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Well....
After several slightly unamazing days in KL, we were happy to be leaving for a new destination. We were heading to Koh PHa Ngan in Thailand, one of the Islands that makes up the Samui archipeligo.
The first leg of this trip was a train from KL Sentral station to Butterworth, near Penang, in Northern Malaysia. We had decided to slightly splurge for our first train trip, so we had a 1st class deluxe sleeper cabin all to ourselves. Only about $20 more anyway!
This of course entitled us the prestigious 1st class lounge at KL Sentral and we spent about an hour up there in the aircondioned comfort watching the cattle classes below in the heat.
This trip wasn't all it was cracked up to be, the power cut out several times, at one point we were stranded at some random train station for about 45 minutes whilst it was fixed. We arrived in Butterworth at about 5.30am, neither of us had slept very well on the bumpy Malaysian railway lines.
At Butterworth station we caught a ferry over to the Island of Penang and spent about 8 hours in the former British Malaya capital of Georgetown. Alas, Georgetown itself was also not all we had expected it to be. We trekked around some very quiet and deserted old streets looking for some type of breakfast, before we gave up and spent about 5 hours laying around on the concrete of the foreshore marina area, again very empty and quiet.
After catching the ferry back across to the mainland and the Butterworth train Station, we caught our next train, The International Express, to Hat Yai in southern Thailand. This time we were just in the second class booths, which was fine, and the trip again was very slow. Constant stopping and waiting etc. Of course, we also had to stop at the border to oficcially leave Malyasia and enter Thailand.
We arrived in Hat Yai at about 6pm and found our way to the Louise guesthouse, as reccomended by Lonely Planet, and booked in for the night.
After some tasty, and very cheap, dinner out in the streets, we went back to our room and slept.
Next morning we spent 7 hours in a minivan to get to Surat Thani. Surat Thani is really just known as the junction where buses and trains stop for anyone heading to the Islands, Koh samui etc.
We eventually got on a ferry just out of Surat Thani and spent the next two hours on the roof of the ferry watching the rain and clouds slowly head towards us.
Just as we were arriving in Thong Sala, the port-town of Koh Pah Ngan, the clouds broke and the rain began.
We managed after some intial difficulty to find a place for the night, and spent the night watching BBC world news and the 'Australia Network'.
Next morning we jumped on a taxi and then taxiboat and arrived in Haad Kuat (bottle beach) at about 11am.
We had arrived at our destination!!
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