How Long Does It Take To Travel 1,000 miles on a Boat, Train, Bus, Taxi?

So we've been on the road for a few days now, in this case, the railroad.  We had planned to take the train from Singapore to Bangkok, passing through Malaysia to do this.  It worked out in the end, although not like we had envisioned, and now we are in Bangkok Thailand, for a day and a half.  

  We had to transition from a bus after the bungled attempt to get a train in Singapore.  Then in Kuala Lumpur, we had to work hard to get a train to the north of Malaysia, a place called Penang (the English name for this place is Butterworth, like the pancake syrup?).   Anyway, once in Butterworth, we had a nice hotel and plotted our next step.  
  There is virtually no information available on train schedules, so we had to wing it, stopping by the train station at the appointed hour, only to find it closed ... !  So we had to wait for a few more hours which gave us time to take the ferry over to Penang Island, very fun, interesting, and the weather is fantastic!

   Eventually we could only get a train to the border of Thailand. Then  the advice was: "you have to find train ticket there ... maybe".
   Uncertainty is not my best trait, but off we went. Some-times you have to balance the adventure - and take things as they come - with "man, this is a stinkin' hassle!" 

   However, at the border we actually had no problem getting a ticket on the sleeper berth, the overnight train with bed accommodations.  The overall trip took around 30 hours, well over 1,000 miles, including the bus, and only cost around $40 each.  But you really have to want to do this.  It was not easy.

    Slept pretty good though on the overnight train, and met some cool people from all over the world, and talked about travel a whole
bunch.  Often there isn't much else to do, although passing through the beautiful scenery is very peaceful.  

   Arrived in Bangkok today at noon, and we are staying the night here with good friends Phil and Cindy Porter. (Happy Birthday Cindy!) 

Got to see a lot of the countryside on the way here, and once you're on the train, travel is very laid back and relaxing.  Just be sure to bring along a good book.https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7246005,100.6331108,10z

Took a Bus - Not the Train, yet ... Hip Hop Bus Driver

After all that, didn't take the train, ended up taking a bus!

Everyone wanted to know (after the border incident) how we actually got on the train.  Well, we didn't, we took a bus!  The train thing was just too hard to figure out, and it turns out, there were no seats left. Looking back at the whole thing, it wasn't worth risking my neck. 

So the bus ride was a five hour trip from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, and it was a pleasant trip through tropical jungles and endless palm trees, except that ... well, we had a Hip Hop bus driver guy that was weird and a little dangerous.

Hip Hop Driver on the Bus?

Let me explain.  So we left Singapore in the morning and crossed over into Malaysia, legally this time.  No problems, although I was still a little traumatized by the border thing. 

As soon as we get across the Straits, the body of water that separates Singapore and Malaysia, the driver breaks out his cell phone and starts talking, like real loud.  

Okay, so we're in the front two seats behind the bus driver, anticipating a better view that way, but no, it was far from peaceful.

The driver was this big heavy Malaysian dude, with the front bill of his cap facing straight up, he looks like 50cent in full gangsta mode, and he starts making endless phone calls, each time he begins talking in this Hip Hop style.

As he gets someone on the phone he breaks out:

"HEYYY BRO, DUDE! BRO, MAN, WHASS HAPPENIN!?!?!? - WHAT is GOIN' ON?  DUDE! BRO! MY MAN, HEY ... DON'T MAKE ME BRING THE RICE OUT, WU-TANG!"  ... goes on forever, longest greeting in the world.

     Like every ten minutes, I swear it was almost the whole five hours, and it's super loud, like he is shouting ... (is it more cool that way)?  We kept trying to sleep and every time you would drop off, it's another round of "HEYYY BRO-O-O-O!!!"

     Not only that, but one point the bus is starting to wander in and out of the lanes, and I look over his shoulder and he is texting!  Are you kidding me?  This is supposed to be a professional bus line, and this guy is what, making drug deals?  The whole thing was so not relaxing.  I got kinda nervous and so did Fiona.  

     We finally arrived in Kuala Lumpur and it's actually a pretty nice city, modern and green.  I'm not taking the bus the next time, though. 

    We are actually catching a train this afternoon to Penang, Malaysia.

Update: On our Way by Train to Bangkok

     So it's Sunday night here now and we're in Penang, in northern Malaysia, and we took the train the whole way up from Kuala Lumpur, six hours. 

    In the morning we catch another train, this one to Bangkok, Thailand, which will take 22 hours.  

    So I will have to go dark on the blog thing for at least a day, while traveling by train across Southeast Asia.  

    The trip today was fun, Malaysia is a very beautiful country.  

I appreciate all the comments and likes on the blog, and I intend to continue to write something as much as I can during our travels. 

A Man Without A Country ... (how do I get myself into these things?)

So I had a near death experience today ...
Not exactly, but it was a rather harrowing time at the border between Singapore and Malaysia.

