Very Long Journey: Hat Yai-Bangkok (2-end)

Surat Thani, Finally

the story continues here

Finally, Our most awaited time came, train came and we immediately boarded to the train. Since there was seat number, we went to our seat. The Train departed at 1 pm (delayed again after delayed).

The first 30 minutes of the journey by Train was so much fun. The view over the window was good and fortunately, there was no people sitting in front of us, so we could occupy the both sides of seat.Furthermore, we found out that our train would be long and the fun would not be any longer. the Train stopped in ALL STATIONS, small and big stations. That was making this train walk so slowly.

As the train run further up north, the more people coming in. Then the seats around us were fully occupied. We started making conversation with young men in front us using our English. It was not helpful for us to kill the boredom since nobody replied nothing but smiling at us. Okay, we decided to not continue the conversation. The train continued running and stopping in each station. So frustrating but no other things to do expect sleeping, awaking, sleeping again, stretching the body, walking a bit. Yeah, then we arrived Terribly late, the clocked ticked at 9-ish pm (GMT +7, not GMT +8 anymore).

As we were super late (but we used to it since we are Indonesian. So, we were okay. One of our advantage of being Indonesian in terms of flexibility of time, we would not complaining a lot). We started looking at the schedule board again, then we found out that there were several foreigners waiting for train to bangkok too. I personally was very happy to see it. After long discussion with Candra (it was kind of wasting time since we discussed nothing except the one who should go to ticket counter). I then should go to the counter. I asked the officer there and She said that all the tickets to bangkok for that night were sold out (since the only trains would leave that night only special express which was expensive for us). I came to Candra and we discussed again about this (although we found out our long discussion was wasting time again). The only option for us was to stay over night in Surat Thani (which is unplanned) and wait the train for tomorrow.

We were hungry (again). We walked outside the station and started wondering around to find restaurant open in this late (10 pm already and it was completely dark and quite around the station). We were hopeless to find restaurant open and we were very tired to walk against the station. We fortunately found out the street vendor selling heavy meals for us. We came there and started asking what they cooked. It was something like Tom Yam and Fried Rice. Candra worried about pork contains in their food. He ordered and asked thme to not use pork in the soup. And what Did I do?? I did nothing, i did not order any since i didn't want spend money and i was kinda run out of penny. We (only candra actually) enjoyed the foods, then we walked to find any convenience store to find any drink or snacks. We turned and found two convenient stores with has different brand name, 7-Eleven and Family Mart. I turned into Family mart side since i was walking in that side. I was so lazy to cross the street to go to 7-Eleven. We bought some from that store (including Thai SIM Card for both of us). I finally could enjoy my meal (it was just small bread with custard inside costing me 10 THB and  a bottle water). We finished 'enjoying' the night and came back to station. I asked the foreigners there and they mostly already had ticket on their hand since they booked earlier. I was no more happy finding out that they already had it hehehhe.

I decided to take cheapest class again to go to bangkok, and the decision went to Rapid Train (it is named rapid with ordinary seat). Candra kept insisting me to use better class, but i warned him again that he could go by that class but i would not join. Again, that warning was enough to shut him up of complaining. We bought ticket to venture to Bangkok scheduled at 16.47 pm NEXT DAY for 217 THB, not bad price..

NEXT DAY??? What??? yeah, no option! Candra again asked me to find out hotel out there, and i again told him that no budget for that. Then he stayed with me eventually hehehe. We slept in the train station in Surat Thani (We thought that we would be alone there, but there Was some locals (again, no foreigners) doing the same, and some homeless people). I didn't care about my belongings but my documents and camera. We finally could sleep beautifully in train station and we wake up next day with painful back, neck, entire body felt so bad hehehe.

