Satun

Trip Start Sep 11, 2008
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Trip End Jun 05, 2009


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Where I stayed
On's Guesthouse
(Satun hotels)

Flag of Thailand  ,
Monday, November 24, 2008

After a couple of weeks of being stuck on the tourist trail with loads of westerners we wanted to get back to the real Thailand for a bit. We were heading south and found a place in the book which said it's well off the beaten track, people pass through it to get to Malaysia but there's not much going for it. So we headed to Satun for a couple of days. Nobody could really believe we wanted to stop there from the guy who sold us the ticket in Phi Phi to the minivan driver. We had to change to a local minivan at Hat Yai minivan station which had hundreds of minivans going everywhere and not a westerner in sight. Luckily they spoke English and pointed us in the right direction. The driver dropped us at one of the only 2 hotels in the book which turned out to be an expensive crap provinical hotel. Luckily right next door was a pub with a friendly English guy called Trevor (another Trevor) who ran it and said we could stay in their guesthouse up the road for just 200 Baht. So we jumped on the back of a couple of mopeds and drove up there, rucksacks and all and found it was a whole house to ourselves with kitchen and hot water! We went back to the guesthouse and chatted to Trevor, his Thai missus and the Thai girls that worked there. Also we met a nice hippy lady and her young daughter who also stayed at the guesthouse but left before we got up.
Next day we walked back to the bar and had brekkie, I had pad thai noodles, the first time either of us had gone for local food for brekkie. We walked to the ferry ticket office to get tickets to Langakawi tomorrow, it was closed and we waited ages with no joy. People were driving past and shouting hello and waving at us, I went in the 7/11 and a little girl came up to me and shook my hand and tried to speak to me in English. We couldn't remember the last time people seemed to amazed to see westerners. We walked to the post office to find it closed as they were concreteing the drive. Walked back to the ferry ticket office which was now open and they told us they don't sell tickets! Lucy kept asking her what her job was in a ticket office that doesn't sell tickets but she was too busy reading the paper. By now we were knackered with all the walking and the heat, we passed a barbers and decided to get my now quite long hair cut. It was great, and cheap, just like the one in Vietnam. We walked round a lovely market after that, loads of crazy fruit and veg we hadn't seen up north. We headed back up towards our guesthouse and stopped for deep fried prawn fritters, heads shells and all with sweet chilli sauce which were amazing. Had a look round the small local museum, they seemed amused to see foreigners too. After chilling for a bit we walked up Monkey Mountain near the guesthouse where loads of macaques run around everywhere, mainly running away from the kids armed with sticks, a catapult and a meat cleaver actually. We climbed up a walkway to the top and had cool views over the jungle. The platform was a bit rickety and we nearly fell through.
In the evening we walked back to town via the night food market where we tried rice and banana BBQ'd in a banana leaf and fried chicken. In the centre of town the main road was closed for the main night market where they sold second hand clothes, other bits and pieces and more food! We tried the dried squid which we had been seeing since Vietnam and had meant to try. Its carried round on a rack on the back of a bike and prepared by BBQing, then putting through a small mangle several times to thin it and make it soft. After all this walking we were still hungry so ate our last green curry at the bar which was good but not one of the best. Last night Lucy had promised the Thai girls we would go out to the local club so they were all dressed up ready to go. After a few beers I was up for it too, can't really say no with 3 lovely Thai girls eh? The club was called the Nazee hut, clearly most people had never seen westerners there but were very friendly. The Thai band were OK playing a Thai version of stadium rock, popular in the west about 20 years ago I believe, and Zombie by the Cranberries which Lucy loved. We got pretty drunk and had a good laugh, the girls bloke friends all came down about half 12 and all of them got a coke each as they were all Muslim whereas the girls were all Buddhist and drunk. The boys gave us a lift home in the back of their badass pimped up pickups when it closed at 1, tunes blasting through the deserted town which impressed me and reminded me of home. I'm pleased to say they weren't as loud as my car though. Nice try Thai guys.
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