom door so that two burly, knife wielding native maniacs could grab us and steal all of our belongings (including the underwear i'd had on for 10 days - frankly, they'd be welcome to that) and leave us naked and penniless in a harsh, cold city. I told Jo of my fears and she scoffed at me and called me...well, i'd not like tpo say, but nonetheless, it was alittle bit rude! I'd like to say in my defence that if I can imagine it, there's going to be somebody ...

... at Citibank HQ. The next day, I walked around town and I felt slightly unnerved by the spotless streets and overly sterile peace of the city. I would jaywalk and wonder if I was being watched. The Dyases told me about how a sensor deducts money from your account if you drive your car during rush hour, and this all gave me the eerie feeling that there is an invisible force watching you. The $20 beer at the Raffles Hotel didn't make me ...

... bus in a row to North east thailand. A ton of travelling. We are paying for the chilling in Perhentian islands. Hat Yai is a fairly non descript town with not much to do over the case of a day, and it is incredibly warm here. We lazily walked around town, and decided to enjoy a 2 hour Thai Massage for $8. It was in a nice cold room, with comfy beds, but far ...

... of the comfort zone, experiencing local life, meeting real locals who can't speak a word of English. It's bizarre and actually not an easy thing to do. Anyway, after recovering enough to walk, we did some shopping at a very westernised mall complex down the road. The brands were slightly different but the layout could have been lifted from any city around the world. Exiting the mall, stage right, the one thing I ...

19th Feb- 20th Feb After coming off the boat we were pleasantly suprised to find that the boat had been too slow and we had missed the bloody bus. The only way forward was to pay a bit extra to get a luxery bus down instead, these things happen though. However we wernt told that it would take two five hour minibus rides to get to the luxery bus, but for some reason it ...