Trang

So we moved up from Hat Yai onto the West coast of Thailand. It was the usual nightmare getting a bus from Hat Yai, waiting all day at a smelly, busy station, then a couple of hours on the bus only to arrive in Trang in the dark. Seems to be a formality for us now! However when we arrived in Trang, it was not in the town centre but just on the outskirts and getting into the centre for accommodation proved to be another nightmare to sum up our very long day. It was dark; no taxis or tuk tuks in sight and no idea how far we were but clearly too far to walk. There was a motorbike taxi stand and the guy tried to tell us he could take us - even with our big bags!! Apparently they could have balanced on the back with us! As desperate as we were we were not that desperate. We walked to a large shopping mall with bright lights that we could see and asked a security guard who got very animated and told us to follow him. On the way to the road he stopped a random guy with a couple of girls and spoke to them. It turned out they were extremely kind people and offered us a lift in their pick up, they dropped us right at the guesthouse and were extremely friendly, phew!
The guesthouse was great but the weather had still not improved from Hat Yai so we waited until the morning. Our idea had been to visit the Trang islands but absolutely no point with clouds and thunderstorms. It was the same in the morning so we moved out and continued our journey (to hopefully find some good weather) on to Krabi. We managed to get another free lift from a soldier to the bus station when he found us by the side of the road looking lost with no taxis or tuk tuks in sight yet again!
Our conclusion was that Trang was not a great place for public trtansport but had some very kind and generous locals.