The Long Road to Langkawi

Our smashed minibus window!
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We had a very eventful, interesting journey to get here - in one piece I may add!

We left our hotel in Ao Nang by minibus for the 30 minute journey to Krabi Town.  After a 5 minute confusion about what bus we were to take to Langkawi, we actually stayed on the same bus and set off on the 9 hour journey south bound for Malaysia.  Our bus driver was a crazy driver and we proceeded to speed at some mad speeds around the winding motorway 4.

About 90 minutes into the journey as we were all starting to nod off with our heads swaying side to side with the motion of his crazy driving I looked up from the back seat and saw that he was 'tail gating' the bus in front - there must have been around 1 foot between the two vehicles.  To ease my stress I started to look out of the side window until I heard a strange noise from the front of the bus.  There must have been a stone flew up or something but what ever it was had completely smashed the windscreen!  What made the situation all the more incredible was that the driver just kept on driving!!!  He couldn't see a thing!!

Boarding our boat in Satun
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After around 5 mins he must have senced our stress levels and my ever increasing voice telling Lee 'I can't believe he's not stopping' amongst other expletives! and stopped by the side of the road.  He reached into the boot and took out a wheel wrench and proceeded to tap the glass out of the window into the road.  Obviously he was not used to doing this and also got glass all over the interior of the bus.  After the windscreen was completely out he then proceeded to drive another 45mins or so to a Thai 'service station' which is basically a roadside cafe and toilet.  Here we met with another minibus and swopped buses and drivers - thank goodness.

See, I do carry my own pack!
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After another 2 hours or so we reached the Thai border town of Hat Yai where we were ushered out of the minibus into a tuktuk.  With no idea where we were going we sped off in the direction of another minibus station (we hoped).  Here we were told to wait for another bus to take us the 90min journey to Satun where we were to get our boat to Langkawi from

Once we had arrived into the centre of Satun (the boat jetty is around 15km outside the town) the driver told us to get our the van and take a seat in another tuktuk.  At this point Lee had had enough and told him in no uncertain terms that we were not moving (we were the last ones in the van at this point) and he was to take us the rest of the way.  I think the driver was so gobsmacked that we had refused to move that he took us the rest of the way.

Once at the jetty we just had enough time to get some lunch before the 4pm boat to Langkawi.  The boat ride was very smooth and the boat with very confortable with lots of leg room and a TV right in front of us showing the Malaysian Budget!

After our arrivial into Langkawi at 5pm (now 6pm as you need to move your watch forward one hour) we had the task of finding some accomodation.  Little did we realise that 31st August is Malay National Day and the place was packed as lots of people had come to Langkawi for the weekend.  We took a cab to Celang Beach and walked what seemed like miles with our 20kg packs on looking at rooms which were either too epensive or too delapidated.  Finally at 9pm(!) we found what looked like a reasonable room for a fairly reasonable price (more than we wanted to pay but we were getting desparate - thought we would have to sleep on the beach).  Big lesson - don't travel on National Days!