We had booked a bus for 9am the next morning. We got picked up at 8.30 by a tuk-tuk and told we would arrive in Bangkok at 4.30pm. By this stage we were very dubious about any times given us.
The first part of the trip to the border was SO hot. We were sitting at the back of the bus again! (It seems that out of all of busses we have been on in the last three months we have spent an unfair amount of time in the back seat which is definitely the worst place.) It was boiling because we were sitting on top of the engine and the aircon was not working. I was sweating right through my dress.
We stopped and used one of the last squat toilets I hoped to see in a decent while.
We were dropped at the border after being stickered with a red sticker. The time it took to get through the border was crazy. I think it took about two hours. We were waiting in cue after cue. An old Asian lady tried to push in front of us at one point but I tapped her on the shoulder and gestured with my thumb and sent her to the back of the line. :)
Once on the other side we had to wait in a group and then were taken to get lunch. We were then put in mini vans and set off for Bangkok (back on the left hand side of the road again). Our driver was a mental case. He was driving so fast and crazily we were literally fearing for our lives. It took hours and I think he got lost once because he turned around and went back the way we had come a while. When we were coming into Bangkok on a motorway he was driving as mental as ever and popped a tire! So he made us all get out and stand on the motorway while he changed it.
That was okay and then he herded us all back in and set off like he was possessed. Things got even scarier, he was driving So SO crazily. When we got into more crowded streets the couple in the front at one point said "Slow down!" (They had kept their tongues up until then but it got too much.) So the driver starts yelling at them in Thai, then swerves to the side of the road, jumps out, marches around to their door, yanks it open and yells at them in Thai to get out of the van! I'm sure there were some swear words involved.
They didn't get out so he marched back to his seat and drove EVEN crazier (it was hard to believe). Everyone let out a sigh of relief when he told us we were there and to get out. He was horrid! There were pretty fairy lights in the trees there though which was exciting.
Then we were immediately descended apron by dodgy taxi drivers who wanted to rip us off. I showed one guy our hostels address and he said he know it and will take us for 400 Baht but I knew it was less than 100. I was like, "No way, we will go with you if you put your meter on". He refused and kept saying "It very far." Which is a total lie. I told him I had been there before and knew it was close. (I had and did.) In the end he went off in a huff because I wouldn't allow him to rip us off! So we went and changed our money on Kho San Road where we had been dropped and got the nice ladies in the booth to translate the address on google translate into Thai for us to show taxi drivers. It took about 6 tries before we got someone who would take us with the meter turned on! And it only cost like 56 Baht!
The first part of the trip to the border was SO hot. We were sitting at the back of the bus again! (It seems that out of all of busses we have been on in the last three months we have spent an unfair amount of time in the back seat which is definitely the worst place.) It was boiling because we were sitting on top of the engine and the aircon was not working. I was sweating right through my dress.
We stopped and used one of the last squat toilets I hoped to see in a decent while.
We were dropped at the border after being stickered with a red sticker. The time it took to get through the border was crazy. I think it took about two hours. We were waiting in cue after cue. An old Asian lady tried to push in front of us at one point but I tapped her on the shoulder and gestured with my thumb and sent her to the back of the line. :)
Once on the other side we had to wait in a group and then were taken to get lunch. We were then put in mini vans and set off for Bangkok (back on the left hand side of the road again). Our driver was a mental case. He was driving so fast and crazily we were literally fearing for our lives. It took hours and I think he got lost once because he turned around and went back the way we had come a while. When we were coming into Bangkok on a motorway he was driving as mental as ever and popped a tire! So he made us all get out and stand on the motorway while he changed it.
That was okay and then he herded us all back in and set off like he was possessed. Things got even scarier, he was driving So SO crazily. When we got into more crowded streets the couple in the front at one point said "Slow down!" (They had kept their tongues up until then but it got too much.) So the driver starts yelling at them in Thai, then swerves to the side of the road, jumps out, marches around to their door, yanks it open and yells at them in Thai to get out of the van! I'm sure there were some swear words involved.
They didn't get out so he marched back to his seat and drove EVEN crazier (it was hard to believe). Everyone let out a sigh of relief when he told us we were there and to get out. He was horrid! There were pretty fairy lights in the trees there though which was exciting.
It was nice to be back at Joy's! We arrived about 8.30pm so it turned out to be a 12 hour mission - 4 hours longer than they said. I wish they would just tell you the right times! We relaxed that night after a return trip to our favorite restaurant Bamboo. Yum!
The next day we got our bags packed, collected our surfboards which Joy had kindly looked after for us while we were traveling (Thanks Joy!!!) and then headed off on the train to buy a few things. When we returned we waited a little bit and then headed off to get a taxi to the airport. It took us about 5 or 6 trys to get a taxi that time too. No one wanted to use their meter. Then the guy that we did get wanted to charge extra for the surfboards but we refused (we were all going in the same car after all)! In the end he agreed to turn on the meter. He had wanted us to pay 400 Baht. We had to pay two motorway tolls on the way which cost 45 Baht and 25 Baht and the meter came to 255 Baht so it only cost us 325 Baht instead of the 400 Baht he wanted. (25 Baht cost NZ$1.) We were so sick of people being rude to us and constantly trying to rip us off and lying to us! We were ready to leave Asia.
When we went to check in we put our bags on the scales and the lady said we could not have 3 bags. I explained about how we had booked before the baggage rules changed and were aloud 23kg each with no limit to the number of bags. She rang her supervisor and confirmed this. Then she said that two bags would have to belong to one person and two combined were over 23kg. We tried to say that we had previously shared all the bags. She seemed to accept this and then said that our total bag weight was over 46kg. This seemed strange to us since previously our packs had both only weighed about 12kg and the board bag about 14. So she made us go and unpack all our bags and take out all the heavy things. When we had done this (it took half an hour) we took our bags back and she weighed them again and they were well under! Here scales were broken! So we put all the heavy things into Steve's pack so it was packed all lumpy. So annoying! She didn't even apologise! We were hungry and not for noodles or rice so we had a burger from Burger King while we waited for our plane which left at 9.30pm. When we got on the plane it was so nice. We were in the 4 middle seats sitting next to a young Australian couple so they were good to talk to at the beginning and end of the flight. But I will tell you about the rest of it in the next post.
When we went to check in we put our bags on the scales and the lady said we could not have 3 bags. I explained about how we had booked before the baggage rules changed and were aloud 23kg each with no limit to the number of bags. She rang her supervisor and confirmed this. Then she said that two bags would have to belong to one person and two combined were over 23kg. We tried to say that we had previously shared all the bags. She seemed to accept this and then said that our total bag weight was over 46kg. This seemed strange to us since previously our packs had both only weighed about 12kg and the board bag about 14. So she made us go and unpack all our bags and take out all the heavy things. When we had done this (it took half an hour) we took our bags back and she weighed them again and they were well under! Here scales were broken! So we put all the heavy things into Steve's pack so it was packed all lumpy. So annoying! She didn't even apologise! We were hungry and not for noodles or rice so we had a burger from Burger King while we waited for our plane which left at 9.30pm. When we got on the plane it was so nice. We were in the 4 middle seats sitting next to a young Australian couple so they were good to talk to at the beginning and end of the flight. But I will tell you about the rest of it in the next post.
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