We mistakenly read one of the departure times as the arrival time for our van to reach the Thai/Malay border. I guess we’re out of practice after not taking any long rides in a while. The ride through the southern tip of Thailand was surprisingly Keralan-esque with numerous coconut palms, mosques, and men in longhie-like sarongs and caps walking or cycling on the side of the road. We passed through several military checkpoints, a reminder of the ever present tensions in the south. Thankfully things turned out fine and although we arrived at the border 3 hours later than expected, crossing was much easier than we thought with hardly a wait on either side, and just a short walk between the checkpoints. (We prefer to not arrive in new places, especially new countries at dusk/dark because it is difficult to orient oneself, and we never know how long border formalities will take.) As we walked out of immigration I was surprised that no one came up to us to offer a cab or money changing services. After a short wait, we caught a local bus to Kotu Baru, where we would spend the night. I was impressed by so many people’s ability to speak seemingly great English, even the local bus drivers. It definitely made arriving an easy process. As we got off the bus a couple people seemed to want to tout us to a hotel, but after asking the usual, “Where are you going?” They responded to our answer with directions on how to get there on our own. It was really refreshing. We went India-style on the hotel and looked at several before choosing a clean and friendly place. Despite having a shared bath down the hall, it reminded me more of dorm-life than other shared-bath places we’ve stayed which mostly just feel gross. Our first 24 hours in Malaysia began the same way Thailand ended with confusion about the time, this time about the actual time and it wasn’t until a day later that we realized we were in a new time zone. (Which could have potentially messed us up with transportation this morning, but luckily we were ok.) Otherwise, the transition to Malaysia has been smooth sailing…until we went to Perhention.

 Today was another long border crossing day. We didn’t have to go from Krabi to the border all in one day, but let me explain the alternatives. One alternative would have been to stay in Hat Yai or the Thai border town of Sungai Kolok tonight and cross the border tomorrow, but both places have reputations as seedy prostitute-filled towns catering to Malaysian and Singaporean men looking for some action. We could have stayed elsewhere on the route between Krabi and Sungai Kolok, such as Yala. Yala, however, is the epicenter of violence that has engulfed several southern Thai provinces. Every few days, the Bangkok Post reports bombings in the south. The bombing campaign is being carried out by southern separatists. Although there is much pubic discussion on the possibility and consequences of giving the south some degree of autonomy, the separatists have continued their bombings. So with the option of staying in a hooker town where hotels charge by the hour, staying in a region with several bombings a week, or embarking on a long travel day, the choice was somewhat easy.

            I don’t think we’ve ever woken up past six on a border crossing day and today was no different. By seven, we were in a van on our way to Malaysia. The only funny thing to report about were these two British college students. One was in the back row with us and one was in the middle row, when we stopped and our driver jumped out real quick to run an errand or something. The guy next to me said to his mate, “James, can you let me out, I gotta piss.” James, apparently, replied, “Uh, I don’t think this is a stop.” I’m not sure why the guy James didn’t move his chair for his buddy, but the dude next to me went ballistic: “James! I don’t give a f#@&! You don’t know how desperate I am!” He proceeded to climb over the seats, open the door, and run to a field where he relieved himself. I don’t know why I found it so funny, whether it was his elfish face, his bipolar outburst, or his British accent, but it was pretty entertaining. In Hat Yai, we discovered we had to switch vans, which was an unpleasant surprise considering we assumed the bus was direct to the border. We never assume, which is why Joylani said we’ve lost our edge after traveling with my parents. We did have to stop at about 10 different military checkpoints on the highway and once even had to show our passports, but the military presence did add a sense of security to our drive through terrorist land. We finally did arrive at the border at around 3:30. Luckily, the border crossing was perhaps the easiest land-border-crossing we’ve had yet.