To Malaysia

Monkey silhuette

We started our last day in Thailand by waking up awfully early to catch the bus to Malaysia. While packing and making sure that we wouldn't forget anything we enjoyed the view of a small group of monkeys jumping on the roofs nearby. It was both relaxing and amazing to see how effortlessly they climbed to the thin antennas and jumped from one roof to another. Sometimes we would even see a mother doing the latter with the baby monkey hanging under its belly!

There was no one in the house when we left but the owner had given us the key the night before so we were able to get out. We were supposed to leave the key somewhere where she could find it and I tried to throw it on the reception desk. Naturally my throw failed and the key flew somewhere behind the desk. I hope she found it anyway!

After leaving the house we needed a bus to the bus station. We knew that it would leave from the other side of the street but we had no idea how often and what the number should be. Soon we realized that we hadn't seen anything like a bus in the whole city while being there and started wondering if we'd catch one or not. In a while we saw a small van of some kind coming towards us and it indeed was the "bus". It surely didn't look anything like a bus we're used to but the driver assured us that he'd take us to the bus station for 20 Bahts per person.

There we were, sitting with maybe eight or ten locals in a tiny tiny vehicle, barely bigger than a normal tuk-tuk. The only bad thing was that we were carrying our huge and heavy backpacks and it's never easy to move with them in small spaces. Soon after leaving it started raining heavily and the driver put down and attached the tarp covering the backside of the vehicle. It worked pretty well and we got to the bus station eventually without getting soaked.

At the bus station we bought the tickets to Hat Yai, a city in Thailand near the border of Malaysia. The bus wasn't there yet so we bought some food from a street café too. The ticket from Krabi to Hat Yai cost 218 Bahts and the trip took almost six hours, from 8:30 till 2 pm. On the contrary to the first bus, this second bus was probably the fanciest I've been to. It was a double decker with new seats and everything. There was a toilet too! I can't remember much of the trip so I guess we didn't see anything special. Although the road wasn't curvy at all we both felt pretty sick. We really do hate buses!

This good luck charm was protecting our minibus.

In Hat Yai we started searching for a bus to George Town in Malaysia. As soon as we got out of the bus a group of locals surrounded us and started asking us if we needed a ticket or a place to stay. Some of them didn't want to give up even after we told them to leave us alone. We asked about buses to Malaysia directly from the bus station but it seemed that they didn't have any and we were told that we should visit one of the travel agencies on the other side of the street. We don't fancy these travel agencies too much because we've had some troubles with them in the past but this time it was our only choice. By visiting three or four different agencies we were able to haggle the price down to 300 bahts.

At about 3 pm we started our six-hour journey to Malaysia in a small van. A Russian woman who resided in Thailand accompanied us and talked with Inna for a good while. I didn't understand a thing but I'm glad she had someone else to talk to for a while :). Some hours later we arrived at the border and left the van to walk through the passport control. We saw the signs listing the things what we aren't allowed to take to Malaysia. Quickly I noticed that knives weren't allowed and I was carrying two of them! What made things worse was the fact that they had an x-ray machine there. I got my 30-day visa for free without any problems and put my backpack through the x-ray machine. It beeped for a while and the woman sitting there asked where I was from. After replying that I'm from Finland I was allowed to go! Apparently no dangerous people come from Finland. Inna didn't have any problems with the visa either and soon we were sitting in the van again with new fancy stamps in our passports.

Malaysian drinks

It was long after the sun had set when we finally saw the first skyscrapers of George Town and it took another hour or so before we were in the center because the other passengers in our minivan wanted to get out in various interesting locations. At 9 pm we were standing on what we'd later find out to be one of the main streets in the old part of George Town. The Russian woman had told Inna that there are many cheap guest houses all over the place and she hadn't been wrong. The only problem was that they seemed to be full. After searching for a while we found a Chinese place for 20 Malaysian ringgits (about 5 euros) per night. We had a shared bathroom and the room was dirty and smelly but we were way too tired to search for anything better.

Before sleeping we went to eat and bought a couple of interesting Malaysian drinks they sold in bags. They used fresh fruits and ice for them and the taste was great! On the way back a fat Indian man touched Inna but there wasn't much I could have done about it: we were in the middle of Little India and I guess it wouldn't have been the best idea to start a fight there :/. Luckily it wasn't anything serious and we learnt to be cautious with those creepy Indians.

After saying goodbyes to our Russian friend we collapsed to our bed and slept. It took us 15 hours to get from Thailand to Malaysia and we needed some new energy.