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Thailand trip - My first trip to abroad

By our Chinese local guide and tour operator Jessie Lu

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We started our journey in quite a rush. I searched for an agent in Guilin who could help us to get a visa to Thailand. My friend Jackie and me paid Y380 per person for a month visa. We gave our passport on 27^th of January 2008, we got it back 3 days later.

We needed a flight ticket so I searched the internet for discounts. We wanted to fly from Shenzhen to Bangkok. www.airasia.com was the cheapest so we booked our return tickets which only cost us Y1550 including tax.

Start Journey on 2nd of February

We left Yangshuo at 10am, took bus to Guilin train station, we had not booked any train tickets in advance. I did not know so many people wanted tickets so we waited about 1 hour, and then got the hard sleeper train from Guilin to Shenzhen, Y230 for upper beds.

Train leave at 21:45. I got to Lo Wu station on 3^rd in the morning but our flight from Shenzhen to Bangkok was 23:20. The flight would take 4 hours.

I was very exciting on the flight, that was my second on the flight and everything was still new for me. Jackie has a friend in Bangkok who had booked a hotel for us, but we did not know our hotel name.

During the flight, the stewardess gave us a form. We filled in our details, but we did not know what the form was for. At the same time another stewardess talked about their company and something about winning a US$200,000 prize. I thought we got that form to make a chance to win the 200,000 prize. But afterward we knew that is the immigration of the form for the airport.

But both of us had not filled in the hotel name. We had to wait for a long time in the line. And then because I had not filled in the hotel name, we had to restart again. So it took us a long time to pass the customs.

I was smart, I exchanged some Thai money before I came. We easily got our luggage, got out and went to meet Jackie's friend who was waiting for us at the exit. We took taxi to the hotel.

Arrive at hotel In Bangkok

We had a hotel in the local area. It was a long way from the airport and it was already deep in the night before finally we arrived. The hotel had nice and clear rooms, the only problem was that we had only a big bed. This Jackie and me had to stay in the same bed. That was a little bit strange.

It was 3am when we got there. I was still in a good mood, even though we had only 4 hours sleep.

I got up at 7:30am, walked around in this small area. My first impression of Local Bangkok was that it was still in China, I did not think this was another country. Everything was so familiar.

I went down to the streets. For breakfast I had some soy bean milk with all those no name fruits. This was nice, just little bit different than our Chinese soy bean milk. I walked a few streets. The local people's houses looked very clean and nice. People were friendly as well. I thought to buy a map of Bangkok. Unfortunately the store lady didn't understand what I wanted.

After Jackie got up, we went to a little restaurant have macaroni with ham and tomato sauce,. Although the staff didn't speak any English they were very nice and sometimes we had to use sign language, hands and feet to show what we wanted. The meal was good priced, 60B for both of us and we had some fruits, drinks and two macaroni.

Exploring the fishing village and Bangkok with Jackie's friend An An

We went to one small towns near Bangkok. This was a very interesting town. We had noodles soup call "Yan da fuo" for lunch, this was the best noodles we had in Thailand, the noodles are flat, with 7 or 8 different kind of fish balls, and green vegetables. I like the soup very much, a little bit sour, but very fresh.

On the way to ferry, An An bought some deep fried flowers and flower leaves, It did not really taste like flower, in fact I only tasted the oil. We met An An's friend on the boat. They were going to fishing village as well so we were thinking to get a long tail boat to visit around other villages. We were with 11 people and the total rent a long tail boat was 550B, a very good price.

On the island, An An bought us very beautiful and yummy coconut milkshake in the clay pot. Unfortunately the pot was too heavy to carry around, we had just started our journey otherwise I could have brought it back to china. This drink was only 30B for one.

The first village we visit was call desert village, there were more than hundred different kind of desserts for sale. Good local products for souvenirs.

After the desert shop, we went to one of the temples near the river. There was a lot of catfish, but no one is allowed to catch and kill them. This is because killing in front of the Buddha is forbidden.

At the end of the tour, we should pay 50B per person to the boat man, 3 of us cost 150B, but I made a mistake, I gave 1050B. I confused 1000B to 100B. An An told me I gave too much, but still not understand what she said, I thought that was exactly 150B, she told me I gave 1050B not 150B. that was first time I made a mistake with the money.

Hundred years old market at Anan's Home town

We stayed 2 nights at Anan's hometown, we went to see the Hundred Years Old Market. It's a really old and traditional market were you can buy local made deserts; different type of curry; sticky rice; etc....

