Bad pad, good pad Thai

Keluar=exit, left malaysia today.

Had to wake up at 4am this morning to make sure we had enough time to get ready before catching the minibus to Koh Samui at 5am. Thankfully we weren't expecting much for this bus to our next destination, but we never thought it would be quite as bad as it was. When they say minibus they really mean MINI! Good thing were are all under 5"6 in height and not overweight because this vehicle was not build for tall or big people. We rode on this bus for about an hour, it was crowded with us three plus a family of 6 in the back with a few other strays. 

First stop they checked our passports (we bought a 40oz bottle of absolute vodka for 18 Bucks...SCORE!), second stop was at the Thai boarder, where we stood in line for what felt like a super long time, we must be done and about to head out right?... Nope! We stopped and had to get out of the minibus a third time to get our passports checked and stamped again? We were the only ones needing to get our fingers scanned too, are Canadians dangerous? Lol. 

After I was done at the counter it was Vee's turn, she goes up and he just waves his hand in a "shoo-fly" type of manner and tells her to go with me without getting her Thai visa stamped like me and Mar. When she told me that he just sent her through, I definitely thought it was strange and once telling Mar what happened, we came to a family decision that something wasn't quite right and that she should go check why he passed her through like that. We never actually found out why but he ended up taking her passport back and stamping it like he should have done the first time. We kept thinking back to it for the next little while because it was just so sketchy, like what if someone somewhere had to check our passports and sees that me and Mar have the proper docs and not Vee. Basically, it would look like we snuck her into the country and the las thing we need is to get arrested.

After finally getting back on the bus we drove for maybe an hour of more, got woken up by the driver slamming not the brakes and pretty much telling us to get out... We had no idea what was going on because he was being rude and not helpful at all, and the owner of the hostel in Penang had told us that the ticket we purchased would get us straight to Koh Samui. After a few minutes this other lady came to the bus and told us that we just had to transfer to another bus and that we would be on our way in 30 minutes from then.

At this point we were in Hat Yai in Thailand, on the ride there we met a guy from Belgium and a girl from Finland with the sickest tattoo ever. They were sweet and had both been traveling alone for more than 3 months. I'm loving meeting all kinds of people! Oh and we all miss Ross already, he said bye to us last night because he was headed to Cameron Highlands and we were going the other way, but we will see him in Krabi in a few weeks (don't let this get to your head if you read this Ross.. Ha!).

When we finally hopped on our transfer bus we were so crammed in there that I felt like Shaquille O'Neal trying to fit in a smart car. To say the least it fit in TOIGHT! And the driver drove like a maniac for 4 hours straight before stopping to let us out to use the loo and stretch out our legs. We stopped for about 15 minutes and we needed to take out money, so I stood at the ATM for a while trying to figure out what to take out. I ended up taking out 6500 Baht which was actually only 250 CAD (I love that our money is worth so much here!) 

Anyway when I said "like a maniac" I meant we were scared for our lives, he was going so effin' fast and when cars were in his way and he couldn't pass them in the other lane he would just make his own road rules and pass them on the narrow ass shoulder.

Good news is that we got there safe and just on time, I guess there was an upside to the crazy driving because when we got there the ferry was leaving in 10 minutes. The ferry ride over to Koh Samui was smooth and about 1.5 hours in length, the view of the island from a short distance was amazing and the green/blue colour of the water was something I had only ever seen in magazines. Once on the island we took a taxi to our hostel which is definitely the worst one yet by a long shot! When I lay on the bed I can feel every spring in the mattress and I'm never one to complain about this type of thing because I can sleep on and through anything usually.

We got as settled as we could and went on a hunt for some LEGIT pad Thai, we found some and it was no doubt a food porn moment. To add to the deliciousness we ordered some smoothies made with fresh strawberries and passion fruit. After we were done we walked through the market and then somehow ended up on the lady boy/prosty street so we quickly turned around and went back to our shitty hostel. Bedtime now and sorry for the novel today guys but I hope you'll still enjoy it.

A bientot,

Janelle brine