its the adventure of mis-adventure..journey up North to the bordertown of Padang Besar before venturing to a land where time is slower by an hour.
Saz and I decided to embark a journey to the North from KL to Krabi, via the road less traveled (by train to Hatyai & by van afterwards)
Yes, it will be easier to just take a flight KUL-KBV but you won't get all the adventure kinda trip like that haha
So here's the story of our journey..
Friday; Oct-07, 2011
The Train NO:20 Ekpress Langkawi to Hatyai departs at 9.20pm from KL Sentral and I arrived at 9pm which was kinda last minute for my standard. Saz texted and said he's still on the LRT from Taman Melati. I was scared that we might miss the train, but not to panic i replied: "ok..hurry up."
I believes he's well aware about the lateness too as he's holding the tickets. I just can't believe I'm earlier than him since I finished work at 8pm & quickly take the LRT from Kelana Jaya just to be on time, if not early. Well, whatever..
At 9.15pm, there was the final call for boarding the train but Saz's nowhere to be seen. I have in mind the possibility of running and chasing our trains later. haha
9.18pm: I saw Wan walking casually up the stairs to the Level2 of KL Sentral and I was like "pffftt..come on!"
9.20pm: We're the last on the train and quickly went looking for our sleepers coach L8 which was at the back of the 12-coach train.
Upon reaching the coach & checking our bunks, we're surprised to see they're occupied.
Confidently, I approached "the squatter".."ahem, isn't this suppose to be mine?" while showing the lad my ticket.
...
"Bro, your ticket is another 2 days lah," he replied.
I haven't really checked out the details of the tickets as it was Saz who bought them & thanks to his lateness, we're in hurry and I've got no time to really look at the details. As much as I believe in Saz, I was shocked to find out the ugly truth..
Our tickets indeed printed 09/10 as departure date! Grrrrrr...
So, we sheepishly grab our bags & about to go off the train until we stumbled upon the Train Conductor.
We explained to him that we wrongly bought the tickets and supposed to leave tonight; or was it the other way around: we bought the right tickets, but somehow or rather got the wrong dates on our tickets... I can't really recall as I just want to leave KL that very night..haha
Mr Yusri, as i noticed on his nametag on his striking-blue colour uniform was a sport, and replied "Boleh naik, tapi seat tak confirm lah.." which was an ok for us, we wouldn't mind.
Saz suggested that we just hang around in the Cafe coach, which I okayed.
Well..so there were we..sitting at the table in the Cafe coach..
After a while, we managed to laugh off at this mis-adventure so far..perhaps just to kill the awkward silence or perhaps to keep the spirit up
Mr Yusri came to Cafe coach the check on the other passengers tix, but skipped us as we smiled at him Thanks anyway
Yes, it will be easier to just take a flight KUL-KBV but you won't get all the adventure kinda trip like that haha
So here's the story of our journey..
Friday; Oct-07, 2011
The Train NO:20 Ekpress Langkawi to Hatyai departs at 9.20pm from KL Sentral and I arrived at 9pm which was kinda last minute for my standard. Saz texted and said he's still on the LRT from Taman Melati. I was scared that we might miss the train, but not to panic i replied: "ok..hurry up."
I believes he's well aware about the lateness too as he's holding the tickets. I just can't believe I'm earlier than him since I finished work at 8pm & quickly take the LRT from Kelana Jaya just to be on time, if not early. Well, whatever..
At 9.15pm, there was the final call for boarding the train but Saz's nowhere to be seen. I have in mind the possibility of running and chasing our trains later. haha
9.18pm: I saw Wan walking casually up the stairs to the Level2 of KL Sentral and I was like "pffftt..come on!"
"Arghhh..we got wrong tickets!" |
9.20pm: We're the last on the train and quickly went looking for our sleepers coach L8 which was at the back of the 12-coach train.
Upon reaching the coach & checking our bunks, we're surprised to see they're occupied.
Confidently, I approached "the squatter".."ahem, isn't this suppose to be mine?" while showing the lad my ticket.
...
"Bro, your ticket is another 2 days lah," he replied.
I haven't really checked out the details of the tickets as it was Saz who bought them & thanks to his lateness, we're in hurry and I've got no time to really look at the details. As much as I believe in Saz, I was shocked to find out the ugly truth..
Our tickets indeed printed 09/10 as departure date! Grrrrrr...
So, we sheepishly grab our bags & about to go off the train until we stumbled upon the Train Conductor.
Gelak je taw..lol |
We explained to him that we wrongly bought the tickets and supposed to leave tonight; or was it the other way around: we bought the right tickets, but somehow or rather got the wrong dates on our tickets... I can't really recall as I just want to leave KL that very night..haha
Mr Yusri, as i noticed on his nametag on his striking-blue colour uniform was a sport, and replied "Boleh naik, tapi seat tak confirm lah.." which was an ok for us, we wouldn't mind.
Saz suggested that we just hang around in the Cafe coach, which I okayed.
Well..so there were we..sitting at the table in the Cafe coach..
After a while, we managed to laugh off at this mis-adventure so far..perhaps just to kill the awkward silence or perhaps to keep the spirit up
Mr Yusri came to Cafe coach the check on the other passengers tix, but skipped us as we smiled at him Thanks anyway
Meal on board. |
Tido ke? |
Mr Conductor further advised us that we'll need to buy a separate tix for the Padang Besar-Hatyai leg as our wrong tickets wont be of use later, which he further recommend us buying from the Thai Railway counter..cheaper he said.
He showed us our bunks for the next few hours, enough to rest before another long journey after the sunrise.
so..ZZzzzzzzzz (finally)
I woke up at 7.30am as we're approaching Alor Setar and quickly grabbed the camera for some shots (wan was still in deep sleep )
Around 8am, reached Arau and most of the passengers disembark here..
managed to snap some pics of the activities;
managed to snap some pics of the activities;
As advised by Mr Conductor earlier, we went and get the tix to Hatyai from the Thai Rail counter..there's no counter actually, but an office with a male, thai-speaking officer..he didn't speak english but from his big calculator, we need to pay RM6 each for the tix..
I guess if we buy from KTMB counter, it would be around RM10 at least..
The train to Hatyai will depart in another 40-minutes, so we decided to have breakfast upstairs..
I guess if we buy from KTMB counter, it would be around RM10 at least..
The train to Hatyai will depart in another 40-minutes, so we decided to have breakfast upstairs..
The train left Padang Besar around 9.40am Malaysia Time..but its much shorter than the original that we took from KL, logically as they're only about 10-20 passengers left for this leg.
On board, an auntie shouted "Baht! Baht!" and was offering currency exchange onboard. The rate was 1MYR = 9.7Baht which i found good, so i handed her RM400.
there you go..3880baht
to be continued/-