Getting to Malaysia

We arrived at the bus terminal nice and early (as we had to leave lots of time in case traffic was bad, but in fact we flew in), so we had time to use the Internet for an hour and then got a fantastic Thai buffet lunch in a fast-food kind of place.

The bus was another comfy air-con deal, with seats that reclined really far, and so I had a great nights sleep (and this was the cheapest bus option, so I don't know what you're paying for when you get a more expensive bus). We stopped at about 11pm at a food emporium place, as is usual on long distance bus trips, but as I was just strolling about I noticed that people from our bus were all sitting at communal tables sharing buffet meals of food - like a family in a Chinese restaurant (the same big circular rotating plate in the middle of the table that you see in Chinese restaurants). The people certainly didn't all know each other (nobody was talking to each other), so I asked the hostess from our bus was the food free, and she says 'Yes!' and points me to a seat at one of the tables. So I run back to grab Sarah and we both sit down to our free dinner, which turned out to be fantastic too! We had gorgeous big juicy prawns, and fiery chicken curry with rambutans for dessert - it was great.

It was weird that probably the two best Thai meals we've had on this trip (and this was our 3rd time in Thailand), were in a fast-food place in a bus terminal (58 baht each), and a free dinner included in a bus ticket in a food place in the middle of nowhere. Both meals were catering to Thais as very few tourists take the Government buses (especially from Bangkok to Hat Yai, mostly they take Koh Shan Road buses direct to tourist destinations like Phuket or Koh Samui (which generally involve some kind of a rip-off along the way, as I know from repeated experience)). But also, our guidebook is the 'Shoestring' one for South-East Asia, so it doesn't list any fancy restaurants for Thailand, so that's probably the main reason I haven't been blown away by the Thai food on this trip.

So anyway, our bus arrived on time in Hat Yai, which was early in the morning. Many of the operators for buses to Malaysia weren't open yet, so I just strolled about and eventually got money out from an ATM that didn't charge a fee. After checking with a number of places I took the cheapest option for a bus to Kuala Lumpur (450 baht each, after offers of 590, 550 and 500). By simply changing bus myself in Hat Yai I had saved nearly 1500 baht over getting a bus all the way from Bangkok to KL (and that would have requiring waiting around and changing bus in Hat Yai anyway, so the operators in Bangkok were really ripping people off, and luckily I didn't fall for it - I almost did though).

So at 8:30am, we had a free tuk-tuk to the actual bus departure place, we grabbed some brekkie nearby and then our bus arrived and left for KL spot-on time at 9am. This was a super-comfy bus with just 3 seats across, and big fat cushiony seats, so we both had more sleep on the 8 hour journey to KL.

As we got off the bus in KL it started to rain heavily, but of course in the tropics, the rain generally doesn't last long, so after sheltering for 10 minutes we headed off and got a lovely hostel nearby. Once settled in there and showered we were told they had a free buffet dinner that night in the rooftop bar. Now, I generally don't expect much from a buffet, especially a free one, and especially a free one in a cheap hostel - so in fact I asked could we change to a free breakfast instead, but they said no. So up we went to check out the free buffet, and my god, it was fantastic! I'm not sure what had been going on for the past couple of days, but somehow we seemed to be blessed with the best food in months that was cheap-as-chips, or completely free. Needless to say we both got completely stuffed (the mashed potato was heaven-sent!).

So after that I needed to walk off some of the excess food I'd gobbled, and so we strolled up to nearby Merderka Square (the famous centre of the city), and just popped into a famous restaurant I remembered from my last time in KL (the Coliseum), and then checked out the Little India food market before going back to bed.

It had been super-easy to get all the way from Bangkok to KL, and not so expensive either (once you do it in stages), and now we had a couple of days to relax in KL before flying to Bali to meet up with Enda, Tracy and the FCK (their son, Flyn Conor Kavanagh!).