belated recollection of my first day in (or going to) Krabi, Thailand

stop and stare 006

{02.24 p.m. of 26th of November, 2016}

As the title indicated, I was supposed to post this weeks ago but just got caught up with everything else. Nevertheless, it's better late than never as I would recollect the first day in Krabi, Thailand, or rather to be more precise, butt-numbing hours spent in the charter bus going through the highway from my hometown in Sungai Besar, Selangor, all the way across the border between the two countries until finally reaching the destination a quarter past 10 in the evening after all the numerous stops in R&R and seemingly nonstop travel on the road. Since we departed at half past 7 in the morning, that's almost 14 hours alone in the vehicle and just over an hour accumulated over all those stops. If you recall, I joined my mother in this trip as her plus one since my father is not fond of travelling just for the sake of it and here's the first thing I learned on this trip: as much as it is cheaper to travel by car instead of plane, every price is justified. The high cost of the plane ticket and the journey between the destination (not to mention the unavoidable long ordeal at the airport) would seemed inferior compared to the cheaper price of the group package but please keep in mind that most of the time would be spent sitting in the seat and the wear on the body could not be more emphasized by me. After my own first first-hand experience of such a journey, I could attest to that. Anyway, back to the pictures: the first one above is a beautiful scenery that caught my eye during one of those stops at the R&R just before the border. Noticed it after finishing up an ice cream that I shared with my mother and inadvertently be the reason for the late depart of the car but the picture was worth it.

{10.30 p.m. of 26th of November, 2016}

Suffice to say, there's nothing much to see when you're trapped in a moving steel structure at over 100 km/h but things get slightly interesting when I reached the border. First, we had to change our transportation to a locally registered van which would make the commute around Krabi easier but the first time dealing with the Thailand immigration was a different beast altogether. Everything was basically the same but the one thing that was new to me was the bribe that we were told to include by the tour guide during the checkout by the officer. The amount of money was small but the intention behind it was humongous to the eyes of the tourists of the condition of the workforce. Although the remainder of the trip was fortunately free of criminal activities as I didn't actually see anything shady at all there except for a couple of beggars here and there, the worry caused by that corruption was always at the back of my head throughout. Anyway, we arrived at our place of stay in the middle of a seaside tourist-oriented business center (I can't figure out what it's really called ... writing at almost 5 a.m. ... got it, commercial area! Hah!) and I had just enough energy to go down and check the area a bit as a preview.

{10.31 p.m. of 26th of November, 2016}

The second picture and the next two was taken just in front of a bar in an alley(?) or rather lane at left side away the main road. I tried to find things to look and I see this particular light fixtures particularly unique and simple in its execution.

{10.32 p.m. of 26th of November, 2016}

I always see how a bar was supposed to be on the television and movies and sure there are some here in Malaysia but I've never been close to these particular areas which was why I was surprised yet delighted to see an open bar with foreign tourists (sure I was also one at that time but they appeared to not be from my country) enjoying themselves a pint or two with an acoustic artist playing a soothing tune on the guitar providing a good fitting atmosphere. I could see how that would be attractive to some. I applauded the tourists for behaving themselves throughout the beach since I never seen any drunkard any time I was wandering down there. It is both common courtesy as well as common sense I believe since you should behave how you want others to behave around you in a foreign land while you should have all your senses working as usual in a foreign land to avoid any incident.

{10.33 p.m. of 26th of November, 2016}

I got a sneak peek of how clear and blue the sea was and if you follow me on instagram (*cough* alllifeinfate *cough*), you've seen how much I loved to be in the water. They even put a spotlight directed to the sea (seen above) and I caught this couple looking over it to maybe their oncoming destination across the waters or maybe just reminiscing over a well spent vacation. Everyone have their own stories that brought them there and it's just fun to speculate sometimes.

{10.44 p.m. of 26th of November, 2016}

This was the road that was still had a few traffic going through it but I was to be understood the whole businesses has strict 11 p.m. curfew (and maybe the whole country ...?) so they were probably hitting the highest curve of tourists before inevitably winding down.