western union

Check out my vlog for this trip here
Have a look at the itinerary for this trip here

24 August 2022

as usual, i ride my motorbike to klia2 and park my bike at the parking area. as i enter the departure hall, the crowd is not as much as before covid. in the plane, there are plenty of empty seats.

3 hours journey from airport to ao nang
the flight took 1 hour. the immigration counters were not busy as well. there are 3 flights per week from KL to Krabi but it used to be 2 flights per day before covid. as i enter the arrival hall, taxi and bus drivers chasing towards me which made me think it looked like a bunch of scammers ( i was planning to take the 150 baht shuttle bus before the chasing event happened ) . so i left the quiet arrival hall and into the main road. i didnt know where to go, i just kept on walking but there is no bus stop in sight. then i arrived at a small restaurant luckily and there was one kindhearted thai lady which helped me grab another songthaew (blue colour, 40 baht) to Krabi Town and then take another songthaew (white colour, 60 baht) to Ao Nang. in wikitravel, it says i should be able to take the white songthaew to Ao Nang but it never came.

this whole scene took me 3 hours to reach Ao Nang. i headed straight to motorcycle rental shop to grab a yamaha gt 125cc for 200 baht/day. i was almost out of money after paying the deposit. the currency exchange here is very expensive. the rental shop lady said before covid, there were a lot of malaysian came to krabi. but now, only 1/10 of them came here after covid. business must have been pretty bad for them

chicken noodle at krabi town
i ate chicken boat noodle for my late lunch and opted for the spicy version which i found too spicy for me. the sweet waitress saw me struggling to finish the small bowl and asked “are you okay mai?” . they even use “mai” when speaking in english.

western union saved my life
i am out of money after paying the motorcycle rental deposit. the rates for currency exchange is not attractive at all in krabi and the atm has a 220 baht withdrawal fee for foreign card which is not worth it to withdraw small amount. my hsbc credit card conversion rate is not attractive either (MYR1 = 7.87 baht) because at midvalley i could get MYR1 = 7.94 baht. i decided to use western union by sending money from my local bank account and collect the money at western union’s agent in thailand. there is a myr8 servicw charge for each transaction. in krabi, post office is one of their local agent. i went there and fill up a form, show my passport, and wallaaa, you get money.

exchange currency in malaysia – 5000 baht = MYR650
exchange currency with western union = 5000 baht = MYR628 + MYR8

tips : transport from ao nang to airport
i couldnt find a 150 baht shared van and the white songthaew in front of mcdonalds at ao nang wanted 500 baht to go to the airport. however, i took the local bus (songthaew) from a bus stop at ao nang and went to krabi town which costs 50 baht. then i waited at the same bus stop at krabi town and look for a blue songthaew that goes to airport which costs 100 baht. the journey took 1.5 hours and i waited a few minutes for the songthaew to pick me up. allow some buffer time in case of traffic, bus delay, etc. other alternative is to make a booking for a shared van which costs 150 baht at some tour agent shops.