Border Crossing

One morning on Koh Kradan, we were contemplating what to do that day when we realized that we should take a look at our VISAs to see how much time we have left in Thailand. (You are only allowed in Thailand for 30 days with a Tourist VISA.) Today was the last day we were allowed in the country! At this point, it was 11am, and we had 13 hours to get into Malaysia. We found someone to get us on the big boat to the mainland, but it was so windy, none of the long tail boats would take us out there. They feared that their boat would get damaged being blown against the big ship. We looked everywhere and finally it was THE RED CROSS to the rescue! They had a rubber boat and were used to “water rescues.” Who knew that in the middle of nowhere, the Red Cross would be our saving grace! I guess that’s their thing… So we got on the big boat to a minivan to wait at a minivan station to get on a minivan to the train station. Unfortunately, the train had already left for Kuala Lumpur that day. A man came up to us and said that he could get us there with a minivan and a bus, so we took the offer. So now, we got on a tuk-tuk to get to a minivan who took us across the border. We made it with an hour to spare. An hour later, we got on a bus that was parked under an overpass. At 3am, we arrived dirty, tired, and hungry into downtown Kuala Lumpur, but in all the rush, there was no time to book a room. We decided that no matter the cost, we would just go into the first hotel we saw. As fate would have it, a man speaking in good English with a brochure rode his bike up to us and offered us a room at his hostel. As this was our best option, we decided to check it out, and it was legitimate! The place was dirty, but it was cheap, centrally located, and remember, we had been traveling since 11am the day prior. So we dropped our bags and rushed to get something to eat (we hadn’t had a real meal since breakfast the day before). We were almost giddy when we saw those lovely Golden Arches! An Egg McMuffin later, we crashed in our beds from one heck of an adventure!