Thailand for Malaysia --- 03.31.2007

It's 5pm on the 31st of March and I'm booked on the 7pm bus to Kuala Lampur. I'll get there by a very convenient 4am and stay just as long as it takes me to see the Petronas Towers and get my Visa for India. I don't know where I'm going in Malaysia yet since everything I've ever learned about that country I've learned in the past 2 days.

Anyone who knows me knows I love maps, so here's one to help you all visualize where I am and where I'm going:



I crossed the border into Thailand on Yuka and Kevin's birthday, March 3, and since I'm leaving today, that makes it 29 days. SLIGHTLY better than the 5 days we spent in Cambodia.

I spent 4 days in Bangkok right after I arrived (Starr and Raquel only stayed overnight and that's when we all split up) and then I took an overnight bus north to Chiang Mai. I rented a scooter for 4 days and did a loop through the mountains trying to find hill tribes and opium. I was in Chiang Mai for a full week and managed to find a Dunkin' Donuts.

After that I took a bus south to Koh Tao (on the Gulf of Thailand side), stopping for another full day in Bangkok, unavoidably. I spent like 9 days in Koh Tao and then returned to Bangkok (obviously way out of my way) to get my Myanmar Visa. I failed and then refused to wait until the embassy reopened on Monday morning. I took off for the other side of the peninsula, Koh Phi Phi, for 5 days.

After Koh Phi Phi I caught a bus to Krabi and stayed overnight. Now I'm only an hour from the border and in the fourth largest city in Thailand, Hat Yai.

Interesting side note. Hat Yai was the location of a series of bombings this past September. Touristy locations were targetted and I talked to an Australian women today who was here for it. A 'farang' (Thai word for a European or European descendent) was killed but most of the tourists here are Malaysian. The people responsible were likely the Muslim separatists here, as the southernmost three provinces in Thailand are predominately Muslim and feel slighted by the rest of Buddhist Thailand. Why they would have tried to kill Muslim Malaysian tourists though is beyond me.

There ya go. I'll post again from Kuala Lampur. I was able today to track down an unused outlet, so I was able to charge my camera too. Hooray!