Traveling time! From Pai to Kuala Lumpur (8th to 10th of November)

In this post, I write about how I traveled Northen Thailand (Pai) to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. If you are actually following my blog, you notice this is almost end of my trip.

8th of NOV

• 12.00 pm Pai to Chiang Mai: I left Pai with mini van. Girls behind me saw me playing a day before at BeBe’s. Had a good chat with them. Which made my trip more interesting.
• Around 3.00 pm arrive Chiang Mai: It took more than I expected. But enough time to have lunch and foot massage.

• 6.00 pm Chiang Mai to Bangkok: I took a train again. Nice train ride and good night sleep. FYI: 881 Baht (nearly 40 NZ$ or 25 US$) for 2nd Class lower bed. Saved one night accommodation.

Sunrise from train

9th of NOV

• 7 am arrive Bangkok: Way too early for me to get up. I had 7 or 8 hours to kill till next ride. I went to hunt for breakfast. Tried to enjoy last part of Thailand. Later I organised my cell phone to top up. Somehow I made a misstake that I top up someone’s phone.
• 2.45 pm Bangkok to Butterworth/Penang, Malaysia: I have been this train for a few times. I enjoyed it as always. 1210 Baht (Just over 50 NZ$ or just under 35 US$) for 2nd Class lower bed. Again saved one night accommodation.

10th of NOV

• Still in the train: Next morning, we crossed border. Very friendly and fast border crossing. Some passengers asked me if they had to take all their belongings, when we went through check point. I said yes. After hearing my answer, then they went someone to ask the same question. I don’t know why people asked me, if they don’t believe me. Rude.

• 2.15 pm arrive Butterworth: I made a big mistake! I realised there is time difference between Thailand and Malaysia (Thailand one hour behind). And the train arrived a bit later than expected. So now I had to run to ferry terminal to go to Penang. Took me about 30 min from the train station to ferry terminal and waited to get on the ferry. And the ferry took another 30 to 45 min to get to Penang (Island).

• Sometime like 3.15 or 3.20 pm Taxi terminal, Penang: Quickly jumped into a taxi. The driver assured that I could get to bus terminal on time. About 10km drive in Malaysian traffic.
•   4.00 pm Penang to Kuala Lumpur: The taxi driver was right. He got me on time. I even had a time to go to bathroom! I felt a bit of stress. However I got in a bus, AEROLINE. It’s a great VIP bus. I just sat back and watched Star Wars. 60 RM (20 NZ$ or 14 US$). Come with bottle of water and snack.

•  9.00 pm arrive KLCC, Kuala Lumpur

 

In conclusion, it took about 2 days and half (little over 2,000km). And it costed me like 150 NZ$ (rough estimate) including bit of taxi and min van rides, and 2 nights accommodation in the trains. I believe total travel cost is no too much different between this style of travel and flight. However I enjoyed the rides. Although I had to change many transports, I had comfy seats on the trains and views. I had some companies transport to transport. So I would be happy to do again.

Pai, Thailand (5th to 7th of November)

From Chiang Mai, I traveled to Pai by mini van. It was cool drive though. Drove through mountains and hills. After two or three hours, I could see a town, not a village. And it’s rather small, but all essentials were there. This was my first time in Pai.

Before leaving New Zealand, I was talking to my friend, Simon. He told me how awesome Pai was. And strongly suggested me to go there. A few months later, while traveling, he mentioned to me he would be in Pai. So we caught up in Pai. How awesome! And I don’t think I could have had the same experience, if there was no Simon.

Simon and Frank jamming

Well Simon was there a couple days before me. And he organised my accommodation and some stuff to do. We visited many bars and music venues. There were so many small ones!

I spent heaps of time at BeBe Spice, like every night. They have great Indian curries! First night, I tried korma. It was so good that I had a dream about the curry. They kindly invited me to play. And I had a curry every night. And was happy. Especially I hadn’t had any curry for way too long. So anyone wants Indian curry, this is the place!

