Day 29 - Blind Faith Prevails

Superb sleep & we both struggled to get out of bed at 9am. I dutifully went down to reception & got the latte coffee with an added shot on espresso. I then rode the motorbike back to Temptation & got my full deposit back from the nice lady, despite not actually ever putting any fuel in.

At 11am, we checked out of the hotel & two of the receptionists drove us to the Bus Sub Station free of charge. The English speaking receptionist spoke to the bus staff & then told us that she had arranged everything to get us to our next port of call, Nakhon Si Thammarat. I was exceptionally grateful & offered her a 20 Baht tip for her assistance, but she refused.

We were then in the hands of non English speaking staff who gesticulated us to sit on a bench. 20 minutes later, a bus driver with limited English told us he would be taking us in the next 10 minutes. His minibus was a disaster that stank of stale cigarette smoke & he tried to chat with us throughout his leg of journey without hardly paying any attention to the road ahead. He asked us lots of questions, which was fine until I told him I was a retired police officer. He then retorted that all police were corrupt, but qualified it by adding in Thailand.

Our minibus driver drove us & the other passengers to Songkhla hospital where waited in his minibus until a small coach arrived 10 minutes later. We were escorted to the small coach & our minibus driver boarded & informed us it would take 3 hours to get to Nakhon Si Thammarat.

We took up seats at the rear of the new coach & watched the world pass by as we headed north up the eastern coast of Thailands southern peninsula. We arrived in Nakhon Si Thammarat & when the coach stopped outside Phra Mahathat Woramaha Wiharn we got off.

The Phra Mahathat Woramaha Wiharn temple with its huge chedi (pagoda) is one of the most important Buddhist temples in Thailand, and one of the very oldest. This was the main reason for us visiting Nakhon Si Thammarat.

Several taxi minibuses pulled up to give us a lift, but we were met with confused or blank faces when I showed them my phone with either the hotel address in Thai or just the location on a map. Things got tense between Jackie & I when she kept telling me to ask waiters & shop owners for directions when I knew the directions but was trying to get someone to give us a lift.

After failing miserably to get a lift we walked the 1.2 miles laden down with our luggage in the blistering heat to our not so central, Bunprasop Garden Hotel. Half an hour later we arrived, absolutely dripping & slightly testy.

It took several receptionists before we could find one that spoke a modicum of English. She gave me a map of the places to visit, but suggested we caught a taxi & pointed on the map.

We went up to our room & spent an hour trying to cool down & dealing with some of my vetting/admin issues on the iPad. Having changing into less damp clothes we went down to reception to get a taxi, only to be told that the main temple, Phra Mahathat Woramaha Wiharn, would now be closed for the day. FFS, I was furious.

Abandoning the idea of going back to Phra Mahathat Woramaha Wiharn, we walked along our busy main road in search of somewhere to have a drink & later something to eat.

This might sound weird, but we found a restaurant on the corner of a very busy crossroads & sat down for a couple of Changs & enjoy the street life around us. We were definitely the only westerners in this town & the beer numbed the pain of not getting to see any of the sights today.

Finally chilled out & happy, we found a local restaurant with an English menu & both had fried pork & sticky rice, with a beer we had to purchase from the shop next door. It was bloody delicious & each dish cost 50 baht, just over a £1. That was two local restaurant dinner successes in a row.

We returned drained back to our hotel for Netflix & chill, but fell asleep instead.

Song of the Day: Blind Faith by Chase & Status.
Can’t Find My Way Home by Blind Faith.
Street Life by Randy Crawford.Read more