Trang's for the memories

We travelled for thirteen and a half hours today across two time zones !
We had arranged a taxi pick up from our hotel in Kota Bharu for half five. Thankfully it was waiting because we weren't sad to be leaving, though we did sleep better than we expected.
We got to the Malaysia side of the border at Rantau Panjang at ten past six and that was straightforward because we are leaving.
In Europe I think we forget about the logistics of land borders. There is quite a distance between leaving one country and entering another.
There were more forms to fill in on entering Thailand at Sungai Kolok but it was stress free, then the walk to the station.
We had gained an hour by entering Thailand and there were no taxis. In fact we did not see a Westerner or hear English spoken (except between ourselves) until we got to Had Yao.
There was a queue for tickets and our two to Phattalung, 223 miles North West, cost 112TB  (that's about £2.20). The train departed on time but was delayed, this time by approximately two hours. Sue and I were quite the curiosity item on the train. I don't think hardly anyone comes into the 'land of smiles' through the back door. We eventually arrived at just after 3pm. That's a 8.5 hour journey on hard wooden seats at an average speed of 26.25mph, it's was hardly the bullet train. It is a wonderful experience with food and drink being sold, it's a bit like being in a mobile village market.
Phattalung arrived and luckily we got a truck to take us to the bus station and found a busy local transport hub there. We got a minivan to Trang, 35 miles west away for just 180TB (£3.65) about five minutes after our arrival which was fortunate.
On reaching the Trang bus station it was a further 160TB to Had Yao Ferry Port.
We had to wait about twenty minutes for that connection but when we arrived in our little beach house (with very hard bed) at just after 6pm (13.5 hours later because of the hour we gained) we both felt as if we had been very lucky with our connections. There was a reasonable army presence, with assault rifles, on the train until we got out of Songkala province.
It was three years ago today that a bomb was detonated at the Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel in Hat Yai killing 3 people and injuring around 400.
There is an ethnic Malay Muslim insurgency in the southern states of predominantly Buddhist Thailand and this 'forgotten conflict' has been raging for over a decade. Over 5,500 people have been killed and Thailand maintain an armed presence there.
OK, within minutes of our arrival at Had Yao the heavens opened but at least the Andaman sea was warm.
Ko Lanta tomorrow.