A Visa Stroll

The ‘visa run’ trip to Malaysia was uneventful but tiring, not so much as a result of the predictable hospitality of my nephew, his lovely South Korean girl friend, Jay and their friends but more because of the long journey to and from Langkawi. Rather than take the slightly circuitous flight route between the two points, we decided to go in as straight a line as possible – i.e. by train from Hua Hin to Hat Yai near the border and then take the short ferry ride to Kuah in Langkawi. And to make it a little more intriguing, opting for the overnight train. In theory, a brilliant idea but……. The accommodation on the train was of good quality, compact and inexpensive so totally acceptable.

But, oh dear, the track! And Thailand is a deceptively big country. So, for 11 sleep deprived hours going south plus another 11 sleepless hours going north 4 days later we clanked, rattled and swayed our way through southern Thailand often at impressive speeds of almost 50 mph!! Hardly the romance of an Orient Express but it did the job.

Hat Yai station shortly after dawn is nothing to write home about

but the sukiyaki in a nearby restaurant was!

Absolutely delicious and much needed fortification for the remaining journey.

A short-ish taxi ride to the Tamalang ferry preceded a tedious 6 hour wait for the crossing to Langkawi with little to fill the time other than a bit of bird watching in the cafe (loosely called a ‘restaurant’),

gazing at the fishing boats setting out in search of marine riches

and to study the rather curious, one armed local ‘art’!

The back and forth ferry crossings themselves were totally uneventful although a bit of a scrum on the return journey with flowing Muslim attire getting entangled in the offloaded luggage.

I was immediately struck again by how little has changed during the many years I have been coming to Langkawi. It’s a little like the land that time forgot – and not always in a good way. There has been some investment but clearly only in fits and starts, a perfect example being the unfinished landmark leisure tower which remains exactly as it was 2 years ago and will now never be finished as one side of it has started to sink into the reclaimed land on which it was built!

In short, the whole place looks a bit tired.

Having become so used to the ease of shopping in Thailand – especially for food – finding anything other than the most basic foodstuff on the island is quite a challenge!

All in all, though, a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting 6 days but with around 45 hours of travelling involved and not enough sleep, I think I’ll give the train a miss in future!

Before leaving for Langkawi, I checked up on Fairhurst’s Folly again hoping that great strides had been made since the last visit. I was, therefore slightly alarmed to find a digger making big holes when I thought it was nearly time merely to be adding the finishing touches!