On our last night in Koh Phangan we went to Haad Rin beach for old times sake, but we didn't have anything to drink (well, I didn't). We just sat on the beach (which was a state from the night before) We watched a couple of the Thai guys do fire poi, then decided to head to the other beach in Haad Rin, but as the tide was too far in, we couldn't actually get to it!!! We got a taxi back to our place and played a few games of poker, before going to bed.
We got up at bout 12 and had another big breakfast, which consisted of French Toast and Muesli (again!) The owner of the Bungalow said he didn't mind what time we checked out, as our room was not in use for another couple of days, so we didn't bother packing much up. We went with Tom, Jane and Polly to Thong Sala as they were heading off to Koh Tao to do some diving and to relax more (?!?) We wondered around the town for a bit then realised that we had to fix the bed! (a few nights before, I think 5 people were on it, and the side beam went "snap". It didn't look very good afterwards, as there were quite a few bits of wood dangling down!!) We managed to find some Gaffer tape and made a good job of it, but we hope the next set of guests don't break it too soon! We finished the bed, and then went for one last swim in the sea, before getting some more food to eat at the Blue Lotus (our new Absolute Restaurant!) I ate soooo much, but I knew we wouldn't get the chance to have much on the boat and bus later on in the day. We got back to the bungalow at about 7pm and had our last showers (which weren't too hot, as there was a power cut!) I handed in the key to the owner's wife/chef/cleaner... and then we went to wait for our taxi - What could be simpler?????
I thought I wouldn't have much to write about one simple bus journey, but...
Well, we were supposed to get a taxi transfer included in out ticket price, but as we experienced earlier on in the day with Tom, Jane and Polly, they were not very reliable. We waited, and waited, and waited until about 9pm (it was supposed to arrive at 8pm!!) so we thought we might as well get our own one, and stop off at the travel agent to have a go at the lady, but the amazing people from our bungalow offered us a lift to the port, as they were heading up that way! (this made us feel even more guilty about the bed!?!) He said it was no problem to take us so we thought we might as well make the most of it. Things were made worse, by the fact that he didn't want any money off us! Anyway, we said goodbye to him and got our tickets for the boat (a big sleeper boat) We all had bed numbers that were around 110, but after a couple of checks around the boat, we found there were only 90 beds (1st problem). We tried to ask someone, but they kept on ushering us away or telling us to go to see someone else. We finally gave in and sat down by the door, and prepared for a 6 hour trip (we thought it would be a 1-2 hour crossing...???) We fell asleep pretty quickly and woke up just in time for docking at Surat Thani in Thailand. We found a man telling us that our minibus was waiting so we just went over to it, to find it was full. Another cam within a couple of minutes, so we got into it. It took us to the travel agent's office, and the moody lady told us that the bus wasn't for another hour and a hlaf (it was at 6am and it was 4.30am) We sat in the office, wasting away the time until 6am finally came. We got into the pickup truck(!!) and were worried it would be taking us all the way to Kuala Lumpur, but 2 minutes down the road we stopped off at another travel agents and were told the real bus would arrive in about 10-15 minutes (good... we thought) While we were waiting, we were told to go into the office and show our passports. They then tried to con us, saying that we need 300RM (Malaysian Ringgits) to enter Malaysia and they gave us a crappy exchange rate (3RM to the pound, instead of 6!!!) Luckily I already had them, so she seemed pretty p*ssed off with me lol. But she told some random Thai guy to take Alex, Mike and Stu to a cash machine. On the way they realised she was trying to con us and refused to withdraw any money. They told her they didn't need any money and she just laughed and said we'd need to get a taxi into the town. We finally got onto a bus (a minibus!!) and asked the driver if it was going all the way to KL, which he said "yes". He then drove us to a rough part of the town, and we sat there between a shanty part of the area. I honestly thought we would be ambushed by his friends. But actually he was just waiting for his wife (I think) We carried along the main road, until after about 10 minutes we picked up two Norwegian girls, who were really nice, but seemed to have the same sort of problems as us. Then we thought we were on our way! - NO. We stopped off at a university and picked up 5 muslim girls, and I was forced to move seats by the driver, so they could sit together! Anyway, we put the problems aside and we got on our way. We made it all the way down to Haad/Hat Yai, when one of the girls had to get a train. I was forced out of the minibus to let her out, but then I got back in; to the crampt, over airconditioned bus. Oh and also he had a massive subwoofer in the back, which was pretty much full, and he was playing some rubbishy Thai rock! I had to turn my iPod up full, and I could still hear it!!!!! We drove around the streets of Hat Yai until we got to another travel agents, and we were ushered out of the bus and told to wait for another one! This was turning out to be a shambles! We exchanged words of anger with some other tourists, who had been treated in a similar way, and then finally got on another bus!!! The passengers on this one were all heading in the same sort of direction (Butterworth/Penang/KL/Singapore), so we thought we had finally made it! We crossed over the boarder, which had a really tight security area, so we had to keep on jumping out of the bus to get passports stamped, then checked, then we had to get our bags screened, but I suppose its better to be safe than sorry. It already felt so much hotter at the boarder than we had ever felt in Thailand, but we were much closer to the equator.