We knew that our train would depart at 16.47. Then we had enough time to explore the city. Hell no!! Yeah We had enough time, but not enough money to do that. But we should go outside from train station or die getting bored there. We needed breakfast for the morning since I only had bread in night as dinner. We started walking and exploring the city. We thought that the city was small enough to walk. As we walked,w e found out some restaurants opened and We stopped in the restaurant selling porridge, thai porridge. It reminded us for a minute about Typically Indonesian breakfast, Porridge with chicken. We entered the restaurant and started ordering. We knew that the porridge used Pork on it, so Candra could not eat that porridge, But yeahhh I could consume that (Thanks God, I could eat pork hehehe ). I ordered The porridge and Candra order Noodle with soup and some savory snacks. The Porridge was spectacular, it was so delicious. It contained cut pork and some basil with some thai spices. Actually, we planned to find KFC there, based on Google Maps we could go for 1 more kilometer, but we surrendered eventually.

While we were eating, we asked to use the power socket to charge our phone. We ate the meals a bit long to wait the charging. about 45 Minutes, we finished and paid to the seller and say 'khap khun khrap -thank you in thai'. We took our phone  (we would not forget that)  and got going from the restaurant. We walked as the morning started leaving. We met the monks walking around the streets (they are kids, so they might be monk student). We saw a big building (not really big just occupied with large yard). We crossed the underpass bridge to go to that place hoping that we would find something wonderful or unique out there.

It was then a school, an abandoned school probably since there was no activity. We saw further there was crowd nearby. We went there and yeah, there crowd was there (not out there anymore). There were many food stalls opening and there was a hall where everybody (not everybody, but the main attraction I guessed) looked at. We were there and we didn't want to miss this opportunity to see the city's 'attraction'. First we had no idea what happened there (I knew then when i arrived in Bangkok). So, the visualization is There were many boys waiting in line, Polices, and some people sitting calling the name of the boy there. The boy looked alike criminals with some of them had tattoos all over their body. I thought that they might do some  criminals.

We had no idea, and kept asking people what it was and again none knew english. Then we just left them and went to wander around again. Eventually, we stopped again in that school and did not do anything. That day was super hot, and Bags were with us and appropriate sleep in station made us (only me I think) sleep in front of school. It reached midday already and we were hungry, we went to the crowd again, not to see but to buy food since there were abundant food stalls there. I stopped in cheap stall who offered me 'Pad kra Pao (a typical thai food, stir-fried pork with basil leaves and rice obviously) just for 20 THB. Okay, I decided to bought that but Candra couldn't buy that, he bought rice with chicken. The taste was so so, enough to fill empty stomach. We went to the 'main attraction' to figure out what it was. We kept guessing what it was, and eventually our guesses were totally wrong.

It was 2 pm and we came back to Station to wait there. Before reaching station, we saw good restaurant with many foreigners come in and it had wi-fi. Yeah, we decided to wait train in that small restaurant. Since it was free wi-fi, we had to pay more for so-so food. I ordered pancake costing 80 THB (Much more expensive than my breakfast). Candra ordered for coffee. We enjoyed the good wi-fi there owing the whole table for about 2 hours before coming back to Station.

The time came there, train came at 5 pm, and we were scheduled to arrive in Bangkok at 5.05 am NEXT DAY. So it was kind of OVERNIGHT TRAIN. and we were seated along the way, not slept!

The journey was better than before, train just stopped in certain station, BUT it stopped for about 30 minutes in Hua Hin and Prachuap Kirikhan (i hope i spelled correctly), total it stopped for 1 hour for those two big stations where i could see foreigners joined us in cheap train.

We had nothing to do along the way again. It was totally boring! No entertainment for us! Just Both of us and Train's sound. We starred over the window and it was completely dark, nothing interesting!

We arrived in Bangkok at about 7 am, and we seemed reveal happiness! WELCOME TO KRUNG THEP (Thai name for Bangkok).

This experience earned me a lot! I am proud of being Indonesian after all. To Be Indonesian is not that bad as we think. You will earn a lot of 'immunity' once you go out there! And for sure, I am lucky to have this experience while i am young since i have more energy to do that! Going backpacker with this condition may not good (even for me) but it had a lot of memories I will keep till i can open it.

