“Somewhere in Thailand”
It was time for me to leave Langkawi and Malaysia, and enter Thailand. I returned my scooter and headed to the Kuah Jetty to depart. I knew I wanted to enter Thailand, but I didn’t really know how I was going to do it. In my head I thought about returning to Kuala Perlis (In Malaysia), taking some minibus past the border, and into some southern city in Thailand. I walked up to the port to ask the guys selling packages with tickets. They asked me where I wanted to go and I said “Somewhere in Thailand, I don’t know, wherever I can make it to today”. They laughed but then gave me some advice on popular cities to go to.
I decided to try and get to Hat Yai. Then to my surprise, I found it really easy to just buy a ferry ticket directly to the port city of Satun on the Thailand side (and then planned on taking a bus from there). Unfortunately, there was only 2 ferries a day that went here, and I had missed the first morning ferry, so I had to wait about 2-3 hours for the 5pm ferry to depart into Thailand.
Missed the last bus
After arriving in Satun port, Thailand, I passed through customs and had my taxi-driver take me to the Satun bus stop. From there I might be able to take a bus or minibus to Hat Yai. Unfortunately, it was too late by now, and the only option was paying a lot of money for a taxi to take me directly. Not about that style, I decided to stay in the city of Satun that night.
I walked a couple of kilometers from the bus station to Satun to look for a Hostel. Along the way, I saw two sights that got me really excited about Thailand.
First impressions
The first was a group of teenagers doing wheelies while riding their bikes down the street.
And the second sight was a lady on the side of the street selling coconuts for the cheapest I have ever seen – 15 Baht, or about 50 cents. The coconut was small, but the chill water was some of the best I had ever had until that point. The coconuts there were great.
Well, a third thing I noticed was the creativity and resourcefulness of how people got around. I’m talking about the scooters with a side attached that can carry a business, or can carry an entire family around while they go to the park to feed the monkeys and hang out. I loved seeing this. An entire family on a scooter full of smiles. I thought about the contrast to the transportation in Houston, single riders in a huge pickup driving far distances to work every day.
“Mạngs̄wirạti” means vegetarian
Luckily, I happened to arrive on a Saturday evening, which as is the case in any town in southeast Asia, meant it was night market day! The vendors lined the downtown street in Satun. The aromas of Thai food filled the streets, and I enjoyed seeing the broad category of things that were being sold at the market.
Also for the first time in Thailand, I ran across a stall selling smoothies. 😀
A friendly local
I was taking a look, thinking about which fruit looked the best, and what the best way to ask for this would be to someone who doesn’t know English, when suddenly this young pretty girl working at the stall approached me and spoke perfect English. She recommended the Mango smoothie, which I took. I asked her where I could find some vegetarian food around here, and she said my chances were slim at the night market. So she gave me a ride on her scooty to the first seven-eleven in Satun, where I had some soup with rice. Plaa spoke really good English and was super friendly.
I loved learning about how she lived her life in Thailand and how she planned to study Chinese medicine next semester. She took me around to the local market and showed me where I could buy the fresh coconuts.
The next morning she took me to a local vegetarian restaurant where I had some of the best food in all of southeast Asia, for about $1.50. Plaa then drove me down to the bus station and helped me buy a bus ticket for Krabi. We exchanged WhatsApp contact and said goodbye.
As much as I enjoyed spending time with her, I still had a long ways to go to Bangkok in a matter of under a week, so I had to get going.
I took a seat in this cute pink bus that would take me down to Krabi…
