Day 4: Train travel and Surat Thani to Krabi still en route

Date : 26th Dec and 27th Dec 2012

Partly Day 3 and Fully Day 4

 Continuing from my last post I was in a train headed to Surat Thani.

Plan : To go to Ao Nang

The route I took :

 Bangkok ==> Surat Thani (By train)
Surat Thani ==> Krabi ( Bus )
Krabi ==> Ao nang ( Shared van)

This route could be considered as the second costliest method to reach ao nang, first costliest being the flight.
This route can be a bit time consuming because


 Bangkok ==> Surat Thani (By train) - ETA* ( 7:06hrs) - ATA* (9:55hrs) - 15 hours
Surat Thani ==> Krabi ( Bus ) - no delays - 3.5 hours
Krabi ==> Ao nang ( Shared van) - no delays except for some waiting time - 45 min


ETA*: Expected Time of Arrival
ATA*:  Actual Time of arrival

This is how a railway ticket looks in Thailand

It cost me about THB 650 for one way from Bangkok to Surat thani in a second class Non-AC coach.
I was a bit worried if it would be safe and comfortable for a solo female traveller. The truth it was very comfortable and safe.
You get sheets, pillows and curtain too for your berth. You can compare the facilities to 2nd class A/c of Indian trains.
 There is a separate space allotted for luggage storage near your seat and is quite safe. Just in case you are not sure you can always take a steel tag and tie it with your seat.

And Bonus there is a decent pantry car inside the train and dinner/break fast menu with vegetarian option all ranging from THB 150 ~ THB 250. I am not sure about the food quality as I did not taste it.

I would have woken up so many times in the night just to make sure that I didn't miss Surat Thani and go somewhere else. There were coaches which travelled only up to Surat Thani and there were also coaches which travelled up to Nakhon Si Thammarat. Unfortunately I was in the coach which travelled all the way up to Nakhon Si Thammarat. So I had to keep checking.
There were not many foreigners in my coach as most of them preferred taking the A/C coaches. The local people understood very little english but somehow tried to help.
There is a common notion that trains in Thailand never run on time and yes, It did not run on time was about 3 hours delayed.

Once I got down at Surat thani station I was not sure how to proceed further. I followed most of the tourists and went outside. When I just thought how I would find my way out of Surat thani, I saw foreigners flocking towards 2/3 desk arranged outside the station. You can easily spot these desks just outside the station as you walk towards the left. Travel agents were selling tickets to all the possible destination Krabi, Phuket, Koh Samui, Koh phangan, Ko phi phi etc.

I queued in the line and got myself a bus ticket to Krabi from Phathip travel company which costed around THB 200~250. Phanthip travels company is a reliable travel service company as said by many others and my experience says.

 I felt hungry again... Sorry If I talk a lot about eating, but I love eating..
There are small shops on the road which can serve food and water at a very steep price when you compare what is on offer at Bangkok's streets.

I could purchase fried rice at THB 20 at Bangkok for which I paid THB 50 here. Same goes with the water bottles too.
I was eating my fried rice so intently that I failed to hear the conductor lady screaming at the top of her voice asking passengers going to Krabi to get into a bus. As I said Food first others later.

Yes, you guessed it right the bus to krabi departed without me and I didn't realise this until I finished eating. :) hehe.

I then got into an argument with the travel company and somehow got to board bus that went to the main Surat Thani station and from there I was taken in a songthaew to the place where bus was waiting.
As we reached near the point where the Krabi bus was waiting for us. I was approached by a man who told that I could book my onward transfer from Krabi to Ao Nang in a shared van. It is basically like
they can drop me off just near my hotel. I thought it was good enough and paid THB 200 for that.

Loaded myself and my bag in the bus should say it was a comfy bus and I slept my way through the journey. Reached Krabi in about 3.5 hours. And not they do not drop you off at the krabi bus station and instead take somewhere near their office 10 kms from the bus station. You could buy tickets to ao nang once you reach Krabi. Coz It cost only THB 150. I felt so cheated then. But I didn't have the energy to argue with them. I got into the shared van reached my hotel Baan taveesree. It was the moment of relief.

22 hours of journey at a stretch was too much for this new-bee. The hotel was small but looked good from outside. Checked-in and hit the bed straight.

Woke up very late in the evening and cleaned myself and walked up to the beach. As I was strolling around the area I felt like I was in Goa only a little less noisier.

Ao Nang

I went out basically to find a place to eat my dinner. Yes, I found a small restaurant called " The patain's place restaurant" where they understood my vegetarian issue and cooked for me.

