Goodbey Phuket... Hello Lang Suan (Again)

And so our time in Phuket came to an end – and so did our money. We decided to move out of our apartment and go back up to Lang Suan on the Friday and not on the Tuesday (when our contract at the apartment expired) so that we can get our deposit back and then have some money for cigarettes and the bus back up. (We had to be in Bangkok on the Wednesday since I had to give a demo-lesson at my new school on the Thursday.) Friday after school we rushed home and started packing all our stuff (and this time we also had a friend’s house wrapped in a red bag to take up with us – it is not always easy being nice…) to get it on a Tuk-Tuk and get on a bus heading for Lang Suan.

Finally finished packing I waited for our deposit and Steven went to bargain us a Tuk-Tuk. 

Here are some pictures of our luggage in the Tuk-Tuk (also notice the house in the red bag):

We arrived at the bus station and somehow managed to get all our stuff to the ticket office, bought our tickets (230 baht each) and then moved all our stuff to the other side of the station where we had to get the bus.

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT if it was not enough of a mission to get our stuff on that side, we decided to go for a walk and that our stuff would be safer on the other side where we originally came in… So again we hauled ALL our stuff to the other side – the amount of fun one can have by moving tons of luggage…

We went across the road to “Super cheap store” – yes that is really the name of the store, and yes it really is super cheap.  This is by far one of the coolest shops I have seen in Thailand – when you get in there are rows of clothes and shoes, then a section with cool drinks and food, then fruit and veggies and right next to it you can buy car seats  steering wheels and spanners, next to that sweets and chips, fres food, canned food, dried food, scooters, fans, beds – think Macro meets KitKat meets FruitandVeg meets Computer corporation meets Furniture City meets Electric express and add a bit of John Way scooter shop… NO I am not joking – this is a massive store that combines all of the above mentioned stores and sells EVERYTHING and almost less than half-price. And there we instantly blew all our money again…….

WE went back to the bus stop and then the long wait till 20:00 started. After waiting for a while Steven walked to get us something to eat on the bus. The bus arrived and we headed to the top right to the front and made ourselves comfortable with our legs stretched out and pillows behind our heads. But then the busboy came and told us that we are supposed to sit at the bottom right next to the door. This is by far the worst seats on the bus. Each time someone decides to get on or off you hear the screeching sound of the door opening and a bright torch gets shone in your eyes – alas we would not get in any sleep. Anyway we made ourselves again comfortable (as much as we can) in the newly instructed seats and waited for the in-bus entertainment to start. The previews started showing and we were overcome with excitement – IT WAS IN ENGLISH!!! Whooohooo. Our excitement was short-lived because the busboy got hold of the remote and Will smith could suddenly speak fluent Thai…

After 6 hours on the bus we got dropped off at a random place next to the highway and we had to figure out how to get to a hotel. So we moved our house across the street and since my flops broke (the sellotape only lasted so long to keep it intact) I stood and waited with our luggage while Steven went in search of a hotel (the bright flickering lights opposite us looked promising). He returned at it seemed that we could get a room for 1000 baht an hour and also have the company of a very friendly Thai lady… (this is not the backpacking that we had in mind). So we opted for the hotel next door (for 600 baht) –we were not really in the mood to chat with someone the whole night….

Pictures of the hotel:

This of course was the coooolest thing that I have ever seen! With this you could do anything - from adjusting the aircon to turning the lights on and off (although you couldn't flush the toilet with it).

The next day we visited our Thai friend and then got on the train to head for Hua Hin.