Monday, May 5, 2008

First Day in Thailand

5-5-2008 is my first day in Thailand. We have 21 people to follow this trip which include two lecturers and five Thai students. This trip gave me a very good experience because our whole team travelled Thailand taking the bus.
Sounds so funny right? but this is not a funny thing for me. As the time taken I started my journey from my hometown Ipoh until Thailand border is around five hours.
From the Thailand border until the Phuket Island is ten hours (The first destination we travelled is Phuket Island.. wooh). Therefore, we spent the majority of time to sit inside the bus but not travelling. Even tough, the distance from the Thailand border until Phuket Island is only 65km but there are no shortcut or highway available for this distance. As a result, we have to take long time to archive our destination.
When we arrived the Thailand, our first tour guide was very friendly and her name is Ann. She taught us some simple Thai language like Sawatika for women and Sawatikup for the man. Sawatika means that good morning or say "Hi" to someone. Afterthat, she taught us how do ask price and how do ask for reduce the price. The sound to speak for Thai language is similar to speak for 'Hainam' language. The tones is very soft.
After we arrive the Hat Yai, another tour guide to lead us. We called her Kak D. Kak D is a very energenetic, proactive and funny person. She is a Islamic and she told us she was a nurse and 'Penghulu'. She was a first women to be the Penghulu in the Thailand. Wooh..! Actually, I very like her because she concerned all our needs. She told us that Thailand is a smiley Island. This is a truth because the people there are always smiling to us. In Hat Yai, we visited a place called North Plaza. I think that is not a plaza for me but more like a supermarket. All of us took a bird nest at there cost 150batt (15 ringgit Malaysia). I think it is quite sustainable for everyone. Around half an hour, we continue our journey to Phuket. We sang in the bus and the Thai students gave their perfomance for us. The most funny things is Dr. Firdause sang a jawa songs in front of us. His sound was very good. Haha.. All of us are very enjoy in it.
We take around 5 hours to arrive Krabi to take our 'lunch'. In fact, that is dinner + lunch for me because we arrived there on 5.30pm. Tired and hungry all expressed in our face especially Dr. Firdausi. He told us that he only concerned the food on that time, he did not bother anything although has a sexy girl weared Bigini suite in front of him. Haha.. so funny!! Why did we take lunch in Krabi? Hehe.. because Dr. Firdausi insists to do that. Hehe... padan muka to let him starve a long time.
Around 9pm (Thai Time) we arrived in Phuket. The hotel we stayed in Phuket is Karon Beach Hotel, cost RM80 per night. The room is very clean and service is quite satisfied. One thing is not good, the beautiful beach is far from the hotel. However, all of us were quite enjoy to stay there. After we took the shower, we started to explore Phuket night life. We took "DutDut" to Patong Beach cost around RM6-RM7. In Thailand, "DutDut" is a taxi. It is a truck because it can fetch around 10 people for one time. They use "DutDut" to fetch people as the petrol price in the Thailand is very expensive. 1 liter cost RM3.4 which is double price compare to Malaysia. Hence, "DutDut" can help them save a lot.