Trains, Buses and Boats!!

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From leaving Koh Tao by boat the next couple of days were spent travelling. We caught a three hour boat to Chumpon in Thailand. The boat ride was great and as there were only a handful of people on it we got the best seats in the house, or on the boat if you like......for free!! The weather was warm and as we reached Chumpon the pace slowed and we left the sea and sailed through a fishing river. Despite the boats looking interesting, the smell of fish was pretty strong and what some would call pungent!!

Once getting off the boat we got on a bus for half an hour to Chumpon Train Station. We arrived at the station at 6ish but our train wasn't until 10pm so we had a few hours to kill. We killed them in a nearby restaurant playing cards and having our final Thai Curry...which was the hottest i've had and almost left me foaming at the mouth. I immediately regretted the decision to order curry!!

The train eventually arrived at 11pm (1 hour late) but I was so tired I didn't care. I just wanted to get in my bed and sleep until we arrived the following morning. Sleep wasn't easy when two guys thought it reasonable to talk...I mean shout....at the top of their voices! I was just about to lay down some fisticuffs when my tiredness got the better of them and wild horses couldn't have kept me awake!!

The dram didn't end there.....at 6am we were woken because the aircon had broken!! Did I care...NO, but even so we were all made to get up and move carriages. After getting on the track for another half an hour we stopped again only this time we had reached the border and it was time to go through immigration!!

I sailed through but Nat had problems as her visa was torn. She was frogmarched into a back office and I was ushered along. Around 10 minutes passed and she still hadn't arrived and the men were trying to get me back on the train...no way was I getting on without Nat! I was just about to try the 'Do you know who I am' line when she surfaced, passport duly stamped and panic over!! Back on the train for another 6 hours and we eventually arrived in Butterworth at 2pm Malaysian time.

The plan was to get another train straight to Kuala Lumpur but we were advised that the next train didn't leave until 9pm. More time to kill! We put our bags in storage and caught a boat to Penang to look around Georgetown for a few hours! There was a lot to see but as we had limited time we confined our visit to Little India (No...not loads of little indians running around but a good few indian restaurants) and then small china (similar thing only chinese)! Once we had looked around a bit we caught a boat back to Butterworth station to wait for the next overnight train!

Can't believe my bonfire night was spent on a train with not even a sparkler!!! Why couldn't Guy Fawkes have planned to blow the Malaysian overnight train up so that we could have celebrated too!!! How inconsiderate!

Our second overnight train was on time at least and I soon settled onto my top bunk!! I don't think it was long before I fell to sleep and only woke up at 5am the following morning when we were close to our destination! At 5.30am we finally arrived at Kuala Lumpur Sentral (thats how its spelt over here) Station. We were on the final stretch!! We then caught a tube one stop along and walked a short 10 minute walk to our hostel....woohoo...we had finally arrived at 6.30 am on 6th November!!

To recap, our journey lasted for almost 48 hours and consisted of a boat, a bus, an overnight train, a boat, another boat, another overnight train and a tube!! During this time we had not been able to wash or change clothes (I did manage to clean my teeth though) and we therefore smelt formidable and looked pretty haggard!! That is the same reason why there are no people photos on this entry!!

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Photos

Fishing Village
The smell was pungent!!!