December 5th 2008, Malaysia to Thailand  (I hope)

Our Mature Gap Year Continues on a Long Slow Coach Trip

Comfy Coach time

The local mosque, which was right outside our window, starts touting for business really early, so we were awoken with a call to prayer that was so loud I thought there was a speaker in our room.

We left the hotel without a second look, a right hovel.

The minibus of course was late collecting us and there were numerous stops to collect more people along the way, and then we were heading out of Malaysia towards Thailand in our bumpy little mini van.

We were shocked to find that the Thais had changed the entry rules on the 1^st December which meant only a two week visa (for land crossings), so our visa runs out on the 19th and we were not planning on leaving until the 26^th December, all because the bloody airport was closed, so it was not even our fault we had to do a land crossing.

The first time we came to Thailand it was three months, then 90 days in every 180 days and then a month at a time and now this, two stupid weeks. I feel very sorry for all the Brits who bought what they thought were a bargain piece of luxury property for their retirement or holiday home, they must now be having second thoughts and who the hell is going to buy these properties off of them if they wish to move on? What are the Thais doing?

At a time when they need to build confidence in holiday makers this should prove another blow to those hoping to tour the country rather than just have a one-centre holiday.) We had seriously considered buying a place in Hua Hin last year, we are so pleased now that we did not do so.

Sofia had to giggle when the little old lady in front of her stripped down to her bra to change her top and the two elderly men sitting next to her seemed to want to die of embarrassment, one of which already had a tick, started to fidget and squirm to an Olympic standard.

The trip to Hatyai from Georgetown was about 4 hours; from here it all gets what I can only describe as f’ing stupid!  We were dropped off at a travel agents where we are told we will pick up the big coach to Bangkok, cool. At 4:00pm! It was just 12:30pm, We have our entire luggage with us, which I am loath to leave unattended and I also don’t wish to sit around for hours. Little did I know this was just the beginning.

The lady at the agents then told us to be back at 2:30pm when we would be taken to the BIG coach, oh that’s a bit better,

We were sent around the corner to Robinsons Mall for food we managed to purchase coupons and swap them for food in the canteen, we also did a bit of snack shopping for the ongoing trip, Then we walked through the mall only to find plenty of far easier places to eat. We then walked in pure heat back round to the travel shop to catch up on our journals while we awaited the bus.

But it was not a bus it was a jeeptuk (our name for the non jeepney, non tuk tuk, basically a pickup with a sort of jeepney top to it.) Once the luggage was aboard, it was a hard push to squeeze us in then were driven just around the corner easily less than a mile to the main bus station.

The main bus station that we had actually driven past a few hours before, there we were unloaded onto the street and told the BIG coach would be along at 4:00pm. So what to do but wait, we went in a cafe and got some cold drinks, Sofia did some sketches of locals and then at 4:00pm we were loaded back into another pick-up taxi and taken about 400 yards to the BIG coach hooray. We got on and all looked good, we had lots of room and nice comfortable seats,and then we sat and waited for the journey to begin and then we sat and waited some more! After about an hour and a half we pulled out of the car park finally we are on our way to Bangkok.

Um no, actually we are not, we got about two miles down the road and pulled into yet another car park where we were shooed off of our coach onto an identical one but with more people on board – finally after about an hour of waiting this coach actually left and we were on our way. At 8:00pm we stopped again at a service area so that people could get food, not us, we had, had, ample time to get food throughout the bloody day and as none of us were that keen to depend on the one toilet on the coach we all avoided too much food and drink! And so finally we were on our way.

Ahh well not quite, about an hour down the road the coach pulled over, the driver and his minions walked around kicking the front tyre and also having the obligatory piss against the side of the coach.

Ten minutes later we stopped again, and upon restarting can only have done what I can describe as limped to the first available service station.

Five or so men came out and basically looked at the tyre and wheel and then they all disappeared, over a period of about an hour, some of them proceeded in little spurts of energy to do some work.

An hour later we left and finally were really on our way.

We arrived at Bangkok bus station at 7:30am – We still needed to get to Pattaya!