See you in other journey stories!

Locals waiting train, and they slept over in station too

The Station

A lot of foreigners since it's the main hub to famous Koh samui

Front of Station in Night

from our food stall

Monks walking around, and some people gave alm

They kept walking

Surat Thani City in the morning

My thai porridge with prok and basic leaves

The porridge restaurant, seems very famous

Big Road

The city and it was hot

the Crowd

My Lunch, Pad Kra Pao

they ate the same like mine heheh

the ambience

the main attraction

View from Train

Over the Window

Train looks like

Metropolitan city, BANGKOK Already :)

This is BANGKOK MAIN STATION, Hualamphong

So far for this experience, It took me 2 days to reach bangkok from Hat yai hehehehe

Very Long Journey: Hat Yai-Bangkok (1)

Here I wrote again about my hiatus from school and grabbed my bag to Thailand.

So the story is about the long(est) journey to Bangkok from Kuala Lumpur by Hat Yai and one more stop which is going to be written down later.

My friend, Candra, and I ventured up to Bangkok from Kuala Lumpur after a day trip in the Malaysia,s capital city. We went straight crossing the border of these countries by Bus. the journey from KL to Hat Yai (Thailand's big city nearby the border) was as we expected. We rode a very nice sleeping bus taking us about 8 Hours. We started boarding the bus north bound before midnight and arrived in Hat Yai at 7 am.

The story started from Hat Yai. The bus dropped us in some place i have no idea inside the city. It's a Pool for our bus to stop. Once we arrived, people recognized us either malaysian or thai. Once they found out that we were Indonesian, they started talking in malay-broken-bahasa language. They kept asking for ride and kept talking. Candra was new for this, he responded them, but i asked him to avoid and just go.

One of the main intersection of Hat Yai city

We finally could stay away from them, then we were like lost in the strange city souther Thailand. We started looking for the sign to Train Station since we planned to use train to go north bound because it's more affordably cheap.

we wandered the streets. It was morning and the activity was not ready yet since the city seemed sleep still.

After wandering around about 20 minutes, we could find the Train Station by following the direction sign (Thanks they wrote it in both english and thai). I could not imagine how if they wrote only in Thai.

We went directly to the schedule board of train. Then we found out that train to Bangkok directly was not available in Ordinary class (Ordinary class is the cheapest class train in Thailand. It is very slow and the seat are very hard. No-AC available, but the window can be opened to get fresh air if it's getting hot. Some ordinary trains are free for Local or thai speaking asian who can pretend to be local). After we looked at the board, we discussed where to go and what to take. Candra, again, insited me to use direct train which is expensive for me. But i completely refused to use it and I warned him that i would not go with him if he still wanted to take that train. Then he finally agreed with me to take ordinary train, and we decided to take Ordinary train to go to Surat Thani, as the furthest north bound of ordinary train from Hat Yai Jn.

The Station name in both Thai and English

Train was scheduled to depart at 10.48 am and we were there at 8 am. We bought the ticket for two for 110 Thai Baht (THB), it means 55 THB each. Pretty cheap for long journey as stated we were scheduled to arrive 17.55 and it is about 290 km away.

We were very hungry, we boarded out from Station and looked for the halal and cheap restaurant around the station. We walked across the street to find Mosque first for Chandra to pray.  But then we altered our mind to have breakfast first. Then we stopped in Muslim restaurant nearby the station. They could speak malay and we started making conversation with them. Candra ordered Thai well-know sour soup, Tom Yam, and it was Halal for sure. And I ordered for Thai Fried Rice. After about 15 minutes, we finished our nice meals and paid to the owner of restaurant obviously (We are not criminals to not pay for this). We asked them where the nearest Mosque was. The young lady, who could speak perfect malay, pointed to walk straight the big road. And yes, we followed her suggestion. Once we walked along the street we could find any tower, as the mosque identity from distance. We stopped in another muslim restaurant. There was a mid-age lady and she could speak malay as well which is very good for us so we didn't need to speak in english. However, She couldn't understand the term 'mosque' or 'masjid (as in bahasa)' then we were in trouble then. Fortunately, Candra had installed thai dictionary in his smartphone and he started typing and showing to the lady (we didn't know how to read the alphabets), and surprisingly, She knew that word and she pointed to keep walking straight crossing underpass and nearby the market.

