February 27, 2008

(THAILAND)

Goodbye Malaysia, Thailand is Always Smiling

Today was one of those uneventful days that are so often overlooked when reflecting on the joys of traveling. Not only am I hamstrung by a vicious case of bed bites - a picture of my left arm can be found here (caution: it is not the most pleasant thing to look at) - but when traveling by land the distances covered become a lot more real. The landscape passes by not from 30,000 feet, as in an airplane, but right in front of your eyes, and the smells and sounds accompanying the changing environment are far more authentic than an announcement saying, "We will arrive in Thailand at so-and-so a time, no please lie back and enjoy your in-flight movie; a hot meal will be served shortly."

Perhaps I try too hard to maintain a purist traveling mentality - the ultimate purpose being the act of traveling itself, not necessarily arriving at a given destination - but whatever the case, there is a perfectly valid reason airplanes, cruise liners, and high-speed trains were invented: convenience. So, lest an important fact is lost in all this aimless writing, traveling overland is almost always decidedly inconvenient; 99% of my worries involve the how part of traveling, and with no tour agents to lay out my travel options in a well-decorated pamphlet I once more found myself winging it for the day...

I checked out of my hostel a little after 10:00 am, and after some waiting around at the Kota Bharu bus station I eventually hopped aboard bus 29, which includes the Malaysia-Thailand border crossing on its route. It was a relatively easy 45 minute ride, costing only a few ringgit, but once I got off the bus I had some walking to do. After being stamped out of Malaysia, I crossed a 100m bridge that spans a cesspool of grimy water - hardly endearing scenery separating one of the poorest states of Malaysia from one of the poorest states in Thailand. Fortunately, traveling is a breeze in Thailand, and I was immediately granted a 30-day tourist visa at the Thai border. From the Thai visa office, I hopped on the back of a motorbike for 20 baht and was taken to the Sungai Kolok train station, where I bought a standard-class ticket for the 14:30 Surat Thani departure.

The next couple of hours were spent sitting around at a largely deserted train station. The only things to look at were the starved dogs trying to stay alive in the shade of my shadow and the military personal who were wielding M16 assault rifles for fear of further Muslim-Buddhist bloodshed. Sadly, life did not become any more captivating once I boarded the train, although my economy class ticket did guarantee me a front row view of the real Thai people - not just those who survive on the tourism trade in places like the notorious Khao San Road. I was seated next to a young Muslim man fully clad in traditional attire, but he did not speak any English or Thai. Instead, he sat quietly to my right, reading the Quran while the sun was out, praying to Allah from his seat at 5 pm, and taking a smoking break every hour or so. It was culturally enlightening.

As the train rolled slowly onward I decided my 23:35 arrival in Surat Thani would be an inconvenient time to find accommodation or onward transport, so I enlisted the help of several Thais seated in front of me. They didn't even speak broken English, but understood city names, so after much laughing and re-structuring of sentences ("simplifying things") the general consensus was I could alight from the train at Chumphon Station some time between 2:00-4:00 am. (I transferred at Chumphon back in September 2007, so I was familiar with the ferry schedules, and decided this was my best bet.) Obviously, sleep was difficult to come by in the sweaty train car, and I didn't want to doze off for too long and risk missing my stop.

Sure enough, at 3:25 am several Thai hands were shaking me to life, saying "Chumphon!" It was my stop, so off I went after a 12 hour train-ride through southern Thailand.