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Travel Notes |
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Sun May 5 13:21:43 2002 (rr) Book: Footprint Thailand Location: Krabi Staying in a small guesthouse above a convenience store/travel agency. Stores like these, along with internet cafes and restaurants, make up the main street of this town. On the other side of the road is the Krabi river, lined with long-tail boats and larger ferries, all publicised by various people on the sidewalks, sitting in chairs outside of stores, and while crossing the road. Koh Lanta? No. Raileh West? No. Where you going? Nowhere. And so on. Sat on balcony of our guesthouse, overlooking the river, watching various backpackers descend or climb into long distance buses headed for Bangkok. (Dinner, Drinks, Insurance included. Book Now!). Some people had chain links over their packs to prevent slashing. I wonder where they have gone where it was actually useful. Watched various backpackers stand and look around confusedly and gloated that I had my own chair on a balcony. It rained heavily this afternoon, our first rain since arriving in Thailand. Huge bolts of lightning off over the islands. Heavy downpour. I would prefer to avoid such storms while kayaking. Sun May 5 13:14:21 2002 (nmcfarl) Book: Moon SE Asia Location: Krabi So we are now in Thailand, and it is cheap. Even cheaper than Maylasia. It also feels nicer , perhaps richer, though that goes against the cheaper thing. We spent the first few days in Khao Sok national park. We Hiked, and hiked. We saw lots of cool insect s, things I'd never seen like roach/grasshoppers in pink with bright red spots. We also saw really cool karst mountains, odd vegetation and a lot of nice waterfalls. The second day's hike was in particular, very pretty. It started with a few miles up and down the red clay through some very nice bamboo forests, and finished wit h 2k either along the side of or up the middle of a rive to a very nice set of falls, very chinese ink drawing. I did a sketch. Not quite the same but still you get the feel. Today we bused in to krabi, where we'll spend tomorrow on a exploratory kayak before our 4 day kayak trip tuesday morning. That looks to be much much fun. Sun May 5 13:00:18 2002 (rr) Book: Footprint Thailand Location: Khao Sok This morning, we were up early, ready to meet our minibus at 8:30 am. We even got to brew coffee using one of our more recent aquisitions, the Bodum Travel Press (such Seattlites.) Anyway, we ate breakfast, paid our bill, gathered together our packs, and walked out to the minibus and the driver packed away our bags after approving of our ticket. 8:32 am. We were about to leave. Informed that we were on the wrong minibus. 8:36 am. I am sitting along the main road on my pack, guarding our stuff while Nathan runs down the road to the travel agency we booked from. I drank some coffee, tried not to think about how we probably missed our minibus and were now stuck in Khao Sok for another day, and watched people across the road construct some new bungalows. 8:37 am.The original minibus pulled out of the driveway, packed full of people happily on their way to Krabi. Kicked a rock. Felt better. 8:43 am. I decided Nathan wasn't coming back soon enough, so I decided to go down the road. I put my pack on, then decided to wait and see if the next van/bus approaching me was our bus. Nope, it was a truck, and I must've looked like I was trying to hitch a ride. Nodded no and slung Nathan's pack over my right shoulder, and the day pack over the left. (The coffee went into a pocket of my pack, in case you are paying attention to prop continuity.) Within a few steps, a truck stopped for me and gave me a ride. (The hitching gods were with me today --or perhaps the hitching gods are always watchign over a lone woman with a lot of luggage) The guy worked for the travel agency I was going to so it worked out perfectly. 8:45 am. I get there, and Nathan's hanging out, minibus parked and ready to go. In a few minutes we left, the only passengers in the spacious a-c'ed van. We even passed the other minibus. (and trucks full of durians. ) |
nmcfarl.org email us email Rachel email Nathan See the pictures. Palau Pictures Yap Pictures Hawaii Pictures Taiwan Pictures View the original itinerary
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