[Kanchanaburi to Khao Lak, Thailand] It’s been a long two days with over 24 hours of travel. We left Kanchanaburi by minibus and were delivered to Khaosan road in Bangkok within a couple of hours. A much easier trip than the train and honestly about as scenic. V took the opportunity to do a little more shopping. She needs to be in the mood for shopping and she was in fine form. Unfortunately we still had our packs with us but this did not deter her in the least.

We eventually ditched our packs at the travel agency and wandered around a little more to kill some time. In the evening we were led, by a fat lazy guy on a scooter, to an assembly point on the main road where we waited for our bus. The bus was late and then spent another 2 hours in Bangkok collecting and waiting for passengers before setting off.

Watching and listening to travelers is sometimes fun. There was an annoying and loud blond Bosnian bokkie spinning a story to two chaps. Dollars to dough-nuts her name was Marina – due to her the colour of all her matching clothing and accessories. She had been traveling all over the world for 3 years after completing her degree in aeronautics/mathematics and working for NASA. She had traveled to South Africa and had some odd stories about the place. The boys ate it up. V and I became increasingly skeptical. Apparently condoms that are so large you can wear them as rain boots are issued at passport control on entering SA. Yeah. And there are lions on the streets too 😉

It was an uncomfortable night that we passed with some Boston Legal and a lot of wiggling on our seats. We arrived at Suritani very early and were transferred to another travel agents office where the owners were trying to convince people to change their destinations to Phuket. The news cast on the TV was showing heavily flooded areas in Krabi. All boat services were suspended. We became concerned but insisted on going on to Khao Lak. More waiting and another 4 hour local bus journey and we arrived knackered in Khao Lak’s main street.

After securing reasonable accommodation at a fair price (along the beach the bungalows are 4 times what we are paying) we noticed that our bags had been burgled. Our packs had been completely emptied and repacked. Every nook and cranny was searched but the only thing stolen was my old company credit card. First robbery since we started traveling and these guys were very good. Didn’t bother taking my fake wallet with the expired card, travelers cheques or any gear. We did score an extra pair of mens underwear that we found in V’s pack. So either they went through everyones packs during the night while we were all sleeping or V has got some questions to answer 🙂

We also collected our PADI course material but were too tired to even open it. Tomorrow we’ll have to knuckle down and do some studying.

[Pictures: Jai’s guesthouse in Khao Lak – hope the pic is ok. Trying the new (still terrible) WordPress app]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi