It was with much happiness that we exited Laos and received our entry into the tropical paradise that is Thailand.  Although we had to change our plans slightly as by crossing the Thai border by land meant we only received 14 days in the country, instead of the usual 28 days one gets when arriving via plane.  So this edition of the Walkabout Diary is short and sweet.  Much to our disappointment, we made some adjustments to our itinerary.  Instead of heading north to Chang Mai, we thought we would make the most of what the beaches could offer us, and without delay we immediately travelled south.  From the Laos border, we waited patiently for an afternoon to catch an overnight train that took us straight to Bangkok.  In a third class carriage, it was a very uncomfortable ride (although not as uncomfortable as the 27 hour China train ride) but I thanked my lucky stars I wasn’t in the position of our seat mate across from us… a local woman who was eight months pregnant and forced to sit or try lie down on the bench while hubby was up front in what appeared to be a more comfortable seat!  We arrived very early in the morning in the city so we disembarked from the train laden with our backpacks and went straight out onto the main road to find a crash pad for a few hours.  Both of us had been to Bangkok before and we didn’t want to spend any more time there so we had already booked our onward train tickets to Trang, departing Bangkok later that afternoon.  We found ourselves a cheapish room near the train station which we could rent for a few hours, have a shower and have a snooze.  After lunch it was back to the train station for our onward journey.  We had a much better train ride second time round, this time sitting in a 2nd class carriage, which had seats which were actually more comfortable than economy class in a plane!  The only irritation was a few screaming children which could have done with a hiding or five, but that we suppose is a matter of opinion.

We travelled through the outer suburbs of Bangkok and more and more food vendors boarded the train – all heavily made up women wearing lots of make-up which we assume was a marketing gimmick!  Having never seen something like this before, it was interesting to watch them get on the train at one stop, sell their wares while the train continued its journey, where after the vendors got off at the next stop to wait for the next train going in the opposite direction.  Up and down they travel plying passengers with good home cooked food until they are sold out and head home to prepare for the next day!  At one point in the evening we even stopped in a town which had a market spread out over the train tracks.  Upon arrival in Trang we thought to catch a local bus to Krabi and perhaps spend the night there before heading across the water to Koh Lanta but when we got off the train we were accosted by travel agent representatives who were very enthusiastic to assist us with our travels.  We ended up booking direct transport to Koh Lanta which was ultimately cheaper than using the local transport!  A two hour minibus ride and two ferry crossings later we arrived at the “resort” which was recommended to us by the travel agent.  Initially we booked a 300 baht per night room but after seeing the condition of it, a quick price negotiation was needed and we upgraded to a sturdier chalet.  The initial bungalow had so many holes in the bamboo and rattan it was constructed with, it was filled with buzzing insects and my favourite reptile of all time, geckos.  Who knows what it would have been like in a downpour?

After a recce of the surrounding area we were a bit disappointed to see that no one really catered to a backpacker with exorbitant food prices, but we made a plan to be within budget.  Ironically the guidebook was titled South East Asia on a Shoestring, but all it did was refer to flashpackers with a lot of $$ signs next to recommended guesthouses and restaurants.  Our guesthouse had a small restaurant which made the most amazing squid pad thai, and a local woman down the road had a vegetable pad thai which we enjoyed on more than one occasion!  Luckily the beach was 50m away from our chalet which made our stay on Koh Lanta worthwhile – not really a swimming beach as we had to negotiate a lot of rocks when it was low tide but the sea was as warm as bath water and pretty much mirror flat with minimal wave action, making the swimming and wallowing really pleasant.  We had a good few walks along the beach and main drag to the shops to buy supplies for our afternoon sundowner – a bucket made with ice, whiskey, the local version of Red Bull and Sprite or Lemonade.  The beach was combed with broken pieces of coral which we think may have been a result of the tsunami all those years ago.  The beachfront was also ruined slightly with the amount of beach bars trying hard to be cool hip places to hang out but were failing dismally – watching burnt pale faces getting pissed before 12h00 wasn’t really our scene and seeing a multitude of bars advertising weed was also a put off.

One day we rented a scooter to explore the island – we travelled through some really great jungle type scenery and saw fantastic views of the surrounding islands.  The island was not a very big place though – one can travel the ring road around the island in about two hours without stopping but we hopped on and off all the time for pictures and a bit of exploring which took up most of the day.  We only needed to hand the bike in by 11h00 the next day so we also went into the main town.  It was amazing to see how many hotels and guesthouses were around, and the amount of restaurants.  We stuck to our guesthouse kitchen for our stay though as it was the cheapest, only straying one night onto the street for Greek food as we were both tired of fried rice!

We can’t really write much else about our time on Koh Lanta – it was a time of rest and relaxation after the frenetic pace of travelling we had been doing up to that point.  Nothing wrong at all with a morning walk followed by a laze on the beach, swimming, reading and snoozing!  All in all it was a good week but of course a change of scenery was needed at some point so we packed up at the end of March and headed back to Trang.  We spent our last night in Thailand there, and arriving in the afternoon we had a chance to have a look around.  There was a bustling night market held in the main street opposite the train station which was a stone’s throw from our crash pad and we had a good time sampling the different fares on offer – good wholesome street food!  The next morning we left Trang for a longish drive to Satun where we left Thai territory and headed via ferry to the Malaysian island of Langkawi.   We wanted to spend a lot of time in Malaysia so perhaps the forced short stay in Thailand was a blessing in disguise!