It all started when I decided to take a trip across Singapore to the train station where the two countries meet.  Fiona had not been feeling well and she encouraged me to go there on my own to figure out how to get the train from Singapore to Bangkok, Thailand, which runs through Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

It's a long trip out to this border area, about an hour by local transit, and when I got there at the supposed end of the line, there was no train station in sight.  I asked some guy (most people in Singapore speak English) and he said, "you have to catch a bus there, go downstairs"

So I followed his advice and went down to the busy bus station, with a lot of people milling about.  I saw a sign that said "Bus 950 takes you to the checkpoint and train station"  Bingo, I thought, this is what I want.  So I stood in line with like 150 people and the bus comes and guess how many people fit on the bus?  149 - yes, I had to wait for the next one, which took a long time.

So I'm still thinking this is the bus I want, and I load up on the next bus and we take off.  I ask the lady next to me, "so, this bus takes me to the train station so I can get tickets and make arrangements for the trip to Bangkok, right?"

She turns to look at me ... always a bad sign ... and says, "no this bus does not go to the train station, this bus goes to Malaysia!"   Hmmm, or rather - Yikes!   I looked around at the full bus and said, "you mean everyone on this bus is going to Malaysia?" and she says "yes, and at this point - so are you"

This is a problem, I said, and first of all explained that I don't have my passport.  She looked at me with a look of total astonishment - "You don't have your Passport?!?!"   This completely blows her mind - "you are on a bus to Malaysia and you don't have a passport?"  Left unsaid was her reaction, something like - what kind of an idiot are you?

I try to explain, hey man, I was just trying to get to the train station ...  She thinks I am the biggest moron of all time.  This is beginning to look bad, when she explains that there is no way out of this predicament, and that I will have to go through customs and ... deal with the border guards, and ... not good.  She said she would try to help me and talk to the police and explain that I am a stupid American and "please have mercy and don't shoot him and he is mentally deficient and ... "

So we get to the border station and sure enough I am taken into custody.  How do I get myself into these things?  They ask me for my passport and guess what ... ?  You already know the answer, no passport.  They demand some kind of identification, so I take out the only piece of ID that I have - my Oregon Drivers License, and they scoff at it and say what kind of fool has this for an ID? What is this rubbish? ... and who is Oregon anyway?  Who is Oregon?  It's a state, but they really don't care and they have guns and they take me to a take me to a detention holding room and walk off with my license.  I can't contact anyone because our US cell phones don't work here and I don't have any way to call someone.  At this point I am not in either country, but I'm being held in limbo in a no-mans land of purgatory and non person status. I have become a lot more apprehensive at this point.

Eventually I am taken to an "interview" room with an interrogator and they fingerprint me and ask a bunch of questions like "so ... you were just trying to go the the train station?  Ha! You expect us to believe that?  You think you can pull the wool over our eyes?"  And I'm thinking, What the ...?  I'm being held at gunpoint and the only thing between me and years in prison is my Oregon Drivers License.  At that time, I resort to intense prayer ...

So I managed to convince them that I am not a threat, not part of ISIS, and I really just made a dumb mistake, which I am very good at, and please can I go now, and will you please put those guns down?

So after a few hours of this nonsense, they let me go.  I had to walk through the "Red Line" back across customs between the two countries and I am released back into Singapore.
As I say goodbye ... my last words to the border guards were ... can I have my license back?

All the Tea in China - Observations

Full of excitement as we began our round the world trip, our first stop was Beijing China.  It had been a whirlwind last couple weeks getting ready before we left, and we were looking forward to sharing our adventures (via the Internet, email, pictures, blog, etc.) as the journey started.

Unfortunately, we were unprepared to find out that in China they block most of the stuff on the web that we use everyday to communicate.  We were stunned when we realized that everything related to Google was blocked.

No Gmail, no You Tube, no Google Search, and worst of all - no blog!  Wanna use Google maps to find your way around Beijing?  Ain't gonna happen.  Need to access your documents on Google Drive?  Not in China ...

Facebook?  No way, it is not just blocked, it doesn't even exist in China (they have some bogus Chinese substitute).  Twitter?  Nada, zero, zilch.  And they're not too friendly with Apple either. And, oh yeah, your smart phone doesn't work.

Okay, so I'll just Google an alternative to ... Dang it!  Doesn't work.  It's a world with no access to most of what you use everyday on the Internet.  Furthermore, often when you try to get to some of the really common stuff, it locks up your device.  Bummer dude!

So we had to work around the Chinese censorship and send messages by carrier pigeon to my daughter Alison who could then post and share updates.

And you have to be careful what you say because in China they read and scan your emails and everything you send.  Don't even think about logging into your bank account.  And all that "monitoring" makes the Internet really sloooow.

We really enjoyed our time in China.  The people were very friendly, and it's a fascinating country, but they need to open up their society to freedom on the Internet.   We had to learn to adapt using some pretty creative methods to communicate with the outside world.

First off, Singapore is ...

Okay, the first thing about Singapore is that the climate is the opposite of Beijing.  After several freezing days and nights (serious cold temps), arriving here in Singapore is like visiting the tropics.  In fact, it is the tropics, palm trees, very warm, humid, very green, almost right smack dab on the equator ... all in all, a pleasant transition from ice and heavy clothing to shorts and t-shirts.

