Day 96 - Into Malaysia and spooky Sungai Goluk

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So today we were finally leaving Koh Phangan. Great 3 weeks here I have to say and now with a week or so up our sleeves we decided to head to Malaysia and spend some time in the Perenthian Islands! Yes more islands, it is on the same coast as Phangan so supposedly it would be easy to get too and also at this time of year it is HIGH season (even though it is on the same coast though it is some 800kms away.

Got another one of these Combo tickets from where we were staying, they promised us we would have no problems. Again however I hate to say it but these combo tickets ending up wasting your time, money and your patience!! The Thai's really seem to want to extract as much money out of you as possible, and in any way they can. I never remember it being like this on my last visit. Firstly we got the boat over to Donsak on the mainland, ok no problems there and on arrival we had a bus waiting so we were thinking well this is going well so far!

From there it went horribly wrong, we were dropped in some godforsaken area (by a travel agency) and were not told any info, when we were leaving, what was happening just a complete lack of details. Eventually we got picked up from here with a rundown taxi and for them to run us to yet another travel agency even further out of town!! Really do not understand their logic (except I guess each agent is taking a cut at tourists expense). Here we waited even longer and by now was like midday. We were told when we booked we would be at Sungai Goluk by 18:00 and yet we had hardly moved so far. Again this time we got picked up finally with a minibus and we were on our way. Not though before the driver picked up another 6 passengers seemingly in no rush and was quite happy to go out of his way to do so. So by the time we left the city it was 13:00 or later. There were a few irritated people by then but it seems the thais did not seem to care or more likely this is the norm. I guess the agents when you book will tell you whatever so you buy the ticket but the actual drivers laughed when we told them we were supposed to be there by 6pm...

Anyway this is not the end (sorry about my rant but just want to warn people of these scams! from here we reached Hat Yai which is just over half way to SG and we were told we had to change buses! Great, and not only that we were just dropped at the minibus station and the guy bought the ticket and left us to it. Really this was so far away from an organised trip it was a joke. This bus did not leave for at least another 30mins and we finally arrived at SG at 21:15, just over 3 hours late. It also meant we missed crossing the Malaysian border as it closed at 9pm which was our whole plan.

What a nightmare, so we were stuck in this godforsaken town which is well known for its dodgyness (Malay men often come her for sex accordingly to Lonley Planet), also the place is filled with Bats. Everywhere there was a dark corner there were swirls of bats chasing us, they fly very low and quickly making an eerie noise.

The first Hotel we went to I think was called the Valentina but after changing rooms once, we just had enough. The place was sooo run down and there were little critters everwhere, kept finding cockroaches in our room, sheets looked awful and everything including the walls seemed to have a layer of grime on it. I have a feeling these rooms are rented out by the hour if you know what I mean....It was like a scene out of a bad movie, really not good. Backpacks on and walking around in the dead of a night dodgying the bats looking for a hotel 😊

So we left that place and went to the Lonley Planet picked out, I forget the name but it was a hell of a lot better. Nice and clean and comfortable. Thank god just wanted to leave this place first thing in the morning and get to Malaysia!

Day 97

Up bright and early as we wanted to heck out of this town pronto. Walked to the border and had no problems getting over to Malaysia. Because we so tired and a day behind schedule already we decided to just take a bus to Kota Bhuru which is on the east coast near the port about 45kms from the border. It is also the biggest city in the area and a major transport hub so we could easily get to KL when we needed to on our return from the islands.

Arrived in KB no problems and checked into Cerena Guesthouse (I highly recommend!). Good setup and simple rooms, no windows again though but that's what you get for £6 a night. We sorted ourselves a taxi for the morning to head to the islands, nothing else to report here except this place also has plenty of bats at night. Not fun to walk around late at night!

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Comments

[Mike T]

That place sounds like an absolute nightmare - good to hear you moved out and got a decent place though! Enjoy Malaysia