Getting Around in Malaysia

By now, you may have noticed that I didn't go back to Cambodia. I didn't stay in Thailand either. It happened like this:

I stayed for three nights in the very cheapest room I could find in Bangkok. The bus let us off at Khao San Road, so it was quite fortunate that I bumped into a Chinese man who asked,

"You wanna cheap room?"

This guy is reading my mind! (I'm wearing a small backpack, carrying a heavy guitar case and pulling a suitcase with a loaded backpack on top of it.) He leads me down an alley into a tucked away little hostel. The room was 150 batt as opposed to 500 batt. And I was too exhausted to say no to a good price, even if there were a few drawbacks.

   

After three days, I got a little weary with the Kaosan Road tour every day and decided to hop onto a tuk-tuk and go to my gem of a find of a guest house where I'd stayed the last time I was in Bangkok. (What year was that?!) It was close to the train station. I remembered it as being so cute, clean and quiet.

Not anymore!

The "room" they gave me was more like a closet. The neighbours started a continual door-slamming routine after 11 pm. I had to carry (by myself) all my luggage up three flights of stairs and down one. It's a good work-out for a young man, but not for an older woman. Thanks for your help, "Your Place"!

Not to be negative, but after five days in Bangkok, I was ready to get the heck out of Thailand. Perhaps if I hadn't known Thailand to be the "Land of Smiles" of former days when tourists were respected, bowed to, helped and considered and where cars were few and far between, I may have been a little more tolerant to what is now a culture of hectic, thoughtless, and at times rude people. Several of them even looked at me like they wished I were dead.

The thought came to me (almost like the Prodigal Son) that maybe I could "go home"! (She says, clicking her ruby slippers together.) 

Yes, so I decided to check out flights to K.L. (Kuala Lumpur) and knocked on the door of what I thought was a cruise tourism place. They were closed, but the man unlocked the door and asked me what I wanted. I asked whether they sold flights and he said he would see what he could do.

He found a booking on a plane to K.L. for the next day and remarked,
"That was the last sale of the day. The company was closing but I got you in."

So, I got a great price on an afternoon flight the very next day. I landed in Kuala Lumpur and received a three month visa! Hallelujah!

I spent a few days with my friends in Rasa Kamayan who helped me celebrate my birthday on March 13th and then I found a room in Kamayan Square.

Then, I took the train to Kampar to visit the family!