Singapore is a dynamic and successful city-state that is very modern among the jungle like surroundings.

We got in late last night from Beijing via Manila, Philippines.  Once again, we are reminded that the joys of travel include some not so joyful things, like long delays (in Manila) and lack of organization on the part of airports and airlines.  But we made it here and we continue on our journey.

A few quotes

In addition to funny signs, there were a few quotes that I will include verbatim - in other words, they are not filtered.  In regards to the third quote, hey, I didn't say it, I'm only reporting what was said!

We were looking for a place to watch the Super Bowl (which turned out to be a real nail biter) and we asked a bunch of people where we could find the game.  

Unfortunately, it was on at 7:30 on Monday morning here because of the time change.  Anyway, most people had not heard of the game and had no idea where to watch it.  One Chinese guy said:  " In China, nobody like American football!"

We stayed in a couple different places in Beijing and so we're checking into the second place,  and the guy at the front desk looks at the reservation and says "Are you Mr. Killer?"  ... well, I guess that's close enough ...

Lastly, the Chinese have a lot of weird critters that they seem to like, sort of mythical stuff like dragons and such.  One of these creatures was kind of bizarre and unusual and the tour guy was describing it.   He said it had a "Big head, wide mouth, big belly, and no asshole"  !!! Wait? What?  

Easy for you to say

Today as I write this, we are preparing to depart Beijing and head to the next stop.  We've been in China for six days, and it's been fascinating.  I really want to share my thoughts but one has to be careful because you really can't speak freely on the internet.  More to come on that later, once we are in another place ...

Among other things, it's been rather amusing to read the signs and the attempt to translate into English.  The Chinese people are friendly for the most part, and a lot of the young people here speak English.  But trying to put their signs into another language? ...  well something gets lost in translation.

Here are a few of the signs that we've seen:

Built to Last?

So yesterday we went by bus out to the Great Wall of China.  It comes fairly close to Beijing during its long 4,000 mile run.  Much of it is in disrepair because it's over two thousand years old.  The enemy it was built to keep out is long gone.  History marches on.   

Still dealing with severe cold, we climbed to the top of one section, very difficult and at times a little unsafe - it's really steep.  Well designed to be insurmountable, the wall is about thirty to sixty feet high.  Made of stone.  The challenge in building this was extreme, and it took several million Chinese servants (slaves?) many many years to build.  It kept out the Mongols and other real, or imaginary, invaders.  Turns out that, in the end, the threat was not from the outside, but internal.  

A couple more days in China, and then we move on to Singapore.

The Great Wall

A cold and steep climb

The travelers

Chilly in China

So we arrived in Beijing China yesterday (Saturday) to some really cold weather.  Like sixteen degrees, with a strong breeze, which of course makes it feel colder.  Anyway, we made our way to our Hotel safe and sound but rather tired.  With a decent night's sleep, we set out this morning to explore Beijing.  We've been here before, but it's been a long time and China has really changed.  

How has China changed?  The first time we came in 1984, we were among the first to visit the newly opened country, and things were not very well developed.  I have to be careful how I describe things because ... well, let's just say the internet here is not completely unrestricted.  Anyway, we were here thirty years ago, and then fifteen years ago, and what a difference!  Wow, China has a rather affluent middle class, as compare to the early days of "limited resources".

So we set out on our walk from the area we are staying to the downtown core.  Part of the goal was to walk along the shore of a lake that runs through part of the middle of Beijing.  We envisioned a walk along a serene body of water with mellow views of the city beyond and ducks paddling among willow trees.

Imagine our surprise when we got encountered the lake ... and it was frozen solid.  (did I mention it is cold here?)

 

There were thousands of people - this is China after all - and they were ice skating, speed skating, with full on hockey games going on.  It was an incredible scene.  But one of the most amazing things we saw was that ... they seem to have a habit of ... how do I describe this? ... they sit on chairs and "skate" around the ice.  

I've heard of, and seen a lot of, ways to get around on ice, but sitting on chairs?  And, again, there were like several thousand Chinese people doing this.  It was a rather unexpected and ... weird.  They were having the time of their lives, and they weren't on skates, they were sitting on chairs, and using ski poles to move around.  I guess this is why you travel ... to see stuff like this. 

Okay, I know , I just couldn't resist

So the carpet at the Portland Airport has a cult following, and everybody is talking about it.  It's gone viral!  It's blowing up!  In fact, the cool thing to do is to take a picture of yourself (or your feet to be more accurate) on the carpet.

So that's what I did.  Hey this carpet thing has become a legend in it's own time.
There was even a front page article about it on the Wall Street Journal!
Wall Street Journal article 


So here are my feet on the carpet - which is going away (no! say it isn't true!) and being replaced.  If you are truly committed, better get up to PDX soon and get your picture too!

And check it out, I'm wearing my Nike running shoes - what could be more Portland, Oregon than that!