Getting around NST

We have yet to purchase a motorbike and to be honest I’m not looking forward to having to drive myself around this town; not only do they drive on the other side of the road but there are u-turns everywhere and hardly any traffic lights. Despite this fact, we are actively looking at getting a bike for convenience sake, hopefully we’ll have one by the end of the week! Until then there are actually a bunch of different ways to get around the town for dinner, groceries and work. 

The first mode of transportation we attempted are what they call Song Taos and are basically pick up trucks with a roof over the bed and two benches running down either side. These drive up and down the main street in town from the farthest point north to the lowest point south, about a 30 minute ride. Anytime we are walking along the road and one approaches us they will honk, if we want to get on we just wave it down, hop in the back and can press a button on the roof of the truck to ask it to stop. There are no set stops anywhere, you can get on or off wherever you want! Song Taos cost 10 baht a person so getting to and from groceries/dinner is 40 baht (~$1.45). The only problem with using these is that we have to walk about 5 minutes from our house out to the main street to jump on one and they don’t seem to run on the “new main road” which is where Nick's campus is.

Not our picture... But this is the idea of a Song Tao

Thursday night we decided to try our luck at finding a mall we went to on our first day called "Robinson Ocean." I assumed it was on the old main road and for some reason Nick just trusted me and off we went to get a Song Tao. The driver asked us where we were going and Nick tried his best to explain the mall, eventually the driver nodded his head and motioned at us to get in. We also learned that you’re supposed to pay him when you get off, not when you get on since we got laughed at by him and the other passengers. We quickly realized that he must have just said “yes” since he didn’t want to admit he either didn’t know or didn’t understand because at least 10 min later here we were still in the truck and no mall in sight. We at least knew that it wasn’t this far! So I decided we should just stay on until the very end of the route and then pay again to come all the way back. JJ had suggested this on the first day we were there as a pretty good way of not only seeing a lot of the city, but understand just how big NST is. Again, we were laughed at when we reached the end of the route and the driver looked at us with his arms going like “what the heck are you guys doing?” but we just payed him and motioned back into town. This time on the way back we had our phones out trying to navigate google maps and this is when Nick realized that he shouldn’t have blindly trusted me since Robinson Ocean is on the other main street. We got off at an intersection that was parallel to the mall on the other main road and walked across to eventually find the mall. Which for future reference is about 5 blocks away from where google said it was...

The Song Tao can also be used like a taxi on occasion. Here’s an example from today: Nick and I were out getting some groceries (pretty much just fruit) and then had lunch at a really nice new place called A&A Cafe which had English menus! We actually ran into a few other teachers there and one of them showed us her bike which she is selling since she just finished 3 years teaching here and is heading home. Anyway, after lunch we grabbed all of our bags and jugs of water and walked back to the main road (one block) and jumped on a Song Tao. The driver asked us where we were going (sometimes if you are the only one in the truck they either don’t want to make the trip or will offer a direct drive) and since he couldn’t understand what we were trying to say he motioned for Nick to sit in the front seat. I guess this way he could motion to the driver when to stop. About 3/4 of the way home it starts raining. In Thailand when it rains, it pours. It never lasts for long but man does it come down hard. So we pull up to the municipal park (landmark right across from our neighbourhood) and at least there is canopy set up for a food stall so I hop out and run underneath with all our bags, already soaked meanwhile Nick is still sitting in the truck. Finally he rolls down the window a crack and said that the driver offered to drive us right to our door for another 20 baht. Thank goodness! So I jumped back on the truck and with Nicks direction he brought us right to our street. 

Like most things in Thailand, there isn’t much consistency, if the driver feels like picking you he will, if he doesn’t want to, he’ll drive by and wave his hand at you. If he wants to make some extra cash, he’ll offer to drive you directly to your house/grocery store for a little bit more. 

Next there are bike taxis. These are exactly how they sound. A guy who owns his own motorbike can drive you anywhere you want, door to door, like a taxi. With these you have to negotiate a price ahead of time. We are still getting used to negotiating so we have probably been overpaying but at least we’re getting around on our own! At big stores or attractions there will be stands outside where they all wait and try to wave you down. If you are ever just walking along the road they can be spotted by their bright vests, usually orange or red, to flag down. We’ve only used these twice so far since most of the time we have 5-6 bags of stuff and would rather be in a car or a truck but the second time we took one with a whole lot of stuff. I already told that story about the cat food and case of water plus 3 people on a bike! 

Finally there is a taxi system in NST which is only about a year old. The good thing about this is that the cars are very new and they still mostly use the meter. Every once and a while I’ve heard of them adding random prices once you get arrive for a “calling in fee” or something else silly. We’ve only used it once to get home from Big C on our first full day here and had no issues talking on the phone (in slow broken English) and getting to our house. Yesterday, when we got home from our kayaking trip we tried to call a taxi again and got hung up on, multiple times, before we could even say where we wanted to go. Again, here is the inconsistency you have to get used to in Thailand, I guess the operator didn’t want to speak English or deal with farang. Our neighbour has had the same issue so hopefully something can be done about that! We ended up walking towards home and luckily another teacher pulled over and offered us a ride. Again, we were at the English program campus where Nick works and has more limited transportation options.

When all else fails we can walk. In the last 4 days I think we’ve walked more than our whole 8 months in North Bay. Like we’ve said before, our house is in a great location and there are a ton of ways to get around in this city. Unfortunately the hours that these methods of transport are available are, unsurprisingly, inconsistent. For example, Friday night Nick and I went to buy a blender and some fruit (we eat a lot of fruit) and felt so great since we finally figured out how to get to Big C using the Song Tao. We get there no problem, find everything we need no problem and walk back to the main street no problem. The problem arose when we realized that it was too late at night (8ish) and the Song Taos had stopped running. So we start walking back towards home just hoping to see a bike taxi, regular taxi or Song Tao and no luck. So, we walked. We walked about 15 blocks carrying all of our stuff and finally got to the mats where we had dinner and a break from walking before we finally went home. 

Long story short: we really need to just get a bike.

Our new favourite thing!

My favourite snack: lychee jelly with a straw!