Blogs from Hat Yai, Southern Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 4

i am now back in Thailand having just spent the past 3 weeks in Malaysia and Singapore. after my last blog from Hat Yai, in far southern thailand, i took the direct overnight sleeper train from there to Kuala Lumpar, as my thai visa had expired. the ticket was only 518baht (about 8GBP). Although it starts in Hat Yai, it is a Malaysian train, with initially just two passenger carriages attached to the back of a very long and extremely slow goods train. the goods carriages are replaced by a lot more passenger ones at the Thailand/Malaysian border. compared with the freshly laundered sheets, that you could probably eat your dinner off, on thai sleepers, the bedding on the malaysian train left a lot to be desired. it didnt look or smell as if it had ... read more

im now in the southern Thai city of Hat Yai, having arrived here saturday afternoon with my friend ekk. we got here by boat and bus from the island of koh muk, off the coast of Trang province, in south-western thailand. soon after my last blog i left bangkok for koh samet, a tiny but very popular island off the thai eastern seaboard. the reason for that was that a friend we had met on koh samui in june, had invited us to spend some time there. we arrived on the bus from bangkok (only about 3 hours), to the port of ban phe, where we met him. we then took the boat together to the island. we ended up staying on ao phai beach, which is pretty central for most things. the second day we ... read more

Hi Guys Well I've left Koh Phangan after an emotional farewell with the pals I made there. We had a meal on our last night. 14 of us and the meal came to less that 70 pounds! Bargain! I have Barracuda steak - delicious! I have now left the boys and gone solo (it was for the best!). I'm now in a small town near the malaysian border called Hat Yai. It tool me a boat ride, bus ride, 3 motorbike rides and a 6 hours minibus ride to get here. Back is a tad sore (if you're the praying type please pray away that the pain subsides). I'm off on an 8 hour journey to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow (on a luxury coach - bliss!) Going to catch up on some much needed sleep tonight. Only ... read more

Thailand......we hold out a lot of hopes for Thailand as it is generally considered by most to be a backpackers' mecca, gorgeous beaches, friendly people, loads of culture and great food. Well, correct but not on all accounts. We left the sanctuary of the Red Palm in Kuala Lumpur (a teary farewell) and headed on a night train to Hat Yai (the first town over the border) 14 hours later it was morning in Hat Yai and we decided to go check out Songkla on the east coast, an hour on public bus to get to. We stayed for 2 or 3 nights at the ABC guesthouse with our own room and a lovely couple of ladies serving up delicious, reduced price food for us. We rented a motorbike (a semi-automatic) and went to the Zoo ... read more

The day began on the train and before long we arrived at the Malaysia / Thailand border. This crossing was another straightforward one although we did take a moment to check that noone had stuffed anything into our bags that could have seen us involuntarily checking-in to the ‘Bangkok Hilton’. Once we got to Hat Yai we just had to find a bus to a town called Surat Thani which was 7 hours away. After an hour or so we were heading north on a bus with a mysterious cargo of dozens of large cardboard boxes taking up literally half the bus, and dreaming of a shower. We reached Surat Thani just after dark and walked until we found the pier with a boat to an island called Ko Tao. We bought tickets for this ... read more