In Search of a visa part 2

Plane tickets for Kuala Lumpur (KL) were a good price so we bought some to fly out Monday morning and return Wednesday morning. Gary read on the Internet that the Thai embassy opened at 9, but you needed to be there before that to get in line. We figured we could go do that Tuesday. Gary also found a recommended low priced hotel in the KL China town area and reserved a room for two nights.

The flight and entrance in to Malaysia went easily. Then we had to get Ringits (RM) instead of Bhat and get used to a new exchange rate. (3 RM to a $) The airport lunch I had turned out to be more expensive than I thought!

This boy waved as we waited to leave on our bus from the airport to KL Chinatown

When we got off, taxi drivers pointed the way when we asked where the Hotel China Town was.

“A block down and two blocks up.”

Walking distance. Besides, the last two blocks were along an evening walking/shopping street and people were setting up already at 4pm when we passed through The DVD sellers were many and persistent.

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The clerks at the front desk weren’t able to get Gary's debit card to work. They gave us a key anyway so I could wait in the room and look out the window at the market while Gary went to find an ATM. Gary was concerned at first because

he didn’t remember the code for his debit card and he hadn’t brought his Palm Pilot with the number in it , but then his Bank of Bangkok card worked ok.

After settling in, we went to find some dinner and check out the shops and the neighborhood. Gary started on a quest for ice. At one end of the walking street Gary asked someone about a grocery store. He pointed out a UO store just up the street that also had a McDonald’s in it. Gary found a coke in there, but no ice. Going back, we passed a boy scooping clean ice into a bag. He gladly sold a bag to Gary.

We were back to speaking English to communicate with people. We don’t understand any Malay, although they do write with English letters, so we can kind of sound out their words.

The next morning around 7:15 we took a 15 minute taxi ride down to the Thai embassy. The sign in front said it didn’t open for visas until 9:30. So we had a while to wait.

The sign also said Visa collection (picking up our Visas?) happened the next working day. Would we have to stay an extra day? We checked out the neighborhood a little, then Gary remembered that his money belt with the Thai Baht to pay for the visas was still at the hotel. He looked a little harder for some kind of ATM.

By the time the gate opened, a small crowd had gathered and lined up quickly. We would have been behind many of them, but a young woman let us go in front of her, considering that she had seen us there before everyone else. The official gave us a form when we signed in so we sat down to fill it out. Then we saw that other people were going straight to line up at the door to the inner building. We joined them and filled out our papers while standing in line. We ended up with numbers 8 and 9 instead of 1 and 2, but the numbers went by fast. After a little mix up at the windows, they took our paperwork and asked for money. They wouldn’t take a bank card, so Gary had to go look for a cash machine. I stayed and took another number. He made it back just before that next number came up. The lady took the money and said to come back tomorrow. OK, now we had to look for an Air Asia ticket counter to change our flight.

We walked down to the big hotel next to the ATM Gary had found. The concierge there told us where to find an Air Asia office, (at the central train station) and how to get there on the subway we had passed to get to his hotel.

It was a nice, modern subway and similar to the others we had ridden in Paris and Singapore. Soon Gary was taking a number in the Air Asia office. The price to change our tickets, though, was more than we had left in our account that day, so we left for our hotel.

A couple of information booths later we learned which subway stop was in Chinatown, only one stop away. We got off and looked for something familiar to help us find our hotel. Finally we saw the UO grocery store sign with a McDonalds what we visited the night before.

We went to lunch and then Gary tried to find a better return flight price on the Internet at the hotel. It was so slow he gave up. We went back to the

central train station, this time for train tickets. Gary took another number to wait and then buy tickets to Bangkok. We would take a bus from there to Chiang Mai. That was cheaper than plane tickets, but added about 30 hours to our travel time.

We picked up an outlet converter so we could plug in our computer and picked up sandwiches at a new Subway on the way home. (Any bread you like if it’s Parmesan). McDonalds was good for breakfast, and then Pizza Hut for lunch. Where were we anyway? America?

They handed out the visas quickly at the Embassy and then we had several hours to wait for our train. A nice mall was nearby, so we checked it out. Lots of long dresses, even for children, and head veils for sale.

The train left at 10 pm and arrived in Butterworth, Malaysia at 6 am. We knew about the ferry to Georgetown, so we went there right away.

< Not this one.

This one>

It was early and we met a Sampan driver hanging

around the ferry terminal, so we had him take us to the big mall instead of dragging our suitcases there. It didn’t open until 10, though. Other Sampan drivers were sleeping. We wandered some streets until we saw a bus stop and a bus stopping there that said “Free Cat”. A lady who spoke English well helped me figure out it had nothing to do with felines, but with free bus lines around the Central Area. We got on for a free downtown tour of Georgetown and Penang.

Either the town has two names or they are right next to each other.

After buying an early lunch at a bakery, and something for dinner, we took the ferry back to Butterworth (see the cool harp bridge?) to finish our wait in the train station. This young man

was playing with the cups on a string outside the air conditioned waiting room.

Finally the train arrived.

Where was car 10? Oh, they turned the car 2 sign around and it became car 10, with reversed directions. We got on at 3 pm for the ride until 10 am. We wrote, played Battleship (I won) and

watched the scenery. At the border stop to check passports we met Bill Cook, a long time missionary.

He started out in Japan and was now in Chiang Mai. The rest of the trip he told us about his life and his adventures. We shared a taxi ride to the bus station (after Gary flagged a taxi) and we bought tickets on the same

bus. It was KFC for lunch before the 8 hour bus ride.

After getting back to the airport to get our motor scooter, we made it home by 1 am Saturday.

Our still bed felt great.

:J