Stay at Karon

The same van started its journey again and this time with new members on board.  There was one group of friends travelling in same van and after watching me travelling alone they asked me about my travel plan like, my citizenship, coming for first time, coming alone, etc.  When they got the answer that my trip is a backpacker trip, they all were surprised that how can a person visit Thailand alone!!!

Finally, the van reached Karon beach, which was almost 10 kilometers far from “Patong beach”-heart of the city.

Karon is gifted with beautiful natural surrounding and calmness along with blue coastline.

I stayed at Karon Cafe Inn, near to Karon Beach, small but good for budget travelers.

Location of my hotel was indeed very good, as before booking I saw, many reviews of tourists, who recommended Karon beach to be the best place for someone, who is looking for place far from crowded market and commercial places.

The check-in at the hotel took some extra time as room reserved for me was vacant but it required cleaning, so there was waiting time of half an hour.

I left my bag at reception and went to market to recharge my sim card.

Oh….

The story of sim card was left out.

The story is simple but worth to mention. I got the sim card from airport free of cost. Yes, Thailand offers unique gift to all the visitors by giving sim card free of cost without any documentation. At first instance, when I saw sim card lying on the advertisement table, I thought that they might be dummy sim for advertisement as no one was around to guard the lying sim cards. One cannot even imagine a situation like this in India.

I spotted a lady wearing shirt having logo similar to that of sim card, I called her and inquired about the rates of sim card and calling charges. She told me about the calling rates to India and gave me a sim with instructions to reload balance from the market.

I asked price of the sim.

She told me that it is free of cost. I again confirmed this by asking same question to her. Her reply was still same.

There were counters of other mobile service providers too who were offering free sim without any cost or identification. I took sim of two companies and checked their tariff at airport and decided to go with “Happy” service which offered economy calls to India.

I got it recharged with 10 THB since calling rates were very cheap from Thailand to India and called my mother to inform her about my current location.