It was a very sad morning when we left Green Chilli Bungalows. I would have loved to stay till the end of our holiday, but travel arrangements and hotels are booked.
Pin the owner, had booked a mini bus to collect us from the site. We had to be at Reception at 7.15am. True to Thai timings the bus arrived at 7.45. It was already full so we had to take the back seat.
Now the problem with these mini buses is that they sell all the seats for the journeys but seem to forget that people have rucksacks. There is a minimal space in under the rear seat and as a consequence the rear seat is narrow!!!! So in I squeeze to find Pauls rucksack that had been put in the boot was jutting out into my leg space!!!! I think you can imagine the journey, nowhere to put my feet, only a narrow seat for my large backside and being bounced up and down with all the potholes in the road.
It takes just over half an hour to the ferry terminal so I was hoping to get out for a stretch. No hope, we loaded straight onto the ferry and then the driver left us all sitting in the bus for the twenty five minute crossing. The next two hours can be described as a nightmare.
The bus drivers also act as delivery men. We stopped by the side of the road to see him hand two fish to a lady who was waiting. We stopped in a town outside a motorbike showroom and the driver came out with a small parcel. Sometime later he pulled into the side of the road in the middle of nowhere where a young lady was waiting. She was very smartly dressed with high heal shoes on stood in the verge of the road. The parcel was handed to her and on we went again.
Once some people were dropped off at their resort I quickly moved forward in the bus. Luxury!!!! A chair wide enough for my backside and space for my legs. Sadly it was short lived because the next stop was ours.
The driver dumped our rucksacks at the side of the road and left. We looked around and could see a luminous sign for our hotel but no sign of the hotel. With packs on we wandered in the direction we thought we should to find the steepest driveway imaginable. It was a pretty slow crawl up there and then there were the steps up into the hotel.
Luckily the Thai people are very welcoming and we were invited to take a seat and ice cold towels were given to us to wipe our face and hands. This came with a cold glass of fruit juice.
The receptionist explained that the local electricity board were doing some work and there was no electricity in the town until 5pm that day. The hotel had some generators running for essentials, such as a light in each room but no lifts. Luckily we were only going to the second floor and the Bellboys took our rucksacks like they had nothing in them and nearly ran up the stairs with us plodding empty handed behind them.
The hotel is the Krabi Cha-Da Resort. What a pleasant surprise when the Bellboy opened the curtains. A patio with our own swimming pool (well to be shared with four other rooms)
A quick unpack and a wander down the street to see what was around. On our return we found a basket of fruit in our room. Then it clicked – we were in the honeymoon suite!!! Back in Bangkok when we were booking this part of the trip the young lady in the office said that she had heard they had an amazing honeymoon suite. Paul told her we were only married last year. It took a while for her to believe us but we explained we couldn’t afford a honeymoon as we were planning this trip. Now when we look at our booking paperwork, she had put a note of the bottoms explaining this to the hotel and asking for an upgrade if it was available. Thank you Veeyada and Alex of STA Travel, Bangkok, it is beautiful.AoNang