Here I stopped for 1 night on the journey to Tioman Island.

To get here, I had to get a train to Su-ngai Kolok, on the Thai-Malaysian border and then a bus to Pasir Mas. I didn’t realise how little there was in Pasir Mas, so I picked-up a train timetable and got on another bus to Kota Bharu.

The journey to Kota Bharu was a long one. I got up early and got a train from Hat Yai, which was late. On arrival in Su-ngai Kolok, I started walking in the direction of what I thought was the border. After being pointed in the right direction by a taxi driver and a policeman on his phone, I decided to sit down, as it was very hot. Here I asked a shopkeeper where the border was and he pointed me back the way I had come and to the right for 2 Km. This matched up with what the taxi driver had said and I don’t think the policeman knew what I was asking for, so I walked back to the main raod and got a taxi to the border. Here I was stamped-out and walked the 500 m to the Malaysian border.

Once I had been stamped-in to Malaysia, I walked down a covered gangway to what looked like a bus station. A taxi driver hoping to give me a lift helped me by providing information on how to get to Pasir Mas, which I ended up doing by bus. The public buses seemed to stop outside th bus station, but as there was no sign and I didn’t know whether it was OK to flag-down buses in Malaysia, I walked to where I thought the buses were coming from, which was closer to the border.

I sat down in the checkpoint building that allowed buses and vehicles to cross the border into Thailand or continue in Malaysia. Here, someone recommended that I go and stand by the nearest car, where the bus was more likely to stop. Someone else sugested that I walk to the bus station, which was very close and the first person agreed with him. I walked to the bus station and found the buses, but there was a problem with paying for them. I only had Thai Baht and they would only accept Malaysian Ringit, so after unsuccessfully trying 3 cash machines, I found a money changer in what looked like a newsagent who changed a load of Thai Baht for me.

Once in Pasir Mas, I asked a load of kids in the bus station where the train station was. It was 100 m away (more like 150 – 200 m) and after getting a timetable and speaking to a few people, I decided that I had to get the last bus to Kota Bharu. This was the main city in the area and was far more likely to have somewhere to stay, according to the guy who served me in the restaurant.

In Kota Bharu I walked around until I found a hotel. Even basic rooms were expensive, so I settled for one and found something to eat. It was a Muslim restaurant so they didn’t have any beer, so I had to make do with some kind of sweet drink that I hadn’t tasted before.