Wild geese

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It was a simple mission. I even knew what I needed to complete it.

A good night's sleep might have been a better start - I hadn't had one for a few days, so I booked a deluxe compartment with en suite shower all to myself for the sleeper train to Kuala Lumpur. I always sleep well on sleeper trains.

Always, that is, apart from three sleeper services. Singapore-KL now comes in third place as the hardest sleeper service on which to sleep, only beaten by the London-Inverness service in 2nd place and the Tbilisi-Natanebi service in the lead. In this case the train was being driven by Fernando Alonso, trying to reduce the hour delay from the departure time, and it was like trying to sleep on a trampoline during an earthquake.

Anyway, said sleeper service deposits me in KL Sentral station at 6am. Despite the lack of sleep I'm freshened up and ready to go, with a mental to-do list: deposit bag in left luggage, get passport photos for the visa application, find Thai embassy (I already have the address), lodge application. Simple.

Problem 1: the left luggage office doesn't open for another 90 minutes. Solution: breakfast, and finding a cafe that has enough change for my 50 ringgit notes takes up most of it.

Problem 2: all the photographic shops in KL have Somebody Else's Problem fields set up on them. And when you do find them, they're all shut.

I finally find one round the corner from the embassy, just about keeping my head from exploding with the heat and the frustration. While they're processing I have a coffee and chill out, safe in the knowledge that I finally have it all sorted after 3.5 hours of trying, and then I collect the photos and head to the embassy and read the sign on the gate:

"Close for Songkran holiday 14th-15th April."

Feck.

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