Perhentian Islands to Bangkok...
A lot of the details of this trip have been developed on the fly. From talking to people on the Perhentians and before, it appeared that the weather and diving on the Perhentians was better than any in southern Thailand during this weather season. The west coast of Thailand would be in the rainy season. We had already missed the Full Moon Party at Koh Phanghan, so we decided to head straight to Bangkok and avoid a lot of bus / train travel and potential border visa scams.
Not having planned any of this, we had very limited cash, on the order of $10 in Malay currency, and had made no reservations of any sort. It's amazing how things can work out. We met a British couple, Emilie and Tom, on the boat. They knew where the cheap local bus station was and led us to it. It was $1 to go to Jerteh where we could either go to an ATM and get Malay cash or take another bus to the major city/airport, Kota Bharu. When we got Jerteh we found we had enough cash, $4, for the bus fare to Kota Bharu. It was leaving immediately.
At Kota Bharu I got some cash from the ATM, but knew if we had to use bigger bills to pay the driver, he wouldn't have change and would want to keep the extra,so we negotiated with a taxi driver to get us to the airport on the $3.50 we had left.
We arrived at the Air Asia office at noon and were able to book a flight leaving at 3:00 pm for Bangkok via Kuala Lumpur. We were in Bangkok by 8 pm. Tom and Emilie (thanks!) had told us about a cheap and clean guest house in the backpacker section of Khao San Road. We found it and settled in quite easily. From an island of a few hundred people to a city of eight million in a day! Quite a change!
A lot of the details of this trip have been developed on the fly. From talking to people on the Perhentians and before, it appeared that the weather and diving on the Perhentians was better than any in southern Thailand during this weather season. The west coast of Thailand would be in the rainy season. We had already missed the Full Moon Party at Koh Phanghan, so we decided to head straight to Bangkok and avoid a lot of bus / train travel and potential border visa scams.
Not having planned any of this, we had very limited cash, on the order of $10 in Malay currency, and had made no reservations of any sort. It's amazing how things can work out. We met a British couple, Emilie and Tom, on the boat. They knew where the cheap local bus station was and led us to it. It was $1 to go to Jerteh where we could either go to an ATM and get Malay cash or take another bus to the major city/airport, Kota Bharu. When we got Jerteh we found we had enough cash, $4, for the bus fare to Kota Bharu. It was leaving immediately.
At Kota Bharu I got some cash from the ATM, but knew if we had to use bigger bills to pay the driver, he wouldn't have change and would want to keep the extra,so we negotiated with a taxi driver to get us to the airport on the $3.50 we had left.
We arrived at the Air Asia office at noon and were able to book a flight leaving at 3:00 pm for Bangkok via Kuala Lumpur. We were in Bangkok by 8 pm. Tom and Emilie (thanks!) had told us about a cheap and clean guest house in the backpacker section of Khao San Road. We found it and settled in quite easily. From an island of a few hundred people to a city of eight million in a day! Quite a change!
posted by Chris at 10:00 PM
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