We had an extra Public Holiday at our disposal on Tuesday of 30th July 2019. We thought, let's excite what would be a normal weekend of eating, shopping-malling, be on the road, with something not so different but not entirely predictable either. What we had in mind was basically, let's do 'Penang' but with an extra zest.
So we took Monday off for a trip out of town, which eventually became out of the country, to another food haven, shopping paradise, massage treatment, cheaper hotel rates but with the same crisp bedsheets, that is Hatyai.
We measured our options, booked a hotel with a location between the train station and the town, and yes, we ditched the car and chose to play a little backpacking by riding the trains.
The KTM Komuter train tickets from BM to Padang Besar is RM8.60/person, a discounted rate with your Malaysian IC from RM10+. From there, just hop to another platform for a Thai train to Hatyai Junction train station, that's 50THB/person or you can pay RM7 to the post officer. Too cheap to pass, yeah.
The train KTM Komuter schedule begins at 5.30am and available every hour from the Butterworth train station towards the last station, Padang Besar, daily. The train from Padang Besar to Hatyai Junction meanwhile is twice daily. These are the third class coach trains, the one we're boarding, at 8.55am and 3.40pm, Thai time.
Very soon, we started to learn the trade off to that dirt cheap rate along the way.
The third class train State Railway of Thailand introduced for the Padang Besar to Hatyai Junction.It takes about 40 minutes to reach Hatyai but oh my, such long waiting hours to board the train, though.I have no idea if the same train are used for other routes as well, which might have caused the delay.If not, then, I'd settle for scheduled maintenance reason of this train..it really is, antique. Don't get the wrong idea, it is quite a funny experience. How often an experience can turn out to be so amusing?
Word of advice, just sit. Once you bought the tickets and got your white card (the same type you fill in as you're entering Singapore), fill it in and just sit. You need to queue towards door number 6, but really, just sit. In our case, and what we learned, the day before too, it opened after about 2hrs of queueing. I don't know why.
Travelling by train from Padang Besar border to Hatyai was tinged with a disappointment. A delayed train schedule without any notice or an explanation seems to be the standard operating procedure. At the Padang Besar train station, where the railway track connects both countries, a vast difference separated the quality that of Malaysia's KTM Komuter section from that of its Thailand counterpart. Electronic notice boards, announcements in proper and clear dual languages, trains, ticket counter..OK I'm simply nitpicking here coz this post was written during a 3hr delay at the border.
So glad we sat down. When door number 6 opens, the single line is going to break out into multiple lines of Malaysian immigration booth anyway, so you can definitely squeeze in.
These electronic boards are only for KTM announcements.We were left wondering and resorted to this is how they do it in this part of the country...or this is not an international airport anyway..and don't act so spoiled..to nothing is gonna come between me and a pleasantly good weekend.
Hopping onto the train, like finally, did not prepare us for the sights of what's coming though. Did we just pass through a time tunnel back in time to the 60's? Everything was antique. We sat beside two other couples, Indians and Chinese, very 1Malaysia, all looking at one another, clearly first timers, grinning in bewilderment.
Boarding time... Here we go... "mcm nk runtuh je..." was what I had in mind when I looked back at this picture. I dared not ask what she saw and she didn't tell me anything either. Must be something that might have spooked me.
I hopped on with an excited grin, turned to my right and this sight greeted me. I swear my grin disappeared. Woaah...this is real. I really did not expect this. And I've been spoiled all this while. Before things got exciting, I must say, I gotta adjust to this reality for a bit.
We finally sat down and I had a long moment to sink this in..."This is serious."
We finally sat down and I had a long moment to sink this in..."This is serious."
Checking if the railways were anything like the 60's as well...
My travelling partner is super good at staying delighted in any conditions, that I know of..which is good, coz higher vibrations transform the lower ones. I was infected, pulled out my phone and started taking pictures (the big camera stays in the bag for the meantime). Until someone opened the toilet door. Good gohd the smell! Nobody thought of cleaning the toilet during the 3 hour maintenance time? I guess I began to panic and my travelling partner came to the rescue by walking over to the toilet, just in front of us, and pulled the door closed, tight, nonchalantly..my hero...
This is a full sized seat meant for two adults. The Chinese guy beside us commented that these seats were made for small Asians way back when...to which his gf/wife responded with, "So you're saying you made yourself big, is it?"
Kudos to Malaysians' spirit in cracking up jokes during awkward moments.
15 minutes passed the 3 hour delayed mark. As we were obviously still trying to settle in, the train went into a hard jerk. There was an equally loud "Woaaahhh" from all of us followed by a loud cheer as the train started moving. Typical Malaysian spirit in the face of awkwardness.
Note the ceiling fans, fully functional. Perhaps it would be more functional when it rains. Lucky for us the weather was beautiful during the ride, the outside breeze from the big opened window was refreshing...or rather calmed my nerves down.
Such impression imprinted right at the forefront of the border pushes our expectation low as we were exiting Malaysia northbound. The delayed schedule turns out to be a big help at meditating this conscious thought deeper into our unconscious. For with lowered expectations, we started to notice wonderful little things that eventually excited our vibes to another level.
The rest of the 40 minute journey to Hatyai city centre was uneventful. The weather was on our side, pleasantly windy, and although the sun was shining, truth be told, it was not as harsh as our sunshine.
No comments:
Post a Comment