Setting the stage: husband and wife are traveling around the world in an 11 month "trip of a lifetime". Here they are moving from Malaysia into Thailand....
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The next big event was Stáňa's birthday, February
24th. The saga that surrounded her birthday began with our midday
departure from the Perhentian Islands bound for coastal town of Kota Bharu the day prior. The broader
issue of our next step was the fact that six days earlier a series of bombings
in far southeastern Thailand,
in an already questionable area for Westerners, meant we needed to look for a
plan B entrance into Thailand.
We hit land and secured a cab along with a German woman for the 45 minute drive
to Kota Bharu from the jetty at Kuala Besut. It was a very hot day and
buses heading out of Khota Bharu were non-existent according to the pseudo
English-speaking folks in the small stalls pawning tickets adjacent to the bus
station. It was Friday and the next available bus heading to Butterworth
(west coast city and good spot to leap into Thailand when you don't want to go
through the southeast's unrest) was not until Monday. Ugh. We also had heard that flights might be an
option. Nope. Some searching via the web showed only flights were
available to Kuala Lumpur
(to the south) & we didn't need to go back there. Back to bus station we headed, luckily finding
a taxi driver who spoke better English; he helped us sort out two seats on a
bus departing that night at 9:30 for a town an hour south of Butterworth,
Taiping. Sold. So now we had the remainder of the evening to make
it to the other bus station from which our bus would depart (as many cities
have 2-3 bus stations making it tricky when you land at one and depart from
another... ). We found a few snacks downtown for our night journey,
including some baked goods sold by a very sweet group of young girls that were
tickled to practice a few words of English with their Caucasian
clientele. Also, it was apparent right away that Kota Bharu is a Muslim
community and we were a bit of a novelty for the locals.
Next segment of this journey is the first bus
ride. We were awaiting our bus in a dark
and very busy corner of the station. There were hundreds and hundreds of
folks boarding dozens and dozens of buses all for an overnight journey back to
work or home after being away for the Chinese New Year. We boarded the
bus and departed about 9:30 p.m. Two drivers, bus full of locals, two of
us, and the A/C set at ~19˚ C (66˚ F)... sounds nice but the bus turned into an
icebox after 8 hours. Anyway, it was a pity that we were touring across
the entire northern section in darkness as the area was forested and not
flat... we zigzagged around and up-n-down for most of the night & suspect
the scenery during the day might have been nice. Next time. On the
other hand, given the fact that we couldn't see hairpin turns, etc. maybe it was
a good thing! We slept a bit but the bus crossed through a few police
inspection stations, events which would awaken all that had shivered themselves
into a light sleep. A little after 4 a.m., now on Stáňa's birthday, we
rolled into Taiping, our hopping off spot. From here we would have to
sort out options for getting to the town of Butterworth
where we could arrange transportation into Thailand via bus or train. We
negotiated with a cab for a bit but the driver wanted too much money for the
hour-long drive to Butterworth. As other buses off-loaded passengers at
the station in Taiping we would inquire if they were continuing to Butterworth and
had room for 2 more passengers. Finally, about 6 a.m., we found one
willing to do so; inevitably the 20 ringgit “fare” was a cash donation to the
driver’s pocket. We happily moved on.
Arriving in Butterworth we had the option to stay a day or two or keep
moving. We opted for the latter given Butterworth was largely an
industrial city and the island offshore was the opposite end of the spectrum (e.g.
covered in malls and condominiums, murky ocean waters, busy, expensive) as
compared to our last island paradise, the Perhentians. Luckily we found a
minibus option to the first main town in southern Thailand, Hat Yai, and it departed
a little over an hour from the time of our arrival at a reasonable price.
Great! We will make it to Hat Yai just after lunch given it was only a
4-5 hour drive and we would have time to find a place to stay, grab the first
descent meal in 30 hours to celebrate Stáňa's birthday, etc.
