Crossing the Border

The trip across the border turned out to be easier than I had imagined. The #29 bus leaves from the central bus station in Kota every hour or so, bound for Rantau Panjang. You can alight directly at the border, but I continued on the bus into the town centre to get some breakfast, then took the ten-minute walk back to the immigration "kompleks". Upon exiting this, you walk across a bridge over a river and you're in Thailand. From there it's only about a twenty-minute walk to the Sungai Kolok (sometimes spelt Goluk) train station, but I took a trishaw as I wasn't sure of the way.

At the station I asked the ticket seller when the next train for Bangkok was due. She said the next one, the express, would leave at two o'clock and arrive in Bangkok at ten thirty. Great, I thought, I'll be in Bangkok this evening. Of course, not having even a map of Thailand on me, I didn't know how far away we were from Bangkok. When I ordered the ticket, she said she had only upper berths. I thought, what do I need a berth for? I booked a second-class seat (the air-con car was booked out). It was only later, when I was on my way to board the train, that I saw on the train schedule that arrival time would be 10:30 AM, ie, the following day! Damn! And no air-con!

El Paso—S.E. Asia-style

This border area is a hotbed of crime and corruption. I was told I could pick up a slightly-used Chinese AK-47 here for less than 1500 Euros (I could imagine the bargaining that this would entail!). There's yabba (amphetamines) to be had cheaply too, coming from the labs up around the Golden Triangle, while ecstasy comes up from Malaysia. On the Thai side numerous brothels cater for the better-off Malaysians, while there's a constant stream of workers crossing to the more prosperous south.

In fact, not too long ago Malaysian authorities proposed building a wall along their border with Thailand in order to keep out drugs and illegal immigrants (a section of the wall was built and then forgotten). The conflicts between the various gangs and interests involved have led to violence on both sides of the border, with those responsible fleeing across the border when things get too hot. Seventeen Thai police have been killed so far. A couple of days ago twenty very dangerous prisoners managed to mysteriously escape from a lock-up in Thailand, and have presumably fled across the border. Things are so bad that the prime minister of Malaysia is visiting Thailand right now to discuss the situation. On top of everything else, he believes Malaysian men are picking up HIV from the prostitutes in Hat Yai and taking it back to Malaysia with them (something the Thais, of course, vehemently deny).