Today is our first big day of travelling: we are leaving Malaysia for Thailand, and this time, we’re making the crossing by land. Our ultimate destination is the small island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand, but for today we’re just aiming to make it to the port city of Surat Thani, where we’ll catch a ferry tomorrow for the last leg.
This should have been an easy job. After all, according to all our sources, there’s an international express train linking Singapore to Bangkok, which stops both in Butterworth where we are, and in Surat Thani itself. However, as we found out when we tried to finalise bookings a couple of days ago, the reality isn’t quite as smooth. Our target mode of transport appears to be something of a ghost train: everyone agrees it exists but it’s impossible to get hold of it or gain tickets, whichever booking platform we try (including the official State Railways of Thailand website).
After hours of research, we’ve established that it should be possible to break the journey down (ironically, along the exact same tracks the elusive international express is rumoured to use). We’re therefore planning to take the ferry to Butterworth station, then a Malaysian Komuter train to the border town of Padang Besar, get our passports stamped, move on to a Thai shuttle train to the nearest big city of Hat Yai, and then finally catch a longer distance express to Surat Thani. Between the journey times and the many transfers, this should be a full twelve hours journey… We set out (thankfully, a bit later today), and on the Malaysian side everything goes as planned. Another kaya toast for breakfast (it’s fast becoming our default option), a nice ferry ride, time to grab some snacks at the station which is helpfully located on top of the ferry terminal, and a peaceful train ride with some more views over limestone hills - this seems to be a locally reoccurring geological formation.
Before getting to Padang Besar, we’ve looked up the border control process and are ready for it. The first step is to buy our Thai train ticket at the Malaysian station with the last of our ringgits (we don’t have any Thai Bhat yet). But when we get there, first hitch: the shuttle train onwards has been cancelled because “the train derailed”. Encouraging! Luckily we have a few hours before our next and last leg for today to figure out how to get to Hat Yai. This is obviously not an unexpected occurrence and there are a few stalls in the station selling van transfers. There’s only five of us tourists on the train we came in on however, and the van takes ten, so we have to wait for the next arrival in an hour. At least the van will take us through immigration as part of the journey (otherwise the border is a taxi ride away from the station, inconveniently).
After another thirty minutes of haggling and finding additional passengers we finally set off in a rickety tour van. It’s a short 5-10 minutes to the Malaysian exit building, where we disembark and promptly get stamped out. Smooth for the moment - but then it’s another decent wait while our van drivers reorganise us by exact destination in Hat Yai. Finally we find ten of us going the same direction, and head over in a slightly nicer vehicle to the Thai border control post. A bit more lengthy there, but as westerners we get out own little queue and it’s a short formality to get our entry stamp - 45 days visa-free stay. Back into the minibus and on to Hat Yai - a long, straight drive through endless rubber tree plantations interspersed with the occasional oil palm. It’s raining as well - we were hoping to leave the wet weather behind in Malaysia but it looks like it’s following us for a bit more.
It’s been close to a two-hour journey since we started our little van interlude but we’re finally at Hat Yai station and looking forward to being back on a train! Alas, the station seems strangely quiet and after a bit of quid pro quo we find out why - there’s heavy flooding on the train lines and all journeys are cancelled. The SRT helpfully offers a refund although that will be going to our travel agent, and we’re left high and dry (we wish) as apparently there is no alternative public transport… Very discouraged and close to giving up, we head out to try and find an ATM - first order of business whatever we do is to get some local currency.
We luck out and find a nice mall nearby with a series of ATMs, a supermarket with the friendliest cashier we’ve ever encountered (who makes sure we take full advantage of the “buy one, get one free” promotion on snacks by fetching us the second one herself), and a handy cafeteria where we can sit down for a minute and consider options. There are indeed no bus routes heading towards Surat Thani - and even if there were, we can’t be sure that the roads aren’t flooded too! Flights are prohibitively expensive and wouldn’t get us there faster than two days later than expected as they all transfer through Bangkok. Our hotel on Koh Tao has a no cancellation policy, and as it was meant to be our Xmas treat, it’s too much money to just throw away.
In the end, we decide to try phoning a local taxi company and see if we get a willing driver and a reasonable quote. If not, we’ll have to find lodgings in Hat Yai and re-plan the next few days! Luckily, a reputable company offers us a ride at a decent price for the more than three hundred kilometres journey. It’s an hour’s wait for the driver but we don’t have much choice - we’ll try that!
It’s pitch black when we set out at 7pm. Our driver doesn’t speak a word of English but we’ve agreed destination and price with the company and are able to confirm with him with the help of Google Translate. It’s going to be a long trek by road - at least five hours and probably more including a few stops along the way. We start out slow as our driver stocks up on food, drink, petrol and fags for the road - he’ll need everything he can to keep awake! Despite the language barrier we get along - he is friendly and helpful, finding us loos and even getting us snacks unprompted when he pauses along the way. Despite the setbacks, this is very much our first impression of Thailand: everyone here seems genuinely friendly and nice to us, in stark contrast to the sometimes forced obsequiousness of Bali and the brisk efficiency of Malaysia. I guess the land of smiles truly deserves its moniker.
We pootle along towards our destination - a concerning amount of trucks are overtaking us! - but at least the roads seem dry, if not in good state, as we are plagued by constant roadworks throughout the journey. We didn’t really allow ourselves to relax at all on the road, worried that something else was somehow going to go wrong, but incredibly we do make it to our hotel near Surat Thani train station, at 1am (only two hours later than the train would have been). Someone is slumbering in the hotel lobby, waiting for us as we advised we would be late checking in, and within minutes we get to our room, after waiving goodbye to our yawning driver, who was making sure we had lodgings before leaving us. We made it!
Not a good first impression for the Thai trains which we were advised were fantastic, but everyone else we encountered was so helpful that it offsets the rest. We crash in our very basic room - hopefully our ferry transfer to Koh Tao starts at 9am tomorrow so we’re really only there for a very short time!
Comments