To Bangkok!

As we have on most days we learnt (or should that be re-learned) a lesson as we left Khao Lak – trust no-one in a tourist town in Asia. In this case, especially don’t trust the old, sweet Thai guy that runs the travel agency outside the bust stop. Despite checking at 5 or 6 travel agents, we found that the best deal for bus tickets was with Mr Happy Travels himself, conveniently located outside the bust stop that overnight buses use on their way to Bangkok. There were options at all of the agents and given the great value, we opted for VVIP bus seats – the first class experience of bus travel and one I felt that Julia deserved after several overnight trips on the Princes Highway last year to see me. Does a VVIP bus exist – yes, 28 seat in a double decker bus! Lots of space. Does it travel the route through Khao Lak – apparently not (at least not on the day we left!).

So the bus we had was great, VIP, ¾ reclining seats, a/c, food, drinks, toilet, TV (2012 dubbed into Thai – not as good as watching it with Jessie in Geelong’s Gold Class cinema but still entertaining) – the VIP bus had it all. But we payed a little bit more so the frustration was the lie – a man looked me in the eye and on 3 occassions the same person assured me the VVIP was significantly better than VIP. The bus was rolling when we realized the con so the next two hours my sight was clouded red with visaions of me flying back to Phuket and hirting a car, driving to Khao Lak and throwing Mr Happy through his shop window – but hey, I’m in Thailand, so let’s just smile and wave boys, smile and wave!

And now Bangkok – WOW.