I would not say I spent enough time to know about Pai. However I saw/met many musos. It was different type of atmosphere. Everyone enjoyed each other’s music. I guess I could say it was kind of creative mood all round. This made Pai so unique and different from other part of Thailand.

Chiang Mai (30th of October to 4th of November)

 

Coffee

A few years ago, I had my first taste of Chiang Mai coffee. And I was told that they have grown good coffee beans. I was curious to go to there since then. So here I am. I started to explore coffee in the town. Some of them cheap, expensive, very good, and not so good coffee. I did research, but their suggestion was not always my taste.

One place I really liked is a guy set up little coffee cart on a street. He was very friendly. You can choose a way you want to drink. It’s kind of hobo style. Just way I liked it. Decent coffee and he offered some Thai cookie. Very interesting taste. Hard to explain, but it’s like coconut with smoke flavour. 40 Baht less than 2NZ$/ 1US$.

Treehouse

There is another reason that I decided to come to Chiang Mai was going to stay at tree house. I found this place, Rabeang Pasak Treehouse.

 

It’s about 90min or 2hours drive away from Chiang Mai. Once I got there. It’s in a nice small village in a forest. I stayed in a big place by a river/stream. Inside of the house was so cool that I did not want to go out. One of days I stay was raining. So stayed in and just played the guitar all day.

There were many friendly cats, dog and chickens. Meals were optional, but there was no much shops around. They created beautiful meals during my stay.

Just a little clip of the treehouse.

Local coffee stand

 

 

They made me lion coffee

My breakfast cafe Bear Hug

Bangkok (21st to 29th of October)

 

My breakfast/lunch/dinner street

After relaxing in Koh Chang, I arrived in Bangkok by mini van. It was just end of rainy season.

Dentist treatment

My main purpose of visiting Bangkok was going to dentist. I had not checked my teeth for a long time and heard dentists in Thailand were good and cheap. Well certainly it was impressive. And they spoke English and some of them could speak Japanese. So no problem with communication. They took x ray, cleaning my teeth, took out two teeth, and check up. And cost 6,300THB, about 270NZ$. I was told that it was expensive for Thai.

Doraemon temple – Wat Sampa Siw

And while I was in Bangkok, I decided to go to a temple. It’s different from usual Thai temple. I read a few articles about it. English version and Japanese I was not allowed to take photos inside. So if you want to see some photos, take a look on the link.

I was very interested. However I did not know where, only knew it was in Bangkok. So I gathered information, once I got in Bangkok. Although not many local knew, I managed to find out. It’s called Wat Sampa Siw in Suphan Buri, near Bangkok. As I researched, I found there is a big dragon temple (City Pillar Shrine) in Suphan Buri.

Victory Monument Bus terminal Bangkok

Doraemons and buda with iPad at Wat Sampa Siw

So I was off to day trip. Here is my itinerary.

• Left my accommodation at 11.00h
• Mini van (No booking. Just show up and buy ticket at the terminal) to Suphan Buri and be there at 13.40h 120THB
• Quick lunch at the bus terminal 30THB
• A motor taxi to Wat Sampa Siw 50THB
• Another taxi to City Pillar Shrine 50THB
• Walked back to the bus terminal
• Back to Bangkok by mini van 100THB

Total 350THB 15NZ$/ 10US$. It was cool inexpensive DIY outing. If you want to do something different in Bangkok, highly recommended!

After just over a week stay in Bangkok, I caught a night train to Chian Mai. I must say that Thai trains are old and dirty, they are very comfortable. Their seats transfer to bed at night. They have soft mattress. So I can sleep all night.

TBC…

 

There was a big night market On Nut area. Now it’s gone. Sad.

Friendly fish

Erawan shrine about 2 months later. If you don’t know, here is link. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33963280

Do not mess up with this macho bunny

Yummy Thai food