Langkawi Island, Malaysia to Koh Samui, Thailand
One of the longer journeys I made throughout my travels ... Thailand (泰國) was never in the original plan, but after living in Taiwan (臺灣) for five months, it seemed like a place to check out. I dared to take another speed boat from Langkawi into Satun, Thailand ... the trip was nothing like the one prior ... thankfully!
The boat trip from Malaysia to Thailand was about an hour ... the heat difference was amazing. Malaysia (馬來西亞) didn't strike me as being too hot, but upon my arrival in Thailand, it was toasty. It was rather easy to get through customs ... no one asked me a single question, I didn't even get a hello (你好 ni3 hao3) ... just a quick look through my passport ... it was stamped and I was on my way.
As I stood outside the doors of customs wondering how I would go about getting to where I wanted to go, I met a Canadian girl from Montreal who was parting with her travelling partner. We were somewhat heading in the same direction, so I decided to spend the day on the road with her as where I wanted to be was a long ways away. We bartered with a guy to take us into the city ... we wanted to go to the bus station. When we were dropped off, it was then that it struck me ... I was now in a third world country.
The bus station consisted of two wooden benches ... like something you'd find on a elementary school baseball field, with a piece of sheet metal as a roof overhead. About fifteen people filled the benches. A small battered wooden table sat to one side ... a guy in a big straw hat sat on this little stool, it was much too small for the table ... in his hands were a pencil and a pad of paper. This ... was the bus station. As no one spoke any English, all we could say was Hat Yai ... the guy in the hat wrote down how much we owed and motioned for us to sit. We weren't really sure what it was that we were waiting for or how long we were to wait but alas a van/shuttle bus came by and 15 of us shoved in for the hour journey to Hat Yai.
We were able to catch a train (火車 huo3 che1) in Hat Yai. I was heading to Surat Thani, my new found friend was heading to Bangkok. We had a few hours to kill before the train arrived so we decided to go for our first Thai meal ... so yummy! I was glad I didn't wear socks that day as the spice from the food would've blown 'em right off.
The train ride proved interesting ... people stared at us, some tried to offer us food and by this, I mean ... they were eating plain white rice from a bag with their fingers and by offering I mean they stuck their hand in the bag, grabbed a handful of rice and offered their hand ... hmmm. The best story from the train involves a boy ... he hardly spoke a word of English ... however, what I got from it was this ... he thought my hair (or lack of it) was cool and he wanted me to drink Coca Cola with him. He continually came over saying 'drink Coke, drink Coke' ... eventually, he brought his friend over, who spoke one more word of English than he did to tell me 'friend, drink Coke' ... as a last attempt, he came over to me with something written on his arm ... as he reads from his arm, the words that come out of his mouth are ... 'I love you, drink Coke'. Although it brought a huge smile to my face, he, unfortunately, was once again rejected.
Five hours of being on the train, it was finally my turn to get off. After fourteen hours on the road, I now found myself in Surat Thani ... I was making my way to some overnight boats heading to a few of the islands. I decided to first hit Koh Samui, then Koh Phangan and then Koh Tao. The boat to Koh Samui left at 11pm and it took all night to get to the island. I believe we were on a fishing boat of some kind, as there were lots of guys working downstairs ... but it was hard to tell what they were up to without looking too nosy. The upstairs, which consisted of 11 foreigners, was a low room with dark floors. You couldn't stand up as the deck was about 4 feet high. There were 40 single bed mats along two walls, 20 on each side. I crashed for a few hours with my head on my 30L pack ... this contained everything I had for 8 weeks of travel.
We were woken around 4am and found ourselves being escorted from the boat ... it was still dark. Pick up truck taxis were waiting for us ... I arrived on my first Thailand beach at 430am ... nothing was open, it was pitch black. I took my pack and walked down to the water when I encountered 8 dogs who were interested in playing ... after dipping my feet in the water, I sat in the sand with the dogs, got out my mobile and called my Mom as I couldn't believe I had finally made it ... 20 hours after leaving Malaysia, I was finally in Thailand! The sun rise was spectacular! An amazing 6 weeks followed, leaving me with memories that will always bring happiness into my heart.
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