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| At Taiping's Lake Gardens |
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| Leaving the house, in the morning |
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| Breakfast at Kwan Seong's. |
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| Comfortable journey on ETS |
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| The train passing by Bukit Merah Lake |
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| At Malaysia's Padang Besar train station |
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| Entering Malaysia's CIQ |
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| Entering Thai's CIQ |
We started the day with Kwan Seong’s wantan mee. Riding up Drummond’s Hill, May’s only issue was changing her gears during the ascent. When she failed, she created a traffic jam behind her! Everyone except VT who was ahead, had to stop. However, once down to granny gears, our feisty granny had no problem scaling the slope. Then, it was a free-wheelie all the way down and an easy ride to breakfast.
Once we had fueled up, we made our way to the Lake Gardens and later, the railway station. As bicycles are strictly not allowed on all ETS trains, we quietly packed them into Ikea’s Dimpa bag, to be “smuggled” into the train. As we were doing so, Claudine spotted animal faeces on her tyres. May confirmed it by bending over to give it a good whiff!!!! Hence the bike had to be rolled over the grass for awhile to get the muck off.
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| Coach D is specially designed for the disabled |
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| KTMB ETS' restaurant is sublet to Brahim's. All food are frozen and has to be heated over the microwave |
Getting to our platform involves a long walk to the elevator and another long walk across the overhead pedestrian bridge. Once we had crossed over the tracks, we took another elevator ride down to the platform and another long haul to the estimated carriage stop. A little suffering is necessary for the holiday to begin!
All the hurry was for nothing as our train was delayed by 15
minutes! It only arrived at 10.50 am.
Arriving at Padang Besar station
at 1 pm, our next agenda was to purchase our Thai bound tickets. Despite
several advice from train personnel and Grab drivers (who had ulterior
motives), we were not entirely convinced on the train times.
Even though the Thai railways share the same location
as Malaysian railways, Thai railways schedules follow Thai time. Hence when the
ticket office sticks their opening time as 1.30 pm, it actually meant 2.30 pm
Malaysian time. The train departure scheduled at 3.40 pm is actually in Thai time,
hence 4.40 pm by Malaysian time. As advised by the KTMB personnel, the train
will not budge until everyone has cleared customs and this will usually be
after 5 pm depending on the number of passengers!!!!
As ticket sales had yet to
commence, we made our way out of the station in search of food. Up the elevator
which is strictly for disabled use ONLY, a sign which is blatantly
ignored by everyone including the cleaners. Then, a long push on the pedestrian
walkway which snaked itself across the lines before taking the stairs down.
There were not many eateries in
the 300 m length we cycled. As most eateries looked deserted, we decided
Colonel Sanders was a safer bet. Getting out of the scorching afternoon heat
was a priority too!
Returning to the station after
lunch to buy tickets, Claudine was shocked to see the quiet station had
transformed into a busy hub. A long queue had formed at the ticket booth.
Taking advantage of the waiting crowd, a man was seen selling Thai simcard at
200 baht with unlimited data for 8 days. The simcards can be tested and used immediately, being so close to the border! We
did not make the purchase as we had bought ours online from Shoppee which was
cheaper and works just as well.
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| 50 baht or RM 6.60 per passenger from Padang Besar to Thailand |
Valid passports are required when
buying tickets. However, no details are recorded.
Disappointingly, both government
agencies were not working to the benefit of passengers. They only began
processing everyone's papers when the train arrives.
As we were in the middle of the
queue, we managed to clear passport controls and board our train at 5.20 pm.
Looking for our seats, the seasoned passengers advised us to ignore the seat
numbers as it was a free seating arrangement. We did as were told but as the
train became more and more packed, some passengers in the next coach were
bumped off their seats and the rearrangements had to be made. Thankfully, we
did not have to move from our seats but only to rearrange our bikes and
baggage!
It took awhile for everyone to
clear both countries’ immigration. One Caucasian man though, never made the
journey as there were no visa on arrival service at Padang Besar. He was
friendly and chatty in the beginning, even popular with the Thais as he spoke
some basic Thai but he became very frustrated when he was denied the journey!
After the excitement had died down, we were left to wonder when the train will leave the station. Some passengers had to move to the last carriage in a hurry which further increased our curiosity. We soon found out our train had missed its scheduled departure and thus had to wait for the arrival of the oncoming train to avoid a head-on collision. Passengers taking the connecting train to Bangkok were grouped into the last carriage for easy transfer at Haatyai!
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| Thailand's Padang Besar train station |
The whistle was finally blown at 6.30 pm which garnered the
cheers from everyone on board! As the train crossed the border, our phones switched to
Thai’s service provider. Immediately, we had gained an hour!
The train journey was supposed to be slightly less than an
hour. But our delays led to further delays as the train had to stop twice to
allow oncoming trains to pass through.
Arriving in Haatyai at dusk, we rode precariously in
twilight to our hotel. Once checked in, we quickly dropped our bags and went
out in search for dinner.
It was 7.30 pm Thai time which meant 8.30 pm Malaysian time
and way past our dinner time. Central Festive Mall was right opposite our
hotel’s service lane and Larbuna restaurant, next to it. We chose the latter.
The egg omelette was disappointing and had to be sent back
to the kitchen. When it returned in the same condition, we made another fuss
for it to be removed from the bill which they did. It was overall an expensive
dinner in small portions but the steamed fish saved the day. Not quite
satisfied we moved on to 7 Eleven, stocking up on supplies for the next few
days.
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Bhava Residences, Haadyai
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