So apparently to have a blog means you should actually blog. Duh! This picks up at the Hat Yai airport after a disappointing outcome to a desirable job interview, but I have a feeling it's all for the best. I got a nice couple of days walking along a lovely beach with absolutely no other white tourist and no one trying to sell me anything. Quite nice, but possibly too quiet:)
So all of my belongings are in Bangkok because it seemed a major hassle to tote it all around the country while I interview. Now I need to get to the Hat Yai airport from Songkhla City which is not a main stream tourist site (which I've already mentioned) So the night before i ask the front desk at the Singora Hotel. First hotel to give me a hand towel and wash cloth since I got here! I don't know what it is, maybe the fact that there are no dryers, but Asians are quite stingy with the linens. Anyway, back to my dilemma. I ask the front desk and they say they can call a taxi to pick me up from Hat Yai, but I basically have to pay for both directions. There are mini busses that run there all day, I know because that's how I got to Songkhla in the first place. Great, how do I get to the minibus? A motorbike. But I have a suitcase. .. can I walk? After a lot of discussion btw the 3 workers, it is decided that one of them will take me there!! Super nice... Thais can be very kind.
So I check out at noon, hotel guy drives me to the bus, refuses a tip. I'm on the bus with my suitcase in my lap and backpack under my feet so that we can get add many people as possible into the bus. My next instruction is to get off at the big clock and I can get a car to the airport from there. I'm desperately trying to find the big clock on Google maps so I know when to get off, but don't geta good reading until I'm already past it. I asked right there at the stop but everybody shrugged and I couldn't see out. So at the next stop, I thought it best to get off. Immediately got a taxi and agreed to pay him a flat rate rather than meter (cause that's what they do). He proceeds to take a detour to drop off someone's lunch..ok...but then to route starts looking really freaky and I get a little paranoid.. but the route straightens out and I'm OK. I tend to use Google maps when in a vehicle so I can see where I am.
Meanwhile I've called and excepted the position in Nakhon Sri Thammarat. During all this process in the taxi, the driver has asked where I'm from and where am i going. I tell him Bangkok and then nakhon Sri Thammarat. He proceeds to break out a fee chart, explain where Bangkok is and Nakhon is and tries to sell me a ride to Nakhon. Then he calls his friend to tell him what I'm doing, again tried to sell me the trip, then pulls up to the airport and jumps out to share this information with the other taxi people who try to talk me into a ride to Nakhon. I'm finally at the gate and just ate a hot dog at the Dairy Queen.
Geesh.. The drama if it all...
The moral of the story. ... They really don't speak English;)
