From Penang we were headed to Koh Phangan in Thailand for Christmas and New Years. After doing some research we found it would be cheaper to just book the whole journey through a travel/tour place and take a bus and ferry versus buying the individual segments and taking the train and ferry with a bus or two mixed in. Am Sinar was our tour company of choice. We booked a 3:30pm departure on 23 Dec with an arrival at around 8am on 24 Dec since our accommodations on Koh Phangan started on the 24th. We checked out at 12pm on the 23rd and decided to wait it out in the travel place where we would be picked up. After waiting until 3:30pm we got bad news. Apparently the mini bus had broken down on its way from Thailand so we wouldn’t be able to leave, he offered to change us to a 5am departure. Considering we had little options we agreed. He offered us a room upstairs for 25RM instead of his usual 40RM. We didn’t even realize the tour company and rooms to rent upstairs. It wasn’t the cleanest room but we made do for the night. We woke up at 430am to be ready for pickup downstairs at 5am. We had to wake one of the workers up who was sleeping in a chair in the main area downstairs to unlock the front and let us out. 5am rolled around and no bus showed up, we started to get worried thinking we would miss another departure. We asked the employee when the bus was coming and he just kept saying, “More waiting” through the metal door. Finally at 5:35am a man rolled up on a scooter and told us the bus was on its way and should be here around 6am. That was some good news for us as we were thinking no bus was gonna show up at all after waiting for so long. We waited until 6am, no bus yet. We started to get worried again and asked the employee if he could call the bus company. He told us the bus wasn’t coming and that he would let us in to sleep until the owner showed up at 10am. Not knowing what to do we gave it a few more minutes. Finally at 6:15am our white bus number 8753 showed up to pick us up. We loaded up cramming into the bus with the other passengers already inside and the driver sped away, literally. Our whole journey to Hat Yai in Thailand he was flooring it speeding past most other vehicles. I’m not sure if he was trying to make up time because he was late or what but that was the scariest ride I’ve taken. It felt a little better as we got farther into the journey but we were getting jerked around by the bus hitting bumps and making turns the whole way.
Just goes to show, you’re not always gonna make your planned bus and things happen. Also you can get some crazy drivers out here that will drive recklessly even with a mini bus full of 15 people and all our luggage. I’m glad we made it safely.
Embrace the Odyssey 