Adventure Across Borders

There was no way I would be able to get bus tickets to Hadyai at the point of my decision to travel north so I decided to drive my ‘Pammobile,’ to Kuala Kedah. I dragged Moggie with me to take pictures with his more ‘canggih’ DSLR & hopefully he would blog again. Leaving town was easy, getting onto the freeway was not. On the second day of new year, people were still returning to their hometowns. I was very prepared to sit through the traffic jam & listen to Level 42 along the way while talking Moggie into going somewhere people have never even heard of. Pammobile has always been packed with essentials & travellers-must-haves. Made stops along the North-South Expressway & slept for half an hour parked on a grassy bank before a pee-stop because the stop was packed! Have GPS will travel….

Called Brown Cow to pay him & his family a visit at Alor Setar, with the thought that we would have missed all the ferry times upon reaching so seeing them was a great reunion! They have a new addition called Eaton & he’s also round-round like Brown Cow! He took us to Deejay Restaurant (N6 07.355′ E100 22.595′)a fancy name for a mamak 24-hour eatery with fantastic, bryani rice topped with all kinds of gravy!!! Decided to stay the night & travel to Kuala Kedah at the break of dawn but still couldn’t make the earliest ferry. The place was filled with Chinese Malaysian holiday-makers! With some sweet talking, I managed to get a gentleman to get me the 10am tickets without queing! Cool beans!

Upon reaching at about 11:30am, I bought tickets to Tammalang Pier, in Satun, Thailand for 1:30pm & had lunch in between then. I was still reeling in from the drowsiness that was caused by the motion sickness pill that I’d taken before the boat ride….

At Tammalang Pier, (N 06 36.897′ E 100 03.929′) the immigration checkpoint had lots of tauts, common in most tourist destinations, trying to trick us into taking a private charter to Pak Bara Pier about an hour away for 900 Baht. Took a tuk-tuk to town instead where it cost 20 Baht per person & another 240 Baht per way to Pak Bara Pier(N6 51.632′ E99 43.377′) Reaching the pier at 3:50pm, there were no boats servicing the route so we had to wait till the next morning to get to Koh Lipe. I was so keen to try all the Thai food & discovered a drink called Coconut Shake!!! It must be the best drink ever to quench a traveller’s thirst!

Put up at Diamond Beach Resort for 250 Baht (RM25 believe it or not) & combed the beach for signs of life.

While watching the sun set, I was greeted by eagles & local fishermen who were returning to base. Searching in the waning light, I found some sand dollars! Excited by the prospect of more discoveries, I had to brace myself for the cold bath & cool winds later.

To think that we haven’t even arrived at our destination yet!

To be continued…..