Friday morning one week ago, after a stopover in Krabi and more than four weeks staying in this area, I finally continued my journey. Hence, in the morning I directly took a songthaew from my hostel to the bus station. I thought it’s well ahead before the minivan leaves. Indeed it was, as the minivan was fully booked and I needed to wait another hour. Good for breakfast, but bad for lunch, as I guessed already, that the time schedule could be a bit tough. And indeed, we arrived at Thung Song exactly at 12:19, the time when then train was supposed to leave. Nevertheless, as the last time I arrived exactly with the same train…and was two hours late…I also hoped that the train would be a bit late today. In the end, I had some luck and could directly jump into the train, but for sure without a ticket. That, was also not a problem, and I could buy one in the train, as well as some food for lunch. In the next about four hours we passed several rubber plantations, but due to the dry season, they seemed not to operate. Once I arrived in Hat Yai I was supposed to meet my host, as he confirmed just before. But somehow suddenly he changed his mind and never showed up. I tried to hook up withanother one, but that was a bit too complicated for me. So in essence, I ended up in a small hostel, and it seemed that I was the only guest in the dorm room…lucky me 😏. In the evening I went to a bar for some live music and meet up with Meg another CS’er. We got some beer and she introduced me to her colleagues or other expats. We met also one German guy, which is living since 17 years in Hat Yai. He told us also about his experience of one of the bomb attacks which happened here several years ago. Just by a big luck, he wasn’t affected, as he was just sitting in the cafe where it happened one hour before the actual detonation.
