Bangkok to KL

Before leaving Bangkok, I at first tried to get a train ticket the day before I had wanted to leave. When I went to the train station, all the tickets were sold out and for the following day. This woman, who I believed worked there, showed me to a "tourist information" office. This office was in the back side of the train station and somewhat hidden. I went there, and this gentleman tried to get me a bus ticket to Kuala Lumpur. It seemed great, the bus would get me a day quicker than the train would, not to mention I would also have to change trains twice in order to get from Bangkok to KL. However, the direct bus was also sold out. "Luckily" there was still room on a bus, same timing, but I would have to switch buses at Surathani to Hat Yai, which would be a "micro bus" then back to an air-con bus from Hat Yai to KL. The total cost for this was 1900 baht (55.50 USD), which seemed a bit pricey to me considering Thai standards. I think the train would have cost a little less and I would have had a sleeper car. In retrospect I should have at least priced out another option, but the MRT went straight to the train station (where the bus I was taking was leaving from) and the North Bus Terminal is quite far away from the train station. I would have had to go to the bus station, see if there were any tickets available at what cost, if not then come back to the train station to hopefully still have this seat available. I settled for either convinience or out of laziness... take your pick.

The bus left at 7:00 pm from the tran station. Since it is a train station, I wasn't too sure where to go to get the bus. The man at the tourist office had said to go behind the KFC in the train terminal. I went there and there was a bus, but I showed the man the ticket and he told me to go back to the agency where I got it. At this point I realized there's probably more than one agency in the train station, and this woman that also works at the train station gets a little money to direct people like me to this certain one. Anyway, I went to the agency and I showed the ticket. The lady that worked there told me to follow this girl wearing a schoolgirl outfit outside of the agency. This schoolgirl, and I really believe she was a schoolgirl, would show me to the bus. Okay... She took me and we walked for about 5-10 minutes through some weird alleyways. It was all a bit strange. We finally arrived at the bus and I loaded my stuff in it.

Since I had not slept much the night before... I was completely out for the entire ride. There were not many people on the bus so I could lay out in the back between four seats. It was great. Since there were not many people, I figured I would be able to go straight to KL without even switching buses. How wrong I was. I woke up whenever we stopped, and around 5:30 am we stopped. I wasn't quite sure where we were and I just had wanted to stretch my legs. I got out of the bus, and the bus driver had taken my pack and put it off the bus. He told me that I was going to switch buses now, so I quickly went back on the bus to grab the rest of my things. We were apparently in Surathani, but it wasn't a bus station that we had stopped at. It was a "travel agency." This agency was on some back road somewhere in the city, and it was all a bit strange. Everything was closed except this one agency and a few street food vendors. There were just two older Thai men that were "working" there. I asked one man when the bus to Hat Yai would be and he responded 6:00 am. As 6:00 am quickly passed, I just figured this was like Macedonia and things ran a little late. However, at 6:15 am he told me to follow him. He led me through an alley and a street food vendor area to another agency. It again was quite strange. I waited there until 7:00 am, until a "micro bus"or a kombi (small van like bus) picked me up. We made several stops within Surathani and then we were off to Hat Yai. I was the only foreigner on this bus, but it was quite comfortable. The only problem was there was no air-con and since we were traveling during the middle of the day it was quite hot inside the micro bus. We made a few stops on the way for food and breaks, but as we were approaching Hat Yai.. I noticed that I would be late for the 10:00 am bus that I was supposed to be on to KL. I was wondering if this bus would wait or if I would have to stay in Hat Yai for the whole day. As we entered Hat Yai, we made several stops within the city to let off people at the various locations. I was the last one to be let off at another strange hole in the wall travel agency. I was told that the next bus to Hat Yai would be at 6:00 pm. So I had to spend 6 hours with my packs and all wandering around Hat Yai. Luckily, I just put my huge pack down at the counter and wandered around one street and pretty much ate all day.

As 6 pm approached, I was taken from the agency I arrived at to yet ANOTHER agency. This one in the center of the town. We picked up another passagenger from another agency on the way there. This bus was a standard travel bus with full air-con. At 7 pm, I was finally on my way to KL.

I had spent a little over 24 hours traveling, been to 5 different travel agencies and rode on three different buses. It was a strange experience, not knowing what was coming next, not to mention the whole weirdness of going to these hole in the wall travel agencies not once but five different times. I am curious how this operation works. The travel agencies did not have any "logo"or anything in common, so I wondered how they all kept in touch with each other. Internet is obviously out of the question, so it must be through phone. And how do they all get their share of the pie? 1900 divided by 5 agencies not to mention the woman that showed me there must get a small portion and this is on top of the travel costs.

So I left Bangkok at 7:00 pm on December 12th and then arrived in KL on 5:00 am December 14th. I should have bought tickets much more in advance and perhaps have sidestepped all this weirdness.