Thailand Trip Day 1 - Crossing Thai Border

The date was set and bus tickets purchased. It was the day after Rayyan and I attended a blogger colloquium with Tourism Pahang at MS Garden Hotel, Kuantan, Pahang. We delightedly feasted our last berbuka puasa meal in grandeur whilst sharing a table with the Minister of Tourism Pahang, knowing that the day we depart, there'll be no such luxury.

A travel friend, Lilyriani helped sent us to the Puduraya station in Kuala Lumpur. She was willing to check-out from the hotel at 6am to drive in the state of drowsiness to Kuala Lumpur from Pahang. The drive lasted almost 3 hours. I have yet to show my gratitude. Thanks dear!

Our bus of Sri Maju operator departed at 9:30am. Price of the bus tickets can be read here.

It was very fast and it unexpectedly reach Hatyai, Thailand not more than 7 hours!

The bus stopped at the border crossing located at the northern end of the North-South Expressway also known as Bukit Kayu Hitam. This is where all the passengers were to get down to have our passports and travel documents checked by the immigration and customs of both countries.

Thank god for the machine readable passport. hehe.

Above demonstrates the Malaysian immigration checkpoint while below is the Thailand immigration checkpoint.

Let's have our passports stamped!

After that, we boarded the bus and began continuing our journey to Hatyai, Thailand. This is where Rayyan and I made a last minute detour to Krabi instead of heading straight to Bangkok. LOL.

We managed to shop for some essentials at a local Thai shop here in Hatyai and this is where I purchased my first international simcard for only 59 Baht ~ RM5.90!

It is recommended that you buy DTAC simcards when in Thailand. The coverage is good. Minimum reload is only RM6.00 ~ 60 Baht

I don't usually buy a simcard when travelling but because I was going to Bangkok to meet a dear friend of mine, it couldn't be avoided. After I activated the sim, I immediately sent an SMS to my friend in BKK. Several seconds later, he gave me a call! That call completely caught me by surprise. LOL. 

Guess I'm not the only one happy to be in Thailand, aye? ;)

I'm carrying all the baggage on my body. Hopefully sufficient for 7 days of travelling!

Shown in the picture above is the bus station in Hatyai where we'll be taking a bus into Krabi. (Again all transportation costs are shared here) This is when I'll be experiencing my first time breaking fast in a foreign land. Coming up next on my next blogpost! Till then, thank-you for reading and bye!

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