Day of Travel

We left Langkawi by ferry at 1:30pm. I was glad that we had gotten our tickets early this time. While our ferry ride in had been only a quarter full, the big holiday meant the ride out was packed to the gills. We didn't bother going outside this time, instead enjoying the cold AC of the inside; watching the islands pass by while playing Scrabble on the iPad and watching odd Thai pop videos play on the ferry's tv. 

    After about forty-five minutes or so we arrived in the port of Satun Thailand once more. We headed for immigration, where we received 15 day visas for the country.  Interesting note: if you come in by plane, you are granted a far longer stay than if you cross the border by land or sea. This is apparently designed to keep people from just crossing the nearest border when their Visa expires and sticking around for long periods without applying for a residency or work visa instead. 

  After passing by customs, we began the fun of finding and negotiating a taxi for the day. It took some time to get one locked in, and apparently even then they could only get the ride to Hat Yai rather than for the day. This left us with the choice of negotiating another taxi in Hat Yai or heading for the airport. Since we had a plethora of bags, it was decided we would head for the airport in hopes of getting an earlier flight. 

 The drive was very nice. We passed through a few towns as well as the Thai countryside. It is an absolutely beautiful area. It is interesting to note that both Malaysia and Thailand are kingdoms. Langkawi had many photos about of the King and Queen, but they were nothing in comparison to the pictures and paintings Thailand has of its king. At 85, he is apparently the longest serving monarch in the world, and his visage is everywhere. Some with the queen, but often on his own. His age in the photos ranged drastically with many showing him in what appears to have been his thirties, others ranging up to current day.  Most show him looking on in a kind if sometimes oddly nerdy fashion. He is apparently a very popular figure in Thailand. 

Fairly typical picture of the King

The second most common site were miniaturized temples that appeared to be set up as alters. These were typically setup in front of houses though you would occasionally see one randomly setup in the middle of nowhere on the side of a mountain or something. Now and then you would also see outdoor shops that sold these little alters, often with a wide selection of styles and colors. Such sites, along with mountains, jungles, temples and towns made for a fascinating drive that felt far quicker than the time that actually passed. 

  Also of note, being that we were out of the big cities, was just how few signs were actually in English. Dad noted an interesting piece of history in that Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, Jakarta and pretty much every other country around the area had at one point been a European colony. No one ever managed to conquer Thailand though. So one of the main Thailand did not have multiple language signs like its neighbors was that it had never really had to. It primarily did so only in high tourist areas for convenience sake. It is an odd looking language to me, but I really would like to learn t read and write it. It would make future trips much easier, and if course make for a nice way to write nearly secret notes :)

 After a couple of hours, we found ourselves arriving at Hat Yai airport. Security was far easier to deal with here, much like security in the states back in the late nineties before it was decided that making things really inconvenient would give people the illusion that they were safer. We put our stuff through a scanner ( note, while I had to take my laptop out they told me to just leave all of my other electronics in the bag) then passed through a metal detector ourselves. No removing shoes, no other hassles, very little muss or fuss. We wondered in to find out that we had just missed the only other Thai Air flight of the day aside from our 8pm booking. This meant about four hours of killing time in a small airport. 

Random Airport Store

   Given that I had eaten a few left over pieces of naan for breakfast, and had a few banana chips at the Satun port, I figured our first order of business was to have a snack. The selection turned out to be small, but did include, of all places, a Dairy Queen. Having not had much in the way of western food on this trip we decided to give it a try. Oddly enough, it turns out that Dairy Queen abroad has pretty much two things: hot dogs and ice cream. A chili dog made for a decent lunch, and a rather tasty (and very Dairy Queen tasting) brownie blizzard made for good dessert. After that it was chatting and wondering about to kill time prior to our departure. Finally boarding commenced and we settled into a short and surprisingly comfortable flight to Bangkok. 

   While waiting for our luggage, I noticed a sign that explained much about our first airport experience. Apparently there were three options for leaving the airport if you did not have your own ride. Option 1 was the MRT, which connected to the same line we took to Chat a Chat. Option 2 was public taxi. Option 3 was a limo. Guess which one we had been given on our first trip? That's right, the limo. And where Crys and I had spent 2400 baht (around $70) to get to our hotel the first time, the four of us managed to get a public taxi SUV for 700 baht (closer to $25 USD). A great deal, or so we thought. 

   Note that taxi drivers at the airport do not get to negotiate their own fees. For efficiency (and to protect against unlicensed taxis) a central booking desk negotiates the price then has you escorted to the taxi you will be taking. Apparently the taxi driver we were given was somewhat miffed at the price we were given since we were taking the larger than normal taxi (and presumably being white tourists had more money to spare).  After dad refused to let her up rate him for airport and toll fees she informed us that the weight of our luggage prevented her vehicle from going very fast and proceeded to drive the equivalent of about 40mph. She also decided to skip the speedy toll road, taking the longer slower route instead. Barb was very annoyed at this, but the rest of us thought it was hilarious. I for one enjoyed the scenic route she was taking, and figured it was only hurting her as the longer she took with us the longer it would be till she got new passengers. 

   Given the holiday going on, Dad's usual hotel was booked. I'll go into detail about our replacement hotel next post, but suffice it to say it was good to end the long day of travel with a comfy bed and good AC.