18 August 2014

Land of Ong Bak Day 2 - From Bangkok to Hua Hin by Minivan

Assalamualaikum. สวัสดี!

Ok sambung cerita 2nd day di bumi Ong Bak. The day before (story here); landed Don Mueang Airport pun sudah malam so memang ndak buat apa lepas sampai hotel except isi perut yang sudah menyanyi hiphop+dangdut.

Tilam super empuk, aku tidur lena sampai terlajak sahur. Bangun pun sudah jam 5am. Ntah apa kejadian boleh ndak terbangun. Alarm aku ndak berbunyi or aku yang tidur mati.

Sebab stayed dalam dorm with 3 other ladies, pagi tu aku Subuh dalam keadaan extra careful. The only space was near the couch, dekat katil 2 minah salleh. Kot lah diorang terbangun kalau aku sokseksoksek, ndak terkejut badak diorang nampak lembaga putih berdiri depan katil? Silap2 pengsan kering. Anyway lepas Subuh, aku belayar ke dreamland balik.

And woke up again around 9am. Mandi manda, bersiap itu ini. Check-out. Perjalanan hari tu adalah sejauh alam. Yang memang confirm akan cramped-kan bontot. Pasrah & tabah jaklah. Siapa suruh plan itinerary gitu. Kunun alang2 sampai Bangkok, baguslah explore area outskirt sekali. Walhal trip cumalah 4 hari. Selagi mampu kan.

30 June 2014
Silom
Decho Road, Silom where our hostel is situated. 
The first BTS station I set foot upon. 
Chong Nonsi (Silom Line) ---> Siam Station (Sukhumvit Line) ---> Victory Monument (Exit 3)
Victory Monument. Alhamdulillah masa sampai ni, keadaan macam biasa. Semua orang busy sama urusan masing2. Ndak da kelibat orang berdemonstrasi bagai. Bangkok Shutdown sudah berlalu. 
The minivans a.k.a minibuses stop is just under the Victoria Monument BTS Station. Coming from Exit 3, it would be on ur right side. Pandang ke bawah, akan nampaklah mereka2 ini. 
Macam biasa, before sampai tempat ambil minivan ni...kami sesat kejap. We wandered atas jambatan Victoria Station not knowing which stairs to take. I remembered vividly the direction Lily wrote in her blog. Tapi part tangga kecil tu aku confuse. I seriously thought she took an escalator to descended from the station. Turned out, it was actually a narrow stairs located inside a building.

Part paling best bila aku decide untuk tanya this one guard. He was standing in front of the very entrance that will lead us to the narrow stairs. Ms G asked him where to take the bus. He pointed us to the bus stops opposite the road. But my gut told me the guard might had understood it wrongly. So I played the trick, sengaukan sikit cara menyebut Hua Hin. Mimicking the locals. Terus faham kau! Ndak sia2 usaha menyengaukan suara. Masa turun tangga tu masih in doubt.

"Eh, this doesn't look like the stairs Lily posted in her blog."

Hentamlah labu as long as we saw few minivans upon exiting the building; kira betul lah tu. Bila nampak minivans ada sticker Cha Am / Hua Hin...terus confident. Yes! We made it to the minivan stop! 
The van that took us to Hua Hin. Comfy habis! We paid THB 180 for a one-way trip to Hua Hin. The van leaves every 15 minutes or depending how fast it fills in. 
Bila nampak van tu berparking, sila jangan buat blur. Like we did. Siap snap few pictures. Siap posing depan van. Ingatkan kosong, tunggu passenger naik. Sebab banyak barang di luar. Rupanya driver cuma tunggu kami naik to start the journey. Because there were only 2 seats left. Cisss! Kejadian memalukan di pagi hari. Siapa suruh tinted van sehitam itu. Kalau di Malaysia sudah kena saman tau. Tau?! 
Sepanjang jalan, layan view kiri kanan. Layan TV juga. Konsert apa ntah yang driver tu pasang. Kami dengar jaklah. Cuci telinga.
The journey from Bangkok took more than 3 hours. Aku mula macam cacing kepanasan sebab lambat betul mau sampai. Ingatkan lah salah naik van. Driver tu stop 3 kali. Ada sesi regangkan urat pinggang. Isi minyak. Pastu ada sekali dia ikut jalan kampung sebab lari dari polis trafik. 

And ada take 5 untuk berasap juga. Kagum aku. Sebab? Dorang ndak merokok sambil drive. Van adalah berhawa dingin. Kalau di KK ni, no comment jak lah. Hmm lagi statement lupa diri dari si Err. Trimas.

30 June 2014
Hua Hin
Pekan Hua Hin. We alighted from the minivan in front of that cream building.
Sampai Hua Hin pun aku blur lagi. Punyalah alert sepanjang jalan, siap aku refused dari tidur. Tunggulah mana Hua Hin stop ni yang macam dalam entry si Lily. Obvious enough huh! Aku memang ikut bulat2 her direction. Actually aku ndak tau pun kami sudah sampai Hua Hin. 

So when the driver stopped for the 4th time, when we're the only passengers from Bangkok left in the van...I asked the lady who just got in the van. I showed her the hotel's name & its address. Sumpah! Muka that lady sangat sombong & garang, but once I tapped her shoulder...senyuman dia paling peramah dalam dunia. She was unsure of the exact location of the hotel so she asked her friends. Yang muka sama sombong macam dia juga. Pastu; kecoh kejap. Then, semua guna jari telunjuk arah ke bawah as if they were saying "This is Hua Hin". No English. In Thai it was. Next thing I know, diorang suruh kami turun dari van. Tunjuk arah ke belakang. I understood that as "Kamu sudah terlajak ke depan, hotel tu di belakang sana". 

