Return to Thailand and quick trip back to Auckland

21 April to 3 May 2017

The lure of Thailand and its beaches was calling. It was a long [M- loooooong -M] journey but worth it once we got there.
In the morning we flew from Hanoi to Bangkok. Once in Bangkok we made our way into the train station to sort out our tickets. We had a few hours to wait before the train left Bangkok - after rejecting the overpriced left luggage stall we relocated bags and all to a restaurant across the road from the train station, where we reacquainted ourselves with Thai food.

Soon it was time to get on the overnight train to Surat Thani. We used overnight trains a couple of times when we were in Thailand about five years ago and were sold on the concept. We settled in for the night once the attendant had come and turned our seats into bunk beds. 

Happy train times!

The train attendant woke us up and shortly afterwards we were arriving in Surat Thani. What then followed was a longwinded combination of buses (to the bus station at Surat Thani and from the bus station at Surat Thani to Krabi), local transport in the back of a ute (from Krabi to Ao Nang) and a long tail boat to transport us to Ton Sai (from Ao Nang to Ton Sai).

We had taken the government bus to Krabi, along with a mixture of locals and other tourists. All Mark’s research had suggested we should get off the bus at the first bus station in Krabi, where the locals all got off the bus. But as we got up and started moving towards the door we were told that the foreign tourists stay on board. Despite our protests. Having a person yelling at you to stay on the bus does make you second guess your research. We were taken to the tourist “bus station” two minutes down the road. It was a wide concrete space, with a handful of other tourists and a single man sitting at a desk selling an overpriced transfer to Ao Nang. But it wouldn’t leave until the van was full. There were other tourists there that were slowly coming to the realisation that the tickets they had purchased wouldn’t actually get them to their destination and they were going to have to pay this guy more to get the transfer to Ao Nang.

It was stinking hot (38 degrees) but we were pissed off that we had been taken to a complete tourist trap fake bus station. [M-and that I hadn't backed myself to trust my research over the person in front of me. I guess we'd been spoilt by 2 months in Vietnam where (almost) everyone we interacted with was honest and actually gave us good advice. Thailand, unfortunately, has had a lot more practice fleecing tourists. -M] We took the high ground and walked around the corner to the real bus station. We found the local transfer easily and felt moderately smug that we had avoided the overpriced transfer.

A quick longtail boat ride later and about ten hours after we had got off the train in the morning - we had arrived!

This was a pretty great change from Hanoi crowds and traffic.

Ton Sai beach may just be Mark’s favourite place in the world. It has cliffs coming out of the water and rock climbers everywhere taking advantage of the sheer cliffs. We had a couple of days to relax and enjoy the place. We had come here five years ago when we came to Thailand. It was a bit sad coming back. Previously all of the backpacker accommodation had been beachfront. Now the backpacker accommodation has been pushed back from the beachfront and there is a large walled off area where a resort is going to be built at some time in the future. Despite the changes the beaches are great, the water was warm and it was nice to spend a few days relaxing.

Not pictured: the BASE jumpers hurling themselves off the cliff directly overhead and landing just down the beach!

Sunset from a ladder partways up the cliff. Frank wouldn't join me... -M

When we were last at Ton Sai we had hiked up to a view point over the beaches. There was then some monsoon type rain. I decided to turn back, and Mark continued on to a lagoon, which was peaceful and beautiful, he was the only there. [M- still a life highlight -M] This time I hiked all the way to the lagoon (I’m much more awesome than I was five years ago). It was beautiful. You hike through a jungle path and then climb down to the lagoon—linked to the ocean by underwater caves—where you are surrounded by high cliffs with a rim of jungle at the top, with the sun streaming in from the small gap hundreds of feet above Our photos couldn't do it justice, so you'll have to imagine it.. It was a great place for a swim before we walked back down the track to the cave filled with penis statues.

No worries.

Action Frank was glad it was dry this time.

So these ladders didn't exist 5 years ago, there were some dodgy muddy ropes hanging down the sheer little cliffs instead. In fairness, this made it a lot easier (and safer...) getting down, but also meant we didn't have the place to ourselves.

Frank found even the ladders a bit exciting.

Prize for the best caption for this one.

The following day we did the epic journey back to Bangkok. The night train from Surat Thani would get us back to Bangkok about five hours before our flight so it was all going to work perfectly. Then the bus that was taking us to Surat Thani broke down and we sat on the side of the road for 45 minutes. Once again we were told to get off the bus at a fake bus station. This time the conductor picked up our bags and took them out of the bus telling us we were getting off here. Not much room for argument.  [M- oh, and there happened to be a man with a taxi van just waiting there, how convenient! Thieving fuckers. Luckily I could see we were right next to the local bus station I wanted to get to, and probably actually had a shorter walk than from the actual station, but man I was pissed at the blatantness of it -M] We made it to the train with nine minutes to departure, which was cutting it a wee bit fine given it had been a ten hour journey to get to the train. We were heading to Bangkok to catch a flight back to Auckland so that Mark could graduate in person (Mechanical Engineering with first class honours!). We had a flying visit catching up with as many friends and family as we could cram into six days. Graduation day itself was awesome, especially after the four years of bloody hard work that Mark has done.

Aren't we adorable.

Woo, finally!