We arrived in traditional market and there was no any sign of existence of mosque nearby. We asked young lady there and finally we found somebody who could not speak malay, and we were already smart we showed her the word for mosque in Thai, and she pointed us to turn and walked along the alley to find mosque. We again followed the locals' suggestion. Then, Not surprisingly, we found Mosque there, Quite big mosque but it was closed, but unlocked.

We entered the mosque and directly went to the bathroom. Unfortunately, there was no bathroom (or even toilet). I was then in trouble. We expected that the mosque there was like in Indonesia which is equipped with toilet o even bathroom. Candra only could use the mosque then. He went inside the mosque to pray and i was waiting for him. He finished praying and walked toward me.We packed our belongings in our small and annoying bags. Suddenly, a man came approaching us, and he had beard (heheheheh). We found out that the mosques was built by Pakistan-Thailand friendship foundation and we knew that he was pakistani who could speak english, malay, thai, and for usre urdu. We asked to leave and he gave blessings for us (i am not sure but i hoped for that).

Other passengers waiting the same train with us

We arrived back in Train Station at 10.30 after we thought that we were late and we run to catch the train. Then we found out that the Train was delayed and scheduled to depart at 12.30. And we had 2 more hours of waiting. We decided to stay inside the station since we were very tired after long journey and we would have another long journey by slow train. We were waiting along with many locals (couldn't find any foreigners using same class as us, they all took much better class heheheh). Candra went to toilet and changed clothes and paid for 5 THB. I didn't do that since i had to pay.

the sellers waiting the buyers to kill boredom

The Rail way track

We patiently waited for train until it came to us. The waiting time was so long! We had nothing to do except to watch the locals speaking and selling their stuffs.

to be continued ........

Local seller

How I did it - When i was on my very first addicted experience (2)

BANGKOK, THAILAND, JANUARY 16^TH, 2012

Time told me it was 7 pm Bangkok Time. I passed the immigration office. It was long queue, so many foreigners wanted to come to Thailand. And I realized why Bangkok was so popular. I came to Airport Railway to meet my friend, Anond. I needed Thai phone number, then i decided to come to 7-eleven in the underground level of the airport. I bought SIM Card and credits for 50 THB. I Bought bread and mineral water since i had no breakfast and lunch before. Before i activated my SIM Card, i asked the lady to do so. Yes, i could activate my SIM Card and i loaded credits into it. I bought ticke, not ticket but token, so stupid i did not know how to use it. The first person i called was my mom, it was so cool when i could call my mom from abroad. My parent asked me about where i was staying and some. I ended the call then i called my friend to pick me up in the station. I tried first call, none answered. Then i tried again to call him, then a girl came up picking up the call. I spoke in english, and she replied my call in thai and i said “anond?” and she just called off the phone. Then i realized that it was totally wrong number that i put into my paper.

I arrived finally in my station. I tried to figure out how to find my friend. I just wandered around the station adn found nobody. Then i was so hungry at that time but i could not eat until i found my friend. I decided to go out from station area and tried to find internet connection. I saw Starbuck over the station and i just came into just to drink and enjoyed the internet, but i can say it was lucky for me since the starbuck was about to close. If i had tried the starbuck there, that would have been my very starbuck ever in my life. Then i saw many 7Elevens, i just thought that all 7Elevens were alike since in Indonesia 7Eleven was block buster for its convenience and internet. I came and asked to the seller there and i could not speak in english, but they understood what i meant, and there was no wifi. I tried to other outlets, the result was same, nothing. I was really desperate that time. i just walked with head down, was thinking where i should stay. Then there was a crowded restaurant, fancy one, so i thought it should be wifi equipped in that time. just came into, asked to the worker and he forwarded me to his boss about it and NO WIFI again. I was totally lost and did not know what to do. Then i decided to find cheap hostel to stay. I walked slowly to the station to take the train and it was really surprised me, I FOUND MY FRIEND THERE. I found him buying ticket, i was so happy, terribly happy. Then he was waiting for me for so long, and i just went out and tried to find  him. I wrote the wrong number of his. Then we talked along the way to go to his dorm which is far from the city of Bangkok. We walked about 10 minutes to catch the very last Van to his dorm. And fortunately again, we could catch the last Van, and it was 10 pm.