They told the driver to take us to this one lady that could speak English. Not much but enough to make us understand. Rupanya memang betul kami sudah terlajak. And this is the moment I fell in love with the helpful, warmhearted & friendly Thai people. Sangat terharu.

I figured it out later that we actually had taken a bus that its final destination is not Hua Hin hence I missed the stop that Lily mentioned. From where we got off, we crossed the busy traffic road & took a taxi in front of Hua Hin Market Village to our hotel which is hanyalah sekangkang kera. Rezeki taxi driver tu melayang THB 100 kami. Sobs.

Tips: If u're going to Hua Hin, hop on a minivan with the sticker Victory Monument - Cha Am - Hua Hin. The final stop will be at Hua Hin. It's in front of a temple & there's a Tourism Centre next to the stop. Unless u're familiar with Hua Hin i.e know where to stop to get to ur hotel; I suggest u to NOT take the minivan like the one we hopped on. 

Sudah sampai depan pintu hotel; both Ms G & I macam ternganga sikit. Where is the reception area?Rupanya kena berjalan ke seberang jalan. Urusan check in at the main hotel building. The hotel that we booked apparently is under Citin Loft management hence the procedure. 

Settle semua, we went to our room. Refreshed. Then keluar balik. It's time to try our luck in haggling a tuk tuk. Before tu sempat lagi update twitter & asked Lily about the tuk tuk rate to the place we wanted to go. Alhamdulillah, memang rezeki kami petang tu. After percubaan mau naik tuk tuk murah gagal, we got a better deal. Waaaaaaaaaaay better I must say! Berkat percaya sama kata hati sendiri. Tetttt. Memang berbaloi berganda2.
Our next destination. Haven't been given the opportunity to visit the real Santorini yet. Harap terubatlah sikit sakit berangan2 tu. Dapat pijak ala-Santorini pun jadilah.
Special thanks to Miss Lily Riani for her tips & guides. Thanks for being so sabar in answering my questions. Although most of the times they may sounded a bit bingai! 

My journey to Hua Hin could have been a mess without her guide. Gigih aku baca entries about her journeys to Bangkok, Hua Hin & Cha Am. Berjaya sedut semua info berharga. Thanks again pretty lass! I owe u loads! 

eryantierdabdulkarim

16 comments:

DJ said...

Aku plk rasa pening baca nk crik minivan...klo aku mau sesat barat dh ni...naik teksi xleh ke?hahaha

Jari Manis said...

ahahaha...mcm mana bunyi nya bila Bie menyengaukan kan suara sebut Hua Hin tu..amboii pandai tau :-)
mesti org kat dlam tu cakap..apa kobondo lah 2 org budak ni...dgn van pun nak bergambar eheheh
Hua Hin?..apa yg menarik di sana..ada pak we ensem kah..nampak nya JM perlu tunggu next entri :-)

Unknown said...

Ko pening baca direction aku bagi ke? Or ko pening baca tulisan kat minivan. Hihi naik taxi boleh xsilap aku rate dalam RM 200-300. Haritu dari Hua Hin, driver yang bawa kitorang gi Cha Am yang offer harga macam tu. So aku assume sama kot kalau dari Bangkok gak. Tapi senang giler nak cari minivan stop tu. Serius. Aku biasalah, pepagi memang sokmo blur.

Unknown said...

Ala2 macam orang Jepang kalau sambut kita every masuk kedai diorang. Sengau macam tu lah. Janji faham & selamat sampai. Hihi.

Masa driver buka van tu memang semua duk pakat tengok kitorang. Bengang kot. Lantakler bukan jumpa lagi dah.

Hua Hin best. Walau lepak 2 hari je tapi suka ngan suasana dia. Pekan ni tepi pantai je. Pastu banyak bangunan lama. Kena tunggu next entry tapi xbanyak pun bergambar kat pekan Hua Hin tu.

mrs said...

mrs tertanya tanya camera apa bie pakai sebab gambar sangat clear dan cantik!

Nanatron said...

kenalah tengok Nangnak kalau nak imagine si Bie ni sebut Hua Hin..~ *melompat naik van

Unknown said...

Bb guna Samsung Galaxy EK tu je. Hihi kamera tu ikut mood, sometimes mendung juga gambar. Ke sebab Bb xreti operate hahaha. Tapi memang best ah, most gambar memang terang.

Unknown said...

Kakakakakakaka! Kan...sila lah tengok Nangnak. Tapi aku rasa Nangnak suara dia lagi merdu ah sebut Hua Hin tu. Aku budak baru belajar. Gitu.

radin fadli said...

Cramp punggung? hahaha. Nasib juga tak ada demostrasi, dengar macam teruk ajer keadaan di sana. Tapi ramai yang pergi kata tidak ada apa-apa pun. Kalaulah mat salleh itu bangun kena heart attack, bibie masuk lokap thailand la jawabnya hahaha

kakitravelkhairuddin.blogspot.com said...

nice sharing...salam syawal.

Ernie Khairina said...

ko ni selalu kasi jadi tu tempat nampak siok

Unknown said...

Memang cramped pun. Lama giler rasa dalam van tu. Aah alhamdulillah demo tu sume dah gerak wilayah lain masa kitorang sampai. Hahaha minah salleh tu sume tidur mati sebab diorang balik agak lewat malam tu. Kalau x memang xterjawab ah lol.

Unknown said...

Tq. Salam Syawal gak.

Unknown said...

Hihi tapi memang siok!!

Time Traveller said...

Suka nya dia berada di bumi ombak hahahah :D

Bibie Karim said...

Ombak Rindu sangat si Afif ni. Congrats dah jadi imam kepada isteri tercinta. Semoga kekal hingga ke syurga. Sorry xdapat nak attend. Thanks invite.