Let the train take the strain -- but this is Thailand, so . . .

Sorry this post is a bit late but I have had a lot of paperwork pile up in my ‘in’ tray, and I have also managed to acquire something you might think is hard to get in Thailand — a nasty Cold! Anyway, apologies over, let’s get on with this latest look at life in Hua Hin.

The clan and I decided to take a break next week, and so on this coming Sunday, we shall be catching the sleeper train from Hua Hin across the Malaysian border to Kuala Kedah, from where we’ll take a ferry to the island of Lang Kawi. Now I know that I said we’d cancelled that plan, but you know how it is — a change is as good as a rest, so they say and so we’re back to plan A! Anyhow, to prepare for this trip, we yesterday went to buy the train tickets to Kuala Kedah. A simple move, right? Just go there, pay up and walk away with the tickets, yes? But this is Thailand. We went to the rather picturesque railway station in downtown Hua Hin and asked for the tickets. Now I must admit that the ticket office staff in Hua Hin speak pretty good English and so language wasn’t a problem. However, politics and bureaucracy are! First off, we prefer (not unnaturally) to travel in a first class sleeper cabin, where there are two beds, as compared with second class, where you sleep in what seems like a dormitory on wheels. However, the first class carriages only travel as far as the Thai city of Hat Yai, where they are detached from the train. From Hat Yai to the border and beyond, it’s second and third class only. Simple, buy a separate second-class ticket from Hat Yai to Kuala Kedah, right? No way. The ticket office told us they couldn’t do that, that we would have to (a) try and get the second ticket from staff aboard the train, or (b) jump off the train at Hat Yai, run to the ticket office, buy the tickets and then rush back aboard the train before it departs fro the border. Tickets apart, crossing the Thai border isn’t like crossing into France aboard the Eurostar. You reach the border at a place called Padang Besar, a station that is literally on the border — one end of the platform is in Thailand and the other in Malaysia. You get off the train, rush to get the necessary forms (which are not available before you reach the border) and then you queue to pass through Malaysian immigration. You then get back on the same train and continue south. The train eventually terminates at Butterworth, the port that serves the island of Penang, from where you can travel onto KL and even Singapore. Anyway, that’s the joy we face next Monday morning — we should reach Hat Yai for the ticket office scramble at just after 6am and then reach the border at around 7.55. I shall tell you more if and when I get back to Hua Hin — don’t forget that we’ll be travelling through the troublesome southern provinces that the British Embassy here advises against going even near!

Remember that scenic beach I’ve mentioned a couple of times in previous Blogs, the one at Khao Kaloke? Well, when we went to that restaurant opening a little south of Hua Hin (which I mentioned last time), we met and became friendly with this Swedish family. We decided to share this beach with them and so last Sunday, we took them there. They, too, were amazed at how empty it was and as they are relatively new to Hua Hin, they seemed to assume that as it was cloudy, it was safe to sit out of the shade. By the time we left the beach and shared a few beers on the lawn of my home, I could see that the husband had more than a trace of sunburn around his tank top. It is an easy mistake to make, truly. The UV factor is often at its highest when the skies are overcast and so I kept my shirt on all that day. However, I did get a tiny bit of sunburn where my tan-line meets the pale skin normally hidden by my shorts, but it was truly insignificant. However, the picnic was almost spoilt due to my own unforgivable mistake. You see, I left my backpack at home and inside the backpack was — you guessed it — the bottle opener! However, we did manage to get the bottles open and so the day was saved, though not my reputation!

Another aspect of our intended trip to Malaysia is that we must get ‘Re-entry permits’, so that our visas remain valid after we return. Now as I mentioned in a previous post, the Immigration office is now located in about as inconvenient a part of the town as could be found, and so we will have to give up a half day or so to go and get these stamps in our passports. What’s more, I’m sure that Thai Immigration has a deal with the British Passport Office. Why so? Because every time you get something done at Immigration, whether it be a visa renewal or a re-entry permit, the stamps cover at least half a page in one’s passport. This means I might not make to the end of my passport’s 10-year life without filling every page. Therefore, as the British authorities are too mean and money grabbing to issue you with extra pages, as I believe the Australians and Americans do, I would have to get a new passport. Any excuse to squeeze some more money out of us! What’s more, I hear that with the new ‘biometric’ passport being issued, I may have to go to the Bangkok embassy in person. Life isn’t all Singapore Slings beneath the palm trees out here in the exotic orient, you know…

Anyway, as I might not be recovered from the trek south by this time next week, the next instalment of this blog might be a little late. If so, please do be patient. Anyway, catch you again whenever I return home!