Day 3 - Off the Beaten Track in Ranong

Our body clocks are now pretty much operating on Thai time. We actually slept in to after 5am.

Old wounds were reopened, when we went to the cafe next door for breakfast. I had identified The Naiyang Cafe as my preferred place to eat the previous night, but Jackie had rejected it purely on the basis it was ‘just a cafe’. Jackie ordered a frappe & toastie, whilst I had a mango smoothie & French toast. The food was superb and beautifully presented, which made it all the more annoying that Jackie had dismissed it because the menu for evening meals looked delicious & reasonably priced. We pledged to return on the way home.

We packed up & paid up at midday, then waited in reception for our taxi. The very helpful receptionist even made us a coffee while we waited. At 12.40pm the taxi arrived & drove up down to Phuket Bus Terminal 2. We had visioned the bus terminal to be a hot, crowded, chaotic affair, but it was quite the opposite cool, empty & organised. There was was even a machine that admonished me for not wearing my mask properly!

It was a pretty much full bus, when at 2.32pm, we pulled out of Phuket Bus Terminal. We were two of just five westerners aboard the bus. Around two hours later, the other three westerners got off at Khao Lak, which is a tourist resort. The bus continued up Highway 4, officially stopping at Takua Pa Bus Station, but it did stop on multiple occasions to pick up or drop off locals. After Takua Pa, the bus had thinned out sufficiently that we were able to have 2 seats each right for the remainder of the journey. About 40 miles south of Ranong we encountered a military road block, where a soldier boarded the bus and inspected all the Thai passengers Covid phone apps & our passports. I actually also showed him the QR code on my Thai Covid phone app, but he didn’t seem overly impressed.

We arrived at Ranong Bus Station at 8.45pm, a journey of 184 miles, which cost us just £6 each. Our taxi from the hotel to Phuket Bus Terminal had cost more!

At Ranong, we were accosted by a lady Tuk-Tuk driver, well actually it was a motorcycle & sidecar, who seemed to be the only driver on duty. When we finally identified to her where we wanted to go, we accepted her fare of 50 baht each (just over £1) & climbed aboard.

Five minutes later, she delivered us to Sino Mansion, a colonial style hotel costing just £19 a night. The receptionist didn’t speak English, but Jackie managed to converse with him to the extent that she had discussed our eating options for that night (not many) and our transport in the morning.

We then dumped our bags in the room and went to the street food market over the road where we ordered a chicken Pad Thai each on the grounds that that was the only dish we were confident the ladies would understand. I grabbed a couple of beers from a 7-11 to accompany it. It was very nice, although I didn’t like to think too hard about my chicken I was eating. After paying just 50 baht each for our meal we called it a night.

We didn’t see any other westerners in town & I would hazard a guess that we ARE the only westerners in town.

Song of the Day: Strange Town by The Jam.

I didn’t anticipate that my 1st four songs would be 2 by The Jam & 2 by Angelic Upstarts.Read more