Yumm food.... @ patain's place restaurant

To end the day I wanted to try one last thing.
And that was.

Fish Spa

I paid THB 200 just for 15 minutes and failed bargaining with the owner. But then it was a tickly experience.

And thus the day came to an end. I had to get ready early next morning for my phi phi isalnds  daytrip.

Will write  a review about my hotel in the next post.

Till then rest.

~Kei

Day 3: Bangkok here and Surat thani to Krabi there

Date: 26th Dec 2012

Day 3: Bangkok & Krabi

 Today I had to go to Krabi. I had a booked a night train.
Will talk about how to reach Krabi in the later part of the blog now I will talk about my visit to Queen Saovabha snake institute.

As usual I woke up late this morning and directly went for my breakfast as mentioned in my earlier blog food options for vegetarians were limited. Not so happy as I could not have a dig.

I had to pack my bag as I had to check out today. Packed my stuff, cleaned myself did a early checkout, dropped my bags at the concierge and off to sight seeing.

The Queen Saovabha snake institute is located in the pathumwan area. The closest access is MRT Sam Yan / BTS Sala Daeng.

I took the MRT and this was the first time I used a MRT in thailand. It is quite easy to use.

I have attached the link on How to use MRT in Bangkok . This proved quite useful to me.

The snake farm is about 10 minutes walk from MRT Sam Yan.

The institute is quite big and the snake farm is only a small part of it. You can easily locate the entrance to the snake farm if you keep walking on the left after you enter.

The entry ticket is THB 200 for the snake farm and the show. There are two shows in a day one at 11:00am and one at 2:30Pm.

The 11:00Am show is the snake milking show where the snake venom removal demonstration is done and the 2:00Pm show is the snake display show where different type of snakes are brought out of the cage and demonstrated.

I attended the 2:30Pm show and would say that it is highly recommended and knowledgeable. The snake are displayed so close to the audience only a small steel gate is in between the audience and the display area.

Few photos taken during the show

Naja Naja @ King Cobra

Siamese Cobra

Going at least 10 min prior to the show is recommended as all the good seats would be taken early. I arrived a few minutes prior to the show and I had to squeeze my butt in the first row. Thanks to the lady next to me who didn't complain.

At the end of the show you get to take a photo with this.....

There is also a snake museum on the first floor which has lots of information about the snake life cycle along with models and many other useful videos displayed.

It was past 3:30 and I was finding a place to eat and on the opposite side of the street I saw lot of street stalls crossed the road.. not on the zebra crossing , not that I am law breaker but I couldn't find one. But I found no luck in talking to people making them understand that I wanted vegetarian.

I kept walking and walking then I found a big temple quite interesting one.

It was called as Wat Hua Lumphong.
I entered the temple and saw lots of cats in there( at least 10~15). I went near them to touch  but they did not move away was quite surprised coz the cats I have seen so far in India ran away the moment they knew I was approaching them.

There were not many people in the temple and it  was not touristy at all. In the main hall there was a large Buddha image decorated in gold. Looked majestic. On the outer area of the main hall there well lots of bells hung and circumference of the temple.

Around the temple

Actual Buddha image inside the temple

Also I heard that this temple accepts coffins as a donation for the burial of poor who cannot afford a coffin. You can also pay a small donation which they accept happily.

Next I hopped back in the MRT on my way to the hotel to collect my bags and directly off to the station.

I took the MRT again to go to Hua Lumphong station(also known as the Bangkok station) for my onward train to Surat Thani. It is a short walk from MRT to the Bangkok station no fear of getting lost as there are lot of signages. Just to be sure I kept tracing the path of a white guy who was also headed to the station. I should admit he was walking quite fast.

MRT Sam Yan and MRT Hua lumphong are one after other, I made the mistake of returning all the way to my hotel just to pick my bags. Instead I should have first gone to MRT Hua lumphong walked to the Bangkok station and dropped my Baggies there at a reliable bag point run by the station authorities for a small fee.

Now that I entered the station I was worried how I would find my train and platform number. Luckily there was a information desk where two uniformed men were guiding lot of foreign tourists. You just show your ticket and they guide  you with all the details like platform number, coach number etc. Quite easy to locate and no fear of getting lost or taking the wrong train.

While I will make a separate post on how to book train tickets online.

Board on the train

And Yeah I forgot to tell you about my food quest, If you could read your way up this blog you would have noticed that I had skipped my lunch too. Ms. Tummy grumble couldn't find any vegetarian food in the station except for water, pop-corn and something called mee-korb that I managed to purchase with my broken Thai.

Mee Korb in my hand and pop corn on my lap

Will write further about my train journey in the next post

~Kei