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