We booked in Pennang via our hotel a private mini bus to get directly to Hat Yai for RM25. The minibus was very comfortable, however it will have been better without the loud Chinese music! We had special guests in the mini bus...a group of 4 monks! Gosia was very shocked, as the monks were smoking, chatting on their mobile phones, possessing a lot of money and having laptops! The trip via the boring Malaysian highway lasted 2 hours up to the border. Crossing the border was quick and easy. It took us another hour to get to Hat Yai. As soon as we crossed the border we noticed a lot of differences between Thailand and Malaysia. In Thailand we saw a lot of people driving motorbikes without helmets and the highway became a normal road with habitations built along it up to Hat Yai. We really did not like Hat Yai, it's an ugly and messy town. There is no nice buildings, the traffic is very busy, there are very low electric cables everywhere (see picture), ...well the first thing we did after checking in a depressing hotel was to organise a bus for the next day to go away from this place. In front of the train station there are agencies offering bus and boat tickets to get to the islands of the Tarutao National Park, our next stop. As soon as we arrived guys waiting for tourists in this street started to jump on us asking where we want to go and pushing us to enter the agency at the corner of the street....we ignore them but it was a long time until they left us alone! We did not like the guy working in the agency and anyway we wanted to check prices in another place so we went to Andrew Tour an agency a bit further. After some price negotiations we got a deal for Bh600 each for a return ferry from Pakbara to Ko Tarutao and a single mini bus ticket from Hat Yai to Pakbara. The ferry return ticket costing Bh500 we got the bus for Bh100. We had a cheap lunch at the Ocean Shopping Centre. On the 5th floor, which looks empty when you enter, there are some cheap food stalls, you buy tickets for the value of your meal at a counter an then pay your meal at the stalls with those tickets. Afterwards, not knowing what to do in this ugly town we looked for a place to sit down and relax and we were glad to find a great donuts place on the first street on the right coming from the train station. In the evening we had a meal in a pub for tourist located next to the Ocean Shopping centre and were not that impressed by the atmosphere. We found it hard coming from Malaysia that in Thailand not many people can understand English and we understood how important it is to learn a few words in Thai.
