From Langkawi we took a ferry to Thailand, although it was more like a floating freezer with propellers. Air conditioning set to 'freeze' was a common theme throughout Malaysia, leading us to seek out cheap, battered old transport without air-con wherever possible.
Immigration was hassle-free, but they only gave us 13 days in the country, down from the usual 15. Getting anywhere from Satun proved to be more challenging.
We got the price haggled down to half, but only after a long period of sitting on our arses and repeatedly insisting that we didn't want 'VIP' buses or air-conditioning. If we'd somehow managed to get to the bus terminal we might have been able to halve, maybe even quarter the price again, but that's hindsight for you.
Wherever you go, the process is the same: Separate the tourists from the transport terminals, make them difficult or impossible to reach without inside knowledge and get the tourist's cash up front at the border/guesthouse/bottleneck. The more organised the set-up and the larger the city, the harder it is to bypass. Tellingly, the other two-dozen tourists at the border cheerfully handed over the first or second sum they were quoted and advised us to do the same "They're very friendly and helpful". Malaysia was blessedly free of this kind of thing, Thailand riddled with it and in Cambodia it's actually made worse by the police/government's monopoly on the borders and Angkor area. Frustration and hassle.
Anyway, we got to Trang, a destination we chose pretty much at random, found the cheapest hotel room around with the aid of a tourist information assistant who spoke not a word of English and were slightly disgusted by the stinky mattress we were lumped with.
A rental scooter got us to the Tham Lee Ban Kao(?) caves. We got on the tiny flat-bottomed fibreglass boat, and two guys paddled us along into the caves for the 4km round-trip. There were quite a few points where we had to lie flat while the guys manoeuvred around low ceilings and stalactites, and several more where we disembarked to explore. Then we're told to take off our shoes, lie flat and put away the camera. The guys stop paddling and begin heaving and pushing the boat through at high speed, using the rock face millimetres from our noses for leverage. The boat actually scraped along the ceiling, floor and sometimes both at the same time, with only our guides' brute strength stopping us from getting wedged or smeared against the ceiling. The guy at the rear was actually hanging off the back, only his feet and shins wedged in the boat, to get a flatter profile and more leverage. A terrifying, exhilarating experience. When we got out the guys were laughing "It your birthday! It Christmas! You lucky!"
We later heard from a local that he got quite badly scraped up taking that same tour the day after heavy rainfall. Since it had been raining for three days before we went he would have warned us off if we'd asked!
Since we were right by Thailand's coast, and not the infamous East coast either, we decided to check out a nearby island, Ko Mook. After paying twice as much to get there as it cost us to get back we opted not to stay at the overpriced tent-site but at a really nice hut/bungalow amongst the rubber trees and near the amusingly named 'farang' (foreigner) beach.
Highlight of the island was the Morakot Cave, technically a sinkhole, which is only accessible from the sea. We borrowed a small torch, rented a kayak and paddled for half an hour around some dramatic cliff overhangs. Upon entering the cave we were surprised to find ourselves in a pitch-black winding tunnel for which our little torch was totally inadequate. Some confused bumping around and a few minutes later we emerged into a truly beautiful scene. A tiny little beach surrounded on all sides by vertical cliffs, with the only point of entry the narrow cave mouth we just exited.
I'll wind up this post with a random Thailand travel tip: Seek out AEON ATMs, they're the only ones that don't charge $5 per withdrawal with foreign cards.
Immigration was hassle-free, but they only gave us 13 days in the country, down from the usual 15. Getting anywhere from Satun proved to be more challenging.
We got the price haggled down to half, but only after a long period of sitting on our arses and repeatedly insisting that we didn't want 'VIP' buses or air-conditioning. If we'd somehow managed to get to the bus terminal we might have been able to halve, maybe even quarter the price again, but that's hindsight for you.
Wherever you go, the process is the same: Separate the tourists from the transport terminals, make them difficult or impossible to reach without inside knowledge and get the tourist's cash up front at the border/guesthouse/bottleneck. The more organised the set-up and the larger the city, the harder it is to bypass. Tellingly, the other two-dozen tourists at the border cheerfully handed over the first or second sum they were quoted and advised us to do the same "They're very friendly and helpful". Malaysia was blessedly free of this kind of thing, Thailand riddled with it and in Cambodia it's actually made worse by the police/government's monopoly on the borders and Angkor area. Frustration and hassle.
Anyway, we got to Trang, a destination we chose pretty much at random, found the cheapest hotel room around with the aid of a tourist information assistant who spoke not a word of English and were slightly disgusted by the stinky mattress we were lumped with.
A rental scooter got us to the Tham Lee Ban Kao(?) caves. We got on the tiny flat-bottomed fibreglass boat, and two guys paddled us along into the caves for the 4km round-trip. There were quite a few points where we had to lie flat while the guys manoeuvred around low ceilings and stalactites, and several more where we disembarked to explore. Then we're told to take off our shoes, lie flat and put away the camera. The guys stop paddling and begin heaving and pushing the boat through at high speed, using the rock face millimetres from our noses for leverage. The boat actually scraped along the ceiling, floor and sometimes both at the same time, with only our guides' brute strength stopping us from getting wedged or smeared against the ceiling. The guy at the rear was actually hanging off the back, only his feet and shins wedged in the boat, to get a flatter profile and more leverage. A terrifying, exhilarating experience. When we got out the guys were laughing "It your birthday! It Christmas! You lucky!"
Since we were right by Thailand's coast, and not the infamous East coast either, we decided to check out a nearby island, Ko Mook. After paying twice as much to get there as it cost us to get back we opted not to stay at the overpriced tent-site but at a really nice hut/bungalow amongst the rubber trees and near the amusingly named 'farang' (foreigner) beach.
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| We were (necessarily) too frugal to buy much more than potatoes at the beach BBQ |
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| Rubber trees bleed at night. |
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| We wondered what these sheets were for a while, until we realised the blindingly obvious. |
Highlight of the island was the Morakot Cave, technically a sinkhole, which is only accessible from the sea. We borrowed a small torch, rented a kayak and paddled for half an hour around some dramatic cliff overhangs. Upon entering the cave we were surprised to find ourselves in a pitch-black winding tunnel for which our little torch was totally inadequate. Some confused bumping around and a few minutes later we emerged into a truly beautiful scene. A tiny little beach surrounded on all sides by vertical cliffs, with the only point of entry the narrow cave mouth we just exited.
I'll wind up this post with a random Thailand travel tip: Seek out AEON ATMs, they're the only ones that don't charge $5 per withdrawal with foreign cards.
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2 comments:
I've been to the caves before, surprisingly~!! It was during last year's company trip in February. Did they show you grandpa and grandma rock formations?
Yeah, if you mean the cock and breast formations. Those kind of things seem quite common in caves with some cultural or religious significance.
The ones we saw in Okinawa were about a thousand times larger though!
http://benkyonoben.blogspot.com/2010/12/okinawa.html
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