Goodbye Thailand - We Shall Return

Sunday 22 October

We awoke this morning to the alarm bleeping at 04.45! – and quickly prepared ourselves for an arduous journey to Penang. We had a knock on the door promptly at 05.30 and our bags were collected some ten minutes later. Why then, at 05.50 were the porters still waiting outside Simone (SS or Self-centred Simone) and Tim’s room with everyone else’s luggage loaded on trolleys? But soon after 06.00 we were all assembled along the beach, waiting for the arrival of our long boat from Krabi. The tide was far out on the beach, so we were definitely going to have to wade through the sea to reach the boat.

The boatman arrived and we all trooped, “crocodile-style” along the concrete causeway out into the sea where the water reached knee high by thetime we reached the boat. We clambered aboard in ungainly fashion to find seats at the back, but the porters could only wheel the luggage half way, as the water level was too high for their trolleys. They then had to manhandle all the cases into the front section of the boat, before we were ready to leave.

Today was another day of sad farewells, as the second part of our tour had come to an end. Phil (who has been so helpful carrying cases, lending a helping hand whenever it was needed, checking and looking after us when we were trekking), and Linda and Jill – two lovely ladies from Australia we have spent quite a lot of time with this week – were all returning to Bangkok. Phil would be making the long trip back to Perth via Singapore today, while Linda and Jill were spending a couple more days in Bangkok, staying at a hotel near the dreaded MBK centre, and shopping to their heart’s content – their luggage will definitely be overweight by the time they fly. We will miss all three of them very much, and wish them well when they get home.

We boarded a minibus after all our luggage had been piled into the back seats (SS barring the way in till she got the front seats again – the best thing is that there’s no competition as no one else wants to sit in the front as there is no leg room - and I don’t think Tim was too pleased as he has long legs) and we set off on our long journey. The scenery was much as we have seen in our road travels all over Thailand, with trees, trees and more trees, and a few villages in between. The weather changed quite quickly from a sunny dawn to heavy rain and dark, overcast skies. We just sped along the roads, whether they were dual carriageways, or single lane, whatever the weather (could the driver actually see where he was going on occasions in the rain – the wipers flapping madly from side to side with no effect?) stopping once briefly at a mini-mart, for a toilet break, until about four and a half hours later, we reached the large town of Hat Yei. We pulled up outside a travel agents shop - reminiscent of a Wells Fargo stagecoach stop - for a new vehicle and driver who would take us all the way across the border to Penang. We also met our new tour guide – Paul – a tall thin Malaysian man, late forties, who seemed very friendly and from the start gave us lots of information about what we could expect for the rest of the journey – a little different to Nok, who gave very little away about what we would face.

Today was also our last day in Thailand! We have been in the country for seven weeks now (all bar an hour or so on the Visa Run), and have become very attached to the people and country. But we have noticed the differences between the people of the north – very primitive, but so keen to share their life you - to Bangkok, a busy, bustling city with manic traffic (which city hasn’t these days) where the people are trying hard to get into the 21st century and deal with all the political problems, and where all the girls (and boys!) are stick thin - to Koh Samui, where everyone is so laid back and easy going - to the people of the south, where most are Moslems, looking very middle-eastern in appearance (Egyptians spring to mind) - and are much more aggressive by nature and look almost threatening at times. You feel there is an underlying tension here that we had not experienced elsewhere. There are still some insurgent problems in this part of the country, as they wait for the new Constitution to be published, and a new Government to be formed, but there are already lots of rumblings about the fairness of the forthcoming elections. All over Thailand we have seen hundreds of the yellow flags of the King flying next to the national flags, together with bunting and large gilded billboard pictures of the King, declaring their allegiance to the royal family. King Rama IX is 78 years old now, and although the pictures show him in good health, they were probably taken some ten years or so ago, as he is now very frail and doddery – especially compared to our Queen, who is two years older and much more sprightly.

We crossed the border at Soan Doi, in the pouring rain. At the Thailand exit check, there seemed to be a hiccup with my passport – three others in our group had been stamped through, but my passport would not register. The poor official became agitated and kept re-entering the data, huffing and puffing, but the computer just wouldn’t accept it. Finally, in pure frustration, he turned the computer off and started again. Meanwhile the queue behind us was growing longer as several coaches had pulled up – it is a national holiday in Thailand tomorrow, and lots of Thai people were crossing into Malaysia for a short break. Eventually (after about ten minutes) the information was accepted, and my passport was stamped. We were back to the minibus for the few hundred yards drive to the Malaysian immigration office. Here we had to unload and carry all our luggage through the scanner. Passport information is read by optical readers here, so no problems with entering data on the computer. Walking down the tunnel to the exit, we saw the minibus was parked nearby but out in the open, and even in that short distance, we were fairly wet as we climbed back to our seats – so too was our luggage as it was stacked on the road, waiting for the driver to load it on the back seat – (SS made sure her’s was first in!). Our next task was to put our watches forward by one hour – we are now seven hours in front of England.

