The (nearly) 60 Hour Blog
Travel "Day" from Thailand – Malaysia
The night was young with the moon hanging lazily amid the four countable stars that burned like embers in the sky. Fifty some odd Racers gathered together under the roof of Zion Café, luggage strewn about one section of our meeting room, prepared for take off. Our newly defined teams huddled together as we waited for departing instructions from our lovely logistics coordinators. The room buzzed and shifted with the goings of each team as they were called for departure. This was it- our last moments in Chaing Mai.
When our team, Aroma of Christ, was called to action, we laid hands upon our belongings, sipped on our footwear and began the mini trek down the spiral staircase to the great outdoors. The hazy evening air clung to our skin, unwilling to part ways as we hailed and boarded our sungtao taxi. After about fifteen minutes cruising the city streets we come upon our first stop at the Chaing Mai bus station. We reconvene with the other teams, forming our traditional gear pile in the center of an available, unhindering space. Thanks to our musically acclectic squad members, we soon find ourselves having an impromptu worship jam under the stairs that lead down to the ground level of the station. After drawing a small group of Thai onlookers, our time to board comes upon us. So we say our goodbyes, pick up and head out.
With grateful hearts, we find that our bus is more than we could have hoped for. There was air conditioning, reclining seats with a subtle lower back massage feature, a free bottle of H2O and a dose of complementary snack food. Many slept quite well that evening, I personally couldn't sleep even five minutes out of that ten hour ride.
At approximately 6:30am our bus rolled into its final destination, our train station. The gray looming clouds let out a slight drizzle as we disembarked, making for a motivated luggage transfer. Again, our classic luggage heap was formed at the back most section of the train plaza, defining the boundaries of our temporary camp which would hold out until we were scheduled to board at 2pm. High class establishments such as Dunkin' Donuts and Kiffy Mart sufficed our breakfast and snacking needs as we watched the hours slip away. Then, after many games of solitaire, guitar practice, a few snapshots and some sweet down time, our leaders came together to distribute the tickets, allowing us to haul our person and property towards our designated cabin.
We shuffled aboard and plunked down in our seats with our giant air-porters stuffed to one side of the aisle. And so began our 24 hour journey by train down the length of Thailand into Malaysia. Feeling relatively tired from dragging luggage and getting minimal hours of decent sleep, most on our team turned on the faithful anti-social devices such as the iPod, Kindle or laptop to pass some of the hours by. After watching out the window at the rice fields whirring by, I decided to cash in on some prime nap time. Hours later I woke to a blackened landscape and whiffs of curry from the next car over. Upon consciousness, Jordan and I were blessed by curry and rice remains from our entire team, which ended up amounting to quite the delicious smorgasbord of noms we couldn't identify.
Sometime around 8pm the designated bed set up staff breezed through, arranging the double seating cars into bunk beds. Now, I am very grateful for my sleeping pad; however, fresh sheets, pillow cases and a nearly twin sized mattress made for a most comfortable stay. Before retiring for the evening, it became social hour. Team leader Jordan and I had a one on one, discussing dreams, goals, lessons learned and learning, scripture and the character of God. I've found that fellowship is one of the greatest perks of the World Race. Living in community can be challenging, exposing the parts of us that are in desperate need of revision; yet it is also so beneficial by being challenged in your own thinking, exchanging ideas and building each other up.
We woke in the morning, having missed the bed attendant who came around at 6:50am to change the bunks back into our dual seated car. Breakfast for 130 Thai bot, about $4.33, came at 7am to those who ordered, followed by the teammate's leftovers to Jordan and I who were too cheap to buy breakfast at about 7:20am. After attempting to rearrange our bedding situation, the attendant came back around just in time for half our team to watch Inception before hitting our stop for immigration. All luggage was taken back off the train to be drug through the passport line. It went speedily, thankfully, despite how we failed conduct for entry to the country by just about every written standard:
After cycling through two Racers, the gentleman who was checking our luggage decided it was too much of a hassle to dig through nine more identical giant air-porters, proclaimed to carry only tents, clothing, and shoes. Then there we were, back on our train, ready for the last leg of our train ride. Four more remaining hours and we come to Butterworth, Malaysia, the city with clearly the most Malay name ever. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to find out if there were lakes of syrup there or not because half an hour after stepping off the train, our leaders tell us that that bus we'll be taking is set to leave in just under 30 minutes. Pick up and lug the packs for just five more minutes and teams AOC, BOLD and Holy COW make their entrance to our first Malaysian bus station. We have just under 20 minutes to forage for food before our five and a half hour bus ride. It seems as though the further we go down the line of countries for the Race, the more affordable the countries become. Kirsten, Carrie and I went and found two pleasant Malay women selling various fried items for 1 ringget per serving ($0.33). Sweet deal.
Our bus ride was largely uneventful. We cruised along through the jungle highway, surrounded by lush green foliage on both sides. We did make a pit stop about 3/4ths of the way through which granted us the use of squatty potties for .20 ringget ($0.06). There were also stands for freshly chopped pineapple for 2 ringget ($0.66) and these strange versions of some kind of chicken burger surprise for 5 ringget. A few more hours on that bus and we were almost dropped off on the side of the road in the middle of Kuala Lampar, Malaysia's capital. We negotiated with the driver to take us to our next bus station for “a small fee more.”
Now dropped off on the other side of a different road in the middle of the capital city, we pause and wait for our TL's to retrieve the last piece of bus info for us. This revealed another five minute walk to the bus that was set to depart in ten minutes. Throwing our bags under the bus, we attempt to board only to find that there is not enough space to support all three teams. The driver made a few of the a-space riders get off and finally we were on our way.
Lucky for us, with our combined personage and personals, we weighed down the bus too greatly and had to make a random bus transfer in the middle of the night to our driver's buddy's bus. One transfer and quick run into the 7-11 later, we settle down and drive away one last time. Subsequently, I drifted off into sleep only to be woken by fellow Racer, Madison, saying, “Hey, are you on Jordan's team? I think you're getting off here.”
Immediately awake, I collect my day pack, guitar and ukulele to scrambled off the bus out into the muggy morning air. Slightly disoriented, I place my air-porter under the nearby tree that overlooked a rather scarily polluted trench. I turn suddenly to my left after hearing my teammate's shouts to see my travel pillow rolling down the hill to its miry, black water fate. That was fun to retrieve, haha. Ahhh, gross…
Well, just after that fun adventure, Mr. Kumar, our super legit contact, came to pick up our things to bring to our house just down the road. He had to make two trips on account of the sheer size of our bags and as he drove, we walked. Home sweet home after nearly 60 hours of moving about the nations! You best believe we slept well that night (7am-2pm).
Stay tuned for more Malaysian adventures (with less buses, hopefully..)!