Anyway, back to the story. We continued along the motorways of Malaysia for another 4 hours and got to Butterworth at about 4.30pm local time. This was the biggest shock. Ready...????
Our driver had said we'd missed our bus by 20mins! WTF!? He then got into the minibus and drove off to take the people to Penang! There were 7 of us, left standing outside a dingy travel office, where we were told we could leave our bags. We took them up on their offer, as it was soo hot. The next bus wasn't until 10pm! We all conteplated on what to do, and decided food was best. The Norwegian lady, and the English couple went to a restaurant nearby (over the dual carriage way!) and we went to change our Thai Baht to Ringgints. We found the Norwegian lady sitting in the restaurant with a Malaysian lady, and they invited us to join them. It turns out that the Thai lady was the owner of the restaurant and she was really sympathetic. She gave us some chicken and rice, and then offered us the use of her bed and shower!! We didn't want to intrude too much, so we went to the 7 Eleven to get some water and snacks (for the bus, if it ever came!) After this we went back to the restaurant and asked if we could use her shower (its really, really hot!) We were led to a small room with a matress on the floor and shown the bathroom. I tried to use the shower, but ended up spraying water all over the place (there was one main control tap, that I turned on, but there were about 5 other taps it controlled. They all started spraying our water!) I gave up after wetting my hair (and the floor) and just went for a lie down in the room. Stu and Mike fell asleep, but Alex and I just sat there. The time passed quite quickly, and at 8pm we were about to leave, when a Makaysian boy came in. We thought he was going to ask us to leave, but actually his Mum (the restaurant owner) had asked him to go and take us out for dinner! We got in his car and talked to him about Butterworth and KL (he went to college there) He took us to the beach area and bought us all chicken and rice (again) and he paid for the whole thing! He even got us a bit plate of chicken satays to share as well! This certainly made up for the shambles of the bus journey. He gave us a lift to the bus station/travel agents where there were 3 big, air conditioned coaches waiting!! (Wooooo!) We said goodbye and thanked him again, and he went home. Its so cool that people are like that in such a bad area of town (Butterworth is apparently full of offices, so no tourists ever go there). We got our bus tickets, and found we had the 4 seats on the back row, which was even better! The only problem with this bus, was that the staff were really unhelpful. The bags didn't all fit in, so they pulled them alll out and told us to pack it for them!! By this time it had been 25 hours since we'd left our bungalow, so we didn't want to argue. I fell asleep for most of the journey (the seats reclined really far; almost like bed!), and woke up when we got into Kuala Lumpur. We got off the coach, to find ourselves in a place that was very much like Hong Kong (not what we really wanted!) Alex had been given a few names of hostels that his friends had given him, so he went to an internet cafe to find out where they were. This left Stu and I on the side of the road with loads of bags, and lots of strange people, offering us cheap taxis and cheap hotels. But by now we were used to declining any offers from people like that. After about 15 minutes, AJ and Mike came back and had addresses for 2 hostels. We jumped into a taxi and got dropped off at the first one. We rung the doorbell, but were told that it was too full, so we tried the next one. However, this was harder to find. The owner of the 1st place said it was "just around the corner", so we decided to walk. We made a few wrong turnings, but asked a few locals, who directed us to the hostel (Trekker Lodge)
We made it in and were shown to a small dorm with 2 other people in. I think we fell alseep almost straight away, and it seemed like no time before Alex had woken me up to go and get some breakfast (included in the price!) It turned out to be toast and jam, but it was still really good. Stu and Mike went to bed after that, and they're still there, but Alex and I came to use the internet (also included in the price!) We're probablt going to see the Petronas Towers this afternoon, but we'll leave tomorrow to go up them, as they shut the doors at about 11am!
I thought it was a lot like Hong Kong, which wasn't a really enjoyable city, but everyone here is really friendly, so hopefully it willl be much better!
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