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Published: March 11th 2010
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It was nice to know we were going back to Thailand. Maybe because we had spent more time there and the familiarity was comforting but I definately prefer Thailand to Malaysia. That's not to say I wouldn't like to come back, Malaysia is a big country and we only saw a very small part which was on the whole beautiful. The parts we did see were very heavily populated with Indians and Chinese immigrants, at times I forgot we were in Malaysia! :-)
The journey back up the pennisular was to be our longest yet, leaving Tanah Rata in the Cameroon Highlands at 5:30pm, we would arrive in Krabi, Thailand, 1pm the next day. By getting the overnight bus we would save on accommodation, this saving would nearly pay for the transport, budgeting is the key to travelling :-) . We caught the last local bus to Ipoh, the nearest transport hub, where we planned to catch a bus to Hat Yai, Thailand. As Ipoh has 2 bus stations (old & new) we informed the driver that we needed the station where you get the Hat Yai bus from, "Ok, Ok" he said, cool, all good. The night drew in, we arrived in Ipoh, pulled up in the middle of the town and the driver tells us to get off the bus, "Where are we?" I say, "Where is the bus station?" he points across the road and quickly drives off. It's dark, it's raining and there is no bus station in sight, hmmmm. An old chinese man appears from a shop up the street, he shouts "THAILAND!", we stare at him,"THAILAND!", oh, the brain kicks in, the driver has dropped us off at a local travel agency, probably the one that pays him the most commission! Getting the cheaper local transport isn't always easy :-) Having no choice, we walk over to his shop, he's old and frail and shouts one word sentences in English. "THAILAND!", um yes, Hat Yai?, "HAT YAI!", yes please, "PASSPORT!", ok, how much first?, "40MR", hmmmm, we had budgeted for 40 max, oh well, we had enough money left for a cup of tea, what more do the british need :-). We handed over the money. "PASSPORT!", of course, he takes our passports and sorts out the immigration forms."BAGS!" points to the back of his shop, "SHOPS!" he points down the street, "12!" he points at his shop. We catch on, following his commands, we drop off our packs and head to the shops to be back at 12, only nearly 4hrs to kill.
We find a night market which is busy despite the rainfall, we draw a few looks, obviously not many tourists venture here. We settle into a local indian restaurant and ordered a cup of tea and Kopi ( local very strong but sweet coffee) which lasted a record breaking 2hrs. We took a detoured route back to the shop, picking up a pyscho chinese dude on the way, he stares at us and follows us back. We sit outside the shop, waiting, he stands hiding behind a pillar 10 meters away, waiting. I light a cigarette, trying to look cool but tough in a James Dean sort of way. Sharon looks like she is not in the mood to be messed with, I feel safer now :-). He moves in, 5 meters away, his eyes are glazed, I'm thinking drugged up pyscho now. He leans on the wall near us, I decide to stare at him, show him who is boss. He stares back! We move inside the shop!!! The old chinese man, checks his watch, we are early but we don't care. We are safe, he may be old but he might know more Karate than me :-) We played on our gameboy, Sharon finally managed to beat me at scrabble, waiting for the bus trying not to flinch too much when mice ran over our feet! At 12pm, various people started to turn up, we weren't the only ones going over the border tonight, I spotted how much the regulars were paying, 35rm, I felt better, we hadn't been ripped off too much.
The bus turned out to be our best yet. Only 3 seats across, fully reclining, water and blankets to go with the freezing air con. We settled in and slept, getting off the bus for the Malaysian departure border control and again for the Thailand entry border control. With every entry into Thailand you get a 30 day visa, with so much time on our hands we still managed to miscalculate this, we are supposed to leave on the 21st May, we fly out on the 22nd, doh! Oh well, we shall cross that bridge later, we were tired and needed some rest. At Hat Yai, as close to the troubled deep south west Thailand as we planned to be we caught a local bus up to Krabi. Having to only wait for 1/2hr we managed to avoid any terrorist bombs and shooting. It feels good to be back in the land of smiles!!!
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