7/14 Waddling toHat Yai

Early morning shine, the air conditioner was too cold and froze me in my sleep, so I decided to get up on my ass and leave cocoa mews.

The ride was at 8:30 so I planned to leave at about 7:30, giving it more than 30 minutes to get the the station, even with the big bags on my back. The 10 seater van arrived some minutes after the discussed time and four other travelers were on board, and since the van was a pretty small one going on roads with lots of holes and cramps, we were pretty much waddling forward than rolling. Most of the travelers were sleeping and even snoring in rhythm to the bumping of the van, but I just couldn't make myself to sleep, so I leaned against the window pane and listened to my music.

After crossing the border of Malaysia, we showed our passport so we could enter the region of Thailand. One of my female traveling companion must have seen my passport, for she started to chat with me in Chinese once we got back into the van. She said she was from China, and was sent here to teach the children of Thailand, and had been here for about two years. The teacher was currently staying in Hatyai, but would often come to Penang for vacations. Their schools were starting tomorrow so she must hurried back today. Then she asked me about my traveling plan, where I had been and other schedules and countries I was going to visit, we had some nice chat and a good time. It's been long since I had spoken such long Chinese sentences.

The driver of the van dropped me near the Hat Yai train station after arriving at our destination. I spent the afternoon exploring the small Thailand Town, having my first peek and breath of Thailand buildings and air. Then I found my way to the transport office to the airport and set off!

The airport was really small with crowded people and luggage, it was fairly small and without a convenience store. It's fine by me, really, I just sat in one of the spots and dug myself into the world of Ebooks. It was at about 11 did the officers in the airport told me to leave the airport for they were closing it down. That's really sad, I should've guessed that this kind of small airport wouldn't be allowing visitors to sleep inside. I moved outside, and there were many bugs and insects flying around, still I found one with a lamp post that was strong enough and sat down, continued to read my book. After some moment, one of the officers came toward me and said that I couldn't stay here, even outside the airport building. I guessed that maybe they were going to close the whole thing down plus the surroundings of the airport region, so I moved out to the parking lots, hoping that I could pass the night there.

It was about an hour or two did a uniformed guy approached me on the motorbike, he told me to gather my bags and get on the bike. For his information, he said that I would have to be escorted outside the whole aviation area, I couldn't even stay in the parking lot! He took me to the main gate and I walked out of the area.

It was totally dark and deserted outside, with many dogs barking around. There were only two houses with doors closed near the area, so I decided to stay there for the night.

An Indian guy with a briefcase came to the outside of the house that I was staying some time later in the night, and he said that he forgot to book his ticket so he had to come here and wait for the morning, then rushed in to get one. We were both pretty tired and drowsy, still we chatted with each other, about our hobbies, world news, our backgrounds and other stuff.

He was a journalist for ESPN by the way. At about 4:40 we left the spot we were staying, aching all over our bodies. My face felt really oily and disgusting, but I had no choice. We approached the gate and finally they let us at 5 in the morning.

I cleaned myself up in the bathroom of the airport, bid goodbye to my Indian buddy and continued my trip to Chiang Mai, it really was a painful and crazy night! No more sleeping outside the airport!!!