From Malaysia to Thailand!

Langkawi - Satun - Hat Yai - Krabi - Ko Lanta


Those were my stops to the island Ko Lanta. Took the ferry at 1.30pm because I missed the one at 9.30am. Bad mistake!

Well, after around 2 hours we arrived in the Thai town Satun which is really only popular because travellers renew their visa with a jump across the boarder. Normal tourist visas are valid for 30 days. If you apply for it at home you get 3 months directly but you pay a little bit. Sometimes though it's goot to be forced to lift up your bump and get off the hammock :).

Alright, we had to take a cap to town because there wasn't a bus station their. We were ripped off of course with 160 Bath (1 Euro is approx 43 Bath). The ferry cost 25 Ringgit. Afterwards we got a real Thai second class bus for 60 Bath for 1.5 hours. Well, this was more the price you should pay. Hat Yai was our aim because we had to change buses again. I thought there would be a direct bus and didn't checked the whole thing out before hands. Might be because I got too laid back in Oz :).

Bettina and me, she is a graphic designer from Hamburg, took the next bus to Krabi. This means we had to wait. Besides, I got to know to her on the ferry from Langkawi to Satun but we lost us in Krabi again. After the minibus which is more expensive but faster and not overcrowded was full we took again a second class bus for 158 Bath for 4 hours :). The minibus would have cost 270 Bath. Well, still a bargain but is was booked out. The next time, I will book a so called VIP bus but this had to happen a day in advanced...too much planning :).

We we're almost thrown out of the bus at 1.30am somewhere in Krabi but not in the centre and not near out hotel. We called some hourse before we arrived to reserve us a room at this time...just to be sure :).

The cab drivers who were just private dudes ripped us off with 150 Bath for a 10 min ride. A least we had some nice leather seats. They wanted to have at first 200 and we said 100 but they were quite keen separate us from our money and only decreased the price shortly before we almost paid 200. Even this is cheap you have to make the effort to bargain the price. That's the culture :).

Alright, our rooms were doubles for spoiled 400 Bath with a fan and bathroom. The mattresses were great. Really, you start to appreciate this. I told Bettina for the next day we meet on the boat to Ko Phi Phi because she wanted to shop and I wanted to sleep in :). In reality, I took the ferry to Ko Lanta because I thought she wanted to travel on her own. A pity indeed, we talk all the way to Krabi and she seemed to be a nice travel buddy. Besides, I didn't meet to many backpackers in my age and with my attitude here. That's so different to Oz. Nevertheless, I enjoy Asia heaps and would love to pay money for extending my ticket.

So I took at the 10th of January - the next day - the ferry to the island Ko Lanta. On our way we passed Ko Jam which is much smaller and I jumped out almost :). Before I left the hotel I booked a flight from Phuket to Bankok on the 15th at 17.45 because I decided to skip the East Coast with Ko Tao and Samui. This would be a bit stressy. Afterwards I heard the full moon party is on the 14th and not the 16th as I thought. So I could have taken a flight to the other coast and then head to Bankok again with a plane. As you see, this would be annoying, too. Although Phuket is huge and touristic I will try to find something there for a day or stay on Ko Phi Phi after Lanta. Phi Phi lies on the way from Lanta to Phuket and was also hit by the tsunami. Just heard some stories today on the diving boat. Well, my dive and the dive for all the others on the boat to Ko Ha was cancelled because the engine didn't work properly. I'm used to it now after Oz, cancelled tours and scuba diving trips, too.

Here we go, the story about the tsunami was as follows. A girl from Munich - there are masses of Germans and Swedish on the island - told me she was last year here and was at a dive spot on Ko Phi Phi. They were wearing already their diving equipment when the recognized huger rippled waves - they stayd in the wave shadow of the tsunami. So the dive master decided to go down and they stayed at 25m. Shortly after they hit the ground the first wave hit them and they were blown through the water. You couldn't see you hand in front of your googles she told me. After an hour and with no air left they surfaced just to recognize they disaster and chaos. Their boat was to only one left and the island - is formed like and H - was in this rode of the H quite heavy distroyed. On Ko Lanta a lot of people died, too. The owners of the dive shop (lanta fun divers) who are from Munich organized some charities for the Gipsies. The Gipsies are allowed to stay on the island but only work as fishers. They lost all their long boats and therefore the basis of their existence. I was impressed as I heard this story and that they made it to buy several new long boats for those people.


That's enough now. Will organize my day now. After the tour was cancelled I wanted to go dirt biking with a motorcross bike. AFter they told me tour would start today get me to their shop I was informed it's only available tomorrow.

Well, so keep an open mind!

Cheers from the sun!

Chris