“Come in, come in!” gestured the truck driver. We paused for a second. The sorng-taa-ou (pick-up truck with a bench at the back) was already full but we had been waiting for a taxi for a while. The driver opened the passenger door and patted the seat beside him. Could the two of us fit there? We shrugged and climbed in.
One of Feng’s legs was resting over my left knee, his feet were on the dashboard, and I had one arm around his waist, another above his leg. Picture a Kamasutra-esque position without the honey-get-your-clothes-off bit. That’s what it took for the two of us to fit on the passenger seat.
We then proceeded on to breaking every single traffic law. The truck was going way over the speed limit, one tire was almost flat, there were two people on the passenger seat and another eight in the back of the pick-up truck, we had no seat belts and the driver was chatting on his cell phone. Hell, for all I know he didn’t have a licence. But we made it to Ao Nang, breaking, honking and accelerating. We had the kind of white-knuckle ride you pay good money for in Disneyland.
The day had started weirdly. We had set up the alarm at 8 a.m. to catch the boat from Ko Phi Phi to Krabi but for some reason (probably the fact that a bunch of loud drunks in the hotel kept us awake), we didn’t hear the alarm. We jumped out of bed at 8:47 a.m., realized we were extremely late, packed our bags in five minutes top and somehow caught the boat, which was also conveniently late.
We found a hotel in Krabi and dropped our backpacks. The plan was to explore Ao Nang and Railay before heading to Phuket the next day. Krabi was probably the cheapest place we’ve been to in Thailand. The hotel room was only 350 baht ($12)! After Ko Phi Phi, it was quite a shock.
In Ao Nang, we took a long-tail boat to Railay. The weather wasn’t great and it started pouring. We waited for a lull in the rain and boated back to Ao Nang. We wandered around a bit and went back to Krabi. The coast was definitely more relaxed than in Ko Phi Phi, but quite touristy as well.
Ahah! I had a good laugh at your mad ride!
I love the picture “gonna rain”.
Too bad it’s raining! Railay is so gorgeous in sunshine! 🙂
But then, you’ll have a different atmosphere to experience! 😀
I wonder how many boats you’ve already been on this trip! And I always find traces of Filipino behavior in your entries. The insistence of the driver that both of you will fit is not different! If there’s room, it will always be filled!
Krabi is quite popular among Malaysians, as there are direct flights from KL. But I guess it is a bit way off for those who enter the kingdom at Bangkok.
@Em – I got soaked for that one!
@kyh – I actually didn’t mind the rain that much. Weather photography can be fun too!
@Linguist-in-Waiting – We took man many boats! It’s probably the easiest and safest form of transportation here 😆
@khengsiong – I noticed there were a lot of Malaysians on holiday! That explains.
We spent a good 5 days on Railay climbing. We loved it!
@Melanie – So that’s where you did some climbing! I remember you mentioning it in one of your emails, I just couldn’t remember where you did it.