All seemed hunky-dory when our minibus showed up:
the two of us and our fellow travelers (a pair of Thai woman who we suspected
"worked nights", if you know what we mean, another Thai woman, an
elderly Malaysian guy, plus a driver) headed for the highway that would take us
to Thailand.
The first snag (of many) was another checkpoint on the highway just out of
town. We were pulled over and all requested to show id, etc.
Something was amiss with the fact that the elderly Malaysian was not carrying a
passport (so we thought, anyway.) The driver left some of his credentials
(passport?) with the inspector and we started our trip back to the bus station
(to drop off the elderly guy?). [Note: we had to make a few assumptions
here and there given the language barrier.] Guess what we found on the
way back to the station, gold!? No, another police checkpoint! We
all had to show id again, the driver and old guy sat talking with the cops for
30 minutes or more, cell phone calls, etc. and then it was explained that the
driver did not have the necessary paperwork (license, insurance?) and the fact
that the guys on the highway kept some credentials did not help matters
any. The solution? The driver was arrested. They were kind enough to arrange a ride for
us and we loaded our gear into cabs after another 30 minutes or more of waiting
and headed back to our origin, the bus station. The guys from whom we
bought the ticket apologized and said they had no idea, etc. and that another
minivan would be there shortly. This time a motley little quiet Thai guy in
a not-so quiet beater-of-a-van was our means of making it to Thailand.
We piled into the van, this time picking up another Thai woman plus the icing
on the cake, a Buddhist Monk. Starting to sound like a joke, isn't it...
a Czech-American couple, a Monk, two Thai “ladies of the night” board a bus....
but this was not fiction.
Given the ordeal of our first attempt at
departing the city limits of Butterworth, it seemed our plan was to avoid at
all costs any more check points. We drove through the city, around this
community, through another, down a country road here, past rice fields there,
and finally entered the highway (and without checkpoints.) By this
time it was probably 2-3 hour after our initial departure from Butterworth and
24+ hours since we had left our island retreat at Abdul's in the Perhentians ---
it was turning into a marathon event to say the least. On the highway
things were fine as we chugged north. First stop was a highway oasis near
the border. Our driver requested the passports but couldn't explain
why. John followed him with passports as he proceeded to purchase a
quantity of cigarettes and beer allowed for a van full with a Monk, three Thai
women, an old crotchety Malaysian guy, etc. etc. The driver then handed
the passports over for border processing, i.e. someone filling out a Thai
border entry card via a typewriter. Back into the bus we piled ready for Thailand
(and/or a party for chain-smoking alcoholics.)
We crossed the border without too much
excitement. The old Malaysian entered no problem. The Thai
officials were less-than-friendly with us but we were admitted as well.
Our group in the minibus did grow by one person at this point, a French guy
that needed a "visa extension" so he was taking a bus to the
Malaysian border just to slip back into Thailand for a new 30-day allotment of
time on the beach or whatever filled his time. Moving north the van
started overheating (must have been all of the beer we took on at the last
stop!?) so the A/C was switched off and the few windows still in working order
were opened. We chatted with the French
guy and thought nothing else could go haywire with the trip, right!? Nope
- after our driver made a few calls to folks and some random associate showed
up, it was decided the van could go no further. The last half leg of our
journey would be via pick-up. We loaded gear into the truck, the
Malaysian guy, they Monk, and two of the four Thai women somehow quickly assumed
positions in the front; guess they had gone through this drill before. The "other" two Thai women, the
French guy, and the two of us were in cargo class and rode in the bed of the
truck with the bags under the hot afternoon sun of southern Thailand.
The locals certainly got a hoot out of the "farangs" (foreigners)
riding cabriolet-style in the truck as we got lots of waves and smiles. So
that was the epic journey from the calm shores of the South China Sea on
Perhentian Kecil, across the entire Peninsular Malaysia hopscotching through
two different cities and finally crossing the finish line into Hat Yai (Thailand)
just like a farm-kid from Iowa, in the back of a pickup truck. Welcome to
Thailand,
Stáňa, and Happy Birthday!!!
