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When you book a trip in Thailand, whether it be to one of the Islands or like us to Kuala Lumpar, you book it through an agent but aren't given the normal things like tickets and a timetable.Instead you are told what time to be ready for pick up and you turn up hopeful.
Details of our trip to Kuala Lumpur are as follows:_
06.15 - mini bus comes to pick us up outside our apartment.We picked up other people en-route and we were all dropped off at the ferry terminal for a slow and hot hours crossing.Once off the ferry and wearing only a sticker for identification we found other people bearing the same sticker and stayed as a group, looking around for assistance clueless to where to go next.A stranger eventually leads us all to a bus.We are on this no longer than 30 minutes when in stops and in typical Thai style, dropped off at the side of a road and told our next bus was in an hour's time.
10.10 - Luckily, at the side of the road there is a cafe and we pile in for a quick bite to eat.
11.10 - A taxi arrives and takes me and James to what we think is going to be the train station for our trip to KL.In fact we get dropped off at some agents somewhere to be told we are going by bus.We are also told at this point that we need to pay an amount for a visa for KL.Whilst James goes to the ATM (as we never had money on us as we were not aware of a visa charge) I stay in the agents chatting to the lady agent who as well as admiring our cheap umbrella rambles on about English being rich and lucky.James returns we pay our visa money and are taken to another agent by taxi and told to wait as our bus would be 10 minutes.While we are waiting we calculate how much this visa was and James consults the Rough Guide, our bible for this trip.It is then we realise we have just been charged £200.00 for a visa we do not need.James asks the new agent to help us find the "umbrella" agent.No-one here can speak English and waves off the question.It was only when James mentions about calling the police that one of the people at the agency suddenly hands over a phone with the "umbrella" agent on line.She tells us that we get money at the Malaysian border for what we have given her.This is a complete sham so James calls the agent we booked this with named Nok.She is furious and tells us that these people have tried this before and to not give them money.Easier said than done when no-one speaks English suddenly and you are taken there by a taxi who turned up for you in the first place.We refuse to leave on the KL bus which is actually a mini van and the driver goes off in a huff.The 2nd taxi driver we got suddenly appeared and took James back to the umbrella agent whilst I minded the bags wandering whether they would kidnap him.I mean £200.00 here is an awful lot of money.I am still considering my options when James returns with only some of our money back as they said they could only give us Malaysian currency and then charged us an extortionate amount on the exchange rate.With only Nok on the phone to help us and our bus for KL already left there was not much else for us to do.We also did not have a clue where about in Thailand we were.A taxi turns up to try and catch the KL mini bus.
We eventually get on the bus bound for KL, and settle down on the back seat.The bus is at full capacity and yet again we are the only westerners.We sat over the back wheel so every bump we hit, I hit the roof.It was THE most uncomfortable journey i have had so far, the 2nd being in Thailand also when we travelled from Phuket to Koh Samui.Damn Thai travel!!
6.30pm - And still on Thai soil we changed vans yet again but at least this one took us over the border into Malaysia where it eventually dropped us off at yet another agent and told us our bus was due in 30mins
Also, the time changed by an hour.Driving across the border from Thailand into Malaysia was like crossing into another world, it is so different.Where in Thailand people tend to live, work, eat and sleep all in the same place, Malaysia has proper infrastructure and we drove through a motorway admiring their housing estates in the distance.I was not expecting it go from rural to industrial in the way it did.
11.00pm - A lovely, not even half full bus turned up with comfy seats up.YAY.We lay them back and hope this one is taking us all the way as we have been told not to expect to arrive in KL until at least 6am.
2.30am - We are told to change buses again so we have not yet had a chance to sleep, ggrrrrr.New bus same comfy seats though.
04.30 - Ahead of schedule we arrive at KL.
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