Immediately we started driving along the Malaysian roads, there was a very different feel to the country. Malaysia was very orderly, almost formal – large pristine fields of rice (although flooded rather more in some places than would be normal due to the recent heavy rainfall), acres of palm trees, producing palm oil, the main crop of Malaysia these days, since the demise of rubber, and lots of small neat housing estates - pink and cream plastered bungalow style buildings. This scenery made Thailand appear tatty, ramshackle and totally disorganized – but that’s just how Thailand is – they are a happy-go-lucky and on the whole, very unmaterialistic people, happy with their lot. They don’t want “posh” and don’t understand the meaning of “organized” and “orderly”.

It took another two and a half hours to reach the island of Penang (part of Penang is on the mainland and the rest is an island) where we are staying in the capital, Georgetown. We had to make an emergency stop for Warren to go to the loo which produced all the usual toilet humour – it is usually women who have this problem, but SS and I were fine. To reach the island we had to cross the Penang Bridge – a span style structure looking a lot like the Dartford Bridge from a distance – it is over 13.5 kms in length and the symmetrical fan-shaped centre rises to a height of 225 metres. It is also the longest bridge in south east Asia. It had rained on and off all the way here, and was absolutely pouring down again when we pulled up in front of the Bay View Hotel on the Penang Road. The hotel is a typical 4* standard with a glitzy lobby and snug bar. Our room is on the 15th floor (thank goodness they have lifts here) and the view across the bay to the bridge is very impressive. It is quite comfortable and the shower is over the bath, so at least it won’t soak the bathroom floor.

We had a couple of hours to settle in before meeting Paul in the Lobby who was taking us to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately it was still raining hard when Paul, Simone and Tim and ourselves (Warren had decided not to come along – his excuse is he is a fussy eater?!?) left the hotel. Paul tried a couple of times to persuade taxi drivers to take us the few hundred yards to the restaurant, but they all refused, saying the distance was not worth their while, but eventually one of the drivers who had said “no”, came back and took pity on us – so we all five piled in the Toyota Corolla, for a journey lasting less than a couple of minutes. The restaurant was not very large and we had to move a few tables to accommodate the five of us plus two other ladies – who were Nok and Pok’s bosses in Bangkok, and had come to Penang for the national holiday (in fact they arrived just as we were having tea at the end of the meal, so Simone, Tim, Colin and myself left them to eat their meal and bring Paul up to speed about the agency). The menu was a surprise – mainly style western food, with a little Asian influence – not enough though to call the food “fusion”. Colin had some Thai chicken sausages with a spicy sauce to start, while I had a spicy tuna dip with poppadums. For main course, Colin chose chicken stuffed with prunes with veggies and I had barbequed salmon fillet (it was a huge piece of fish, but very delicious), with a spicy sauce and chilli salad (it was meant to come with red onion salsa, but somewhere along the line it became a mixed salad with lots of chilli) and mashed potatoes. Because I had chosen a fish dish, I was presented with a peach melba for dessert, on the house – which I promptly donated to Colin. We finished the meal with Chinese green tea. It cost about 14 GBP in total, including drinks – beer and shake. We have got to get used to ringats now – about 6.5 to 1 GBP.

We walked the short distance back to the hotel, even though it was still drizzling. I hope it stops raining tomorrow when we are due to tour Penang for most of the day. We have been warned everywhere will be busy due to the holiday, lasting till Wednesday, and called because it was Deeravali (a Hindu festival) last Saturday and the end of Ramadan (Moslem) tomorrow – and we thought our main problem would be families away for half-term. There is also a swimming pool and jacuzzi in the hotel, so hopefully will find time to try them out.

Toes are not doing so well today – one seems quite infected and the other is going downhill fast. We have done our best for them, and will inspect again tomorrow – there is a drug store in the hotel, so may well be paying it a visit.

When we filled out our questionnaires about this last tour, we were honest but not very kind about the tour guide or facilities – Paul actually works for Kumuka, not an agency guide like Pok and Nok – oh dear – what has he let himself in for!!!