The market looked very similar to ours in China. I bought two rings at this market, one for me, one for my sister.

An An's mother bought some green curry for dinner, and fried noodles for An An's father, the Curry tasted good, but Jackie and me were not used to have cold food for dinner. Both of us only had a little bit. One very different thing in this family was that when we stayed there 2 days, the family never had dinner together with us. That was very different in our Chinese culture. However, it was very good experience for us to know a Thai family.

Train from Bangkok to Trang

We booked train tickets from one of the agent from Jackie's work company. The journey to Trang would be about 14 . The train station in Bangkok (and Thailand) is very different from China, They have open style train station, don't need check tickets until we get on the train, they only check once.

The train design is different than Chinese train as well. Thai trains only have lower and upper beds. The lower bed can move to seat and between the seats, we can put the table in the middle. In the evening the train attendant make bed for us,

I like the bed sheet and blanket, they are clean, put in the plastic bag before we use it. The beds have curtain to cover the side of bed so you have more personal space. But they don't have aisle with seat on the side of the bed. They only have plastic bag for rubbish at corner of the bottom bed, no dust bins. 

Chinese Trains have hard sleeper bed, soft sleeper bed, and hard seat. Normally the harder sleeper bed is more common, they have 6 beds in one compartment, each side have 3 beds, bottom, middle and up bed, less space than Thai train. We have no curtains on the side of the train, but the bottom bed, have a table in the middle, with a dust bin in front, the room have no door, it is open style.

We have aisle with one table ,two seat on the side of each compartments. But with Chinese trains you have more trouble to get on the train. Before getting on the train, they have the entrance locked until half hour before the train leaves.

At boarding the train, the worker use scissors to cut a hold on the ticket and the tickets are checked one more time again in the train. When get on the train, you will exchange your ticket for a plastic card which will be returned when you arrive. When leaving the train station the tickets are checked one more times. So in Chinese we have more controlling and checking than in Thailand. I hope we can improve easier one day.

From Trang to krabi and Ao Nang

The train arrived at 8AM in Trang the next morning. We were staving because as we did not eat anything on the train. We found a noodle soup shop for breakfast, but we did not like the pigs stomach noodle soup. The soup was so smelling, we only had a little bit.

After breakfast, we found an agent to check if they have boat to Kho Lanta. They boat leaves at 1:30 pm in the afternoon, cost 800B per person but we thought it was too expensive. It is same price of our train tickets from Bangkok to Trang so we decided not go to Kho Lanta by boat.

We changed our mind to go to Krabi. We went to Trang bus station bought but tickets to Krabi, the bus leave 20 minutes later. We had some free time we could check our Lonely Planet to get some information about Krabi. Jackie could not find the Lonely Planet in her bag, I did not find it in my bag either.

I was pretty sure Jackie left the book at the agent when we checked the boat tickets to Kho Lanta. I watched our luggage, Jackie took a Tuk Tuk back to the agent to get the book back, she told me she only paid 60B to the TukTuk for return way, actually, we Paid 60B for one way from the agent to bus station, she got good deal for that.

Krabi and Ao Nang

It was a 2 hours bus drive from Trang to Krabi, ticket was 117B per person. When we get to Krabi station, the bus driver drove us to a tour agent. They wanted us to let them book a room for us in Ao Nang because finding rooms in Ao Nang was difficult, that was at least what they told us. "It's high season", they said, but we did not believe them.

They found a Dutch guy to talk to us, who brought us to another agent. The Dutch guy had married a Moslem woman and was living in Krabi for already 7 years. They tried their best to find a hotel for us, but his wife told us only the first hotel call "Green View Village" hotel still available, but we thought too expensive It cost 1300B per a night with only a big bed hotel, taxi from krabi to Ao Nang was 300B.

She called more than 10 hotels, but they were all full. Jackie told me maybe this couple was cheating us, maybe they just wanted to make us nervous, let us worried about we could not find room by ourselves.

I did not believe what Jackie said because the couple look very nice. They tried their best to help us. But I still told Jackie, if she worried about they cheated at us, then we could refuse them, we can took taxi to Ao Nang, find hotel ourselves. Finally we decided book one night hotel and taxi from this couple.

By now we were too tired and starving, we didn't want to get to Ao Nang, carrying our big bags, walk around in the street in hot weather to find a hotel. So we just took an easy first day and found a cheaper hotel for the next two nights.

Back to the top of Thailand trip, a story by Jessie Lu

Here are part 2 and part 3 of Jessie's Thailand adventure

Back to the Yangshuo Travel Guide homepage

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