23 April

The alarms go off, first it's a search and retrieve exercise to find the cellphone to turn off the alarm and find the flashlights considering its still dark outside. We shower and pack the last few things before heading off to the jetty with our bags. The ferry arrives early and 07h40 we are on our way to the large island to pick up other guests who don't know what on time is. After everyone waited 30 minutes on the boat for the last passengers we depart for the mainland. For some or other reason the driver is driving irritably slowly taking into consideration the hell ride to the islands where one had to hold on in order not bounce off. At last the reason becomes evident, we stop in mid ocean, the islands and mainland barely visible, NO FUEL!!! Frustration mounts as various people have busses to catch which take them directly to the airport with little time to spare and our bus also leaves at 09h00. After bobbing around for 20 minutes with a multitude of cellphone calls, another boat arrives with a 25L tank. We're off once again, we arrive at the dock with everyone literally running for a taxi or bus stop. We just missed our bus but luckily there's another one in an hour!

I head over to the agency who sold us the tickets, more to try my luck than expecting anything more. Sighting the fact that we missed the bus and that we were on a tight schedule (very true today), she gave me a RM 20 discount, hey its food for the whole day! I head back to the bus station where Leanne kept an eye on the bags, sitting down while she looks for water and breakfast.

The bus arrives and we head to Kota Bharu for another 1 ½ hour bus trip. Upon arriving we head to our old accommodation Bungarai Lodge just 3 minutes walk from the station, we arrange with the person there that we leave our bags in one room which we lock while I head to the Thailand Consulate and Leanne to the Post Office two blocks away. I need to take the taxi seeing as the consulate closes in 15 minutes and it's a 3 km walk, once a taxi agrees to the price we head off arriving at 11h55. Passports in hand I ask him to drop me at the post office where Leanne has to wait for one more person before its her turn. The lady explains the procedure and we graft the addresses of the recipients, weighing the parcel and posting it.

Having 30 minutes left and not having eaten lunch we head to McDonalds who had a half price special on a small mac, fries and coke. Stomachs full and coke in had we collect our bags and head for the bus which leaves as we arrive. Luckily we only have to wait 30 minutes for the next one to the boarder. Once on the bus a state of relaxation passes over us having done everything required, one hour later we are dropped off at the boarder and pass through immigration. We literally walked over the border - a bridge about 100m long. Now in the southern most part of Thailand, known only for its militant groups who bomb trains and cause riots in an attempt to establish independence, we head for the train station with a feeling of haste. The 1.5 km turns to 3km, but at last we arrive, buy tickets and wait less than 15 minutes for the train that only departs twice a day, talk about timing! Once on the train we depart for Hat Yai, a 5 hour train ride. Leanne showing her nervousness with 4 heavily armed soldiers patrolling OUR coach, carrying what looks like a mixture of a Kalashnikov and an American assault riffle. Everyone else appears very relaxed with the presence of our peace force. The train ride is bumpy but provides an interesting side of Thailand when it comes to the sightseeing.

We arrive at the Hat Yai just before dark and head off to find accommodation, with the help of one of the tourist information guides he points us in the right direction as per our map, Lonely planet book are really worth the money! We head off along the way but before reaching our initial destination meet a rather drunk Brit, who informs us that the accommodation he is staying at (conveniently drinking a beer outside) is tops and quite inexpensive. We have a look at the room, its clean, nice bathroom but that's about it. The receptionist doesn't want to come down with the price but at this stage we are bone tired from a whole day of traveling and we just couldn't care, we only want to go and eat and sleep.

We drop our bags and head for a well rated restaurant about a block away, the prices have gone up considerably but we're to tired to scout out others. We've been on tour for over 3 weeks with no beers or any other alcohol, everywhere we've been are Islamic countries where beers are just to expensive. So tonight is our first evening with a beer, we order a Tiger (see picture) which we share between the two of us, almost like a castle with water added to it, but nice.

I ordered a green curry and Leanne went for the yellow curry, we delved into them with passion taking into account this is our first decent meal for the day (Mc Donalds don't count). I love hot but I feel like a flamethrower is at work inside me - at least we ordered the beer first. Leanne's is also hot but edible which she much enjoyed. Afterwards we find that the rice which we didn't order and assumed was included when she put it on the table was extra, no energy to complain and accepting it as my own ignorance we head back to our accommodation to become one with the bedding.