The van was running well since it was late night, so there was no traffic along the way. About 30 minutes we arrived to the gate of the dorm, and we had to take another van to go to the dorm, 5 THB for each. Then we finally boarded to the van and only took 4 minutes to arrive. The dorm complex was so cool for me. I was amazed of this condition. It was totally different with my dorm. It was like a appartement instead of dorm. Then i was really hungry, the very first heavy meal i tried in abroad in TOM YAM KUNG. It costed me 70 THB with big porsion. It was too big for me and i could not finish it, just wasted it.

seductively spicy

here i write my first post in English.
It's to improve my english. so, It's no wonder if many mistakes, grammatically or vacabularily. :p

Here i want to write about one of the most Authentic Cuisine from Indochina (especially Isaan province in Northeast thailand)..

darararararararara..
wooo.... and it goes To

SOM TAM


so ther story begins..

what a nice experince i have while i was in Isaan, especially in Khon Kaen.
here, i was introduced to Som Tam. it's kinda funny because it's made from unrippen papaya, or so called 'papaya salad'. yeah it's totally salad, originally Isaan.

my friend, Moss. thanks baby bro :p He told me about Khon kaen and Isaan.
Som tam is kind of compulsory food of Isaan.
so, it's made from unrippen papaya, cucumber, young manggo, and some peanuts. for flavour, It's Totally SPICY. with Fish sauce, Brined Crap (the weirdest is they the entirely crabs, including the shell). what a!!!!
and it's so stinky for me.

oaky, in his famiy, we had dinner with Som tam, and they ate (so weird again) with Sticky rice. it's weird because in Indonesia we eat Sticky rice for snack, not main course. at first i rejected to eat them, but i tried to taste, and it's damn Spicy!!! and for them it's so so.

another day was coming, Moss and I went to Phu Kradueng National park in Loei Province. Once more, we met strangers (and so called helli Stranger mates) in the top of the mount. we rent tent and we were very hungry. we found them having a lil feast and they asked us to join. and again, they ate Som tam and it's kore spicy than i tried in Moss' house. OMG, they ate som tam again.
And, another day, in Khon kaen hospital, we had to pay a visit to P'thick who got some blood problem in brain. and she asked us to buy her Som tam. Oh mine, why????/ it's spicy and she kept eating it. and i knew that Som tam is isaan, and vice versa.

I think my life with som tam was ended. We went to Korat (Nakhon Rattchatshima), and in the very night we had to go back to hotel, and Moss asked me to accompany him to buy Som Tam because he said that som tam in Norat is the best one, and i still didnt get what's the different :p

and because of Som tam, we had to miss the last Songthaew to go to Hotel, and we ahd to take Tuktuk and we had to pay 80 THB. hahaha.. and we ate the som tam in the hotel with beer. Wherever I went in isaan, Som tam would be always. I had to leave Thailand to Go to laos, and i met my BFF, Tri Tusseno in Ubon ratchathani, and we went to Big C mall in teh city, we were so starving, and he decide to buy som tam (Oh No...) and the taste now was different with others i tried before, and we threw up after ate this som tam in Ubonrat. hahahaha

TukTuk we took due to missing the last Songthaew

SOM TAM is ISAAN. and I started missing it. I hope i can find it in jakarta very soon....
You won't be in isaan if not trying Som tam. It's absofuckingly spicy for me, and you will miss when u are home...