There’s no possible way; you won’t get there by tonight.
This is what my logistics partner, Carter, and I heard from every person we talked to along our journey from Phuket, Thailand, to Pangkor Island, Malaysia.
As logistics leaders, Carter and I have the responsibility of getting our squad of 49 people from one country to the next. This includes searching and purchasing bus/train tickets, finding hostels for travel days and debrief time, and making sure we all get to our destination in tact and relatively on schedule.
We had bought a bus ticket from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur (KL), the capital of Malaysia, with only a stop in HatYai, which is about an hour before the border.
This means that we would have only had to find a bus to bring us from KL to Lumut, just in time to catch the ferry across to Pangkor Island.
The problem is that after we bought the tickets, they change the layover time in HatYai from 5 hours to 16 HOURS. This wouldn’t have been too bad had it not been that the ferry stops running at 8 pm. So, as we were to hear from every travel agency and outside perspective – this journey was impossible to complete in one day.
We arrived in HatYai at 4 in the morning and as soon as we got off the bus, Carter and I started our search for a different option – certainly there had to be something other than waiting 16 hours to get on our next bus.
As one would expect, not much is open at 4 in the morning. Thankfully though, a man directed us to a certain travel agency and called the boss into work early.
We talked with this man and he did not seem as enthusiastic as we were with trying to find a bus that continued our journey. He told us that there were no buses, large or mini, that would go directly to Lumut (the place to catch the ferry). Supposedly the least amount of buses are available on Sundays. Lucky us, it was a Sunday.
As we walked around, trying to find a different agency that would help, we would peak our head back into the initial office to see if the guy had decided to help us a little more.
Travel days are times when you really notice your need and dependence on God.
Carter and I ran into one travel agency that had a man who spoke absolutely no English, yet persisted that we hop in his car with him and go a little ways to talk to his friend about what we need.
There’s a point when you draw a line and say no – this was our line.
When 6:30 came around we saw the progression on our initial guy. He had one of his friends in the office and he was a major blessing. He gave us advice to take a bus to the border and then find another bus there, since, according to him, there are many busses at the border.
He was a key to our next leg of the journey, yet he also told us that we would have to stay a night somewhere; that getting to the island would not happen within the day.
7 am – we all gathered on a bus to take us an hour to the Thailand-Malaysia border. It was a breeze to get through the border (thank GOD!). We walked about half a mile with our packs and smiling, drowsy faces and got through the Malaysian border where, surprisingly, there were absolutely no busses.
After settling our squad, Carter and I set out on another adventure to discover the next leg of our journey. We came to this one man who was very nice and was willing to help us. He got on his motor bike to go ask for some mini busses to bring us all the way to Lumut while Carter and I waited in his office.
This is when I started intensely praying for a specific prayer to be answered – I asked for us to get to our next stop and for a man to come up to me with a bus that would bring us all the way to where we needed to go.
The nice man came back to the office with no luck; there were no buses at the border that were free to take us anywhere. He did tell us though, to take taxis 15 minutes down the road to a bus station, catch a bus for 45 minutes to another town, then take another bus for 4 hours all the way to Lumut. When calculating that into our time budget, it would be cutting it close to when the ferry would close, but it was our best option.
We started rallying taxis and heading over to the bus station. Within 20 minutes of getting out of the taxi a fellow squadmate was calling my name. A man came up to me and asked if I needed a bus to Lumut.
Why yes, sir, I do need a bus to Lumut. Thank you, Jesus.
Within an hour our entire squad was on a bus, taking a 5 hour trip to Lumut.
We arrived to the ferry dock at 7 pm, just in time to catch one of the last ferry rides over to Pangkor Island! After arriving, we took a bundle of taxis up to our hostel and took a breath of relief and pure joy to have arrived safely and to have seen so many prayers answered throughout the day!
Many people have asked me if I enjoy being a logistics leader. They know some of the stresses and responsibilities that Carter and I have throughout the month, such as these travel days, finances, and hostel hunting.
Honestly, I love this position. Though it has its challenges, you are able to see God work in the “behind the scenes” of the World Race; you are able to see the impossible made possible!
