Surprisingly, I caught sufficient rest on the bus to Hat Yai. We pulled into town in the morning and our first task was to secure tickets for our trip to Ipoh. From the posters we saw advertising rather interesting cabaret performances, we could easily deduce what Hat Yai was infamous for (if we had not known it had a reputation for sleaziness in the first place).
Anyway, we were not very interested to hang around any longer than necessary and quickly checked out the stores selling express bus tickets to Malaysia. Surprisingly, different stores quoted us different rates (quite extreme) and made baseless claims about their competitors. In the end, we decided to purchase the cheapest tickets (370baht for SE Super) we could find and proceeded to have breakfast. We realised we had not enough money to pay for breakfast - we were slightly short - but the aunties were kind enough to accept whatever we had. It was not the first time in the trip that we were "broke"!
Someone shouted at us and we realised our "bus" had arrived. We were ushered onto a tuk-tuk that would supposedly take us to our bus. We were a little wary but there was nothing much we could do at the moment. We took a spin around town. It seemed that Hat Yai was very much a quiet place, perhaps only coming to life at night.
We stopped at a parked Eltabina Ekspres coach in front of a tour agency. Surprise, surprise. We were rather glad that it was Eltabina and not SE Super. The person in-charge, a pleasant Chinese lady, checked our tickets and invited us to settle down and wait for the bus which was only due to leave 45min later. She was fluent in Mandarin, Bahasa Melayu and Thai. Impressive.
The bus didn't fail to impress too. After spending days on coaches with small and uncomfortable seats, Eltabina Ekspres seemed overly luxurious. While it was not the fastest on the road, the quiet hum of the engine and steadiness of its air suspension system made the ride a dream. The driver took the down slopes cautiously and other coaches always pulled ahead but our coach closed in on the steep mountain passes. I reckoned our bus had a lot of horsepower and could attain much higher speeds comparatively but the driver was not pushing it.
We reached Ipoh safe and sound. The driver dropped us at a Petronas petrol station on the outskirts but he was kind enough to give us directions to Medanki. We caught a city bus there but Zi Kai left some stuff at the bus stop and only realised when we were on the bus. We agreed to meet at the bus station.
The three of us arrived at Medanki. The Kinta Omnibus Cameron Highlands - Ipoh Ekspres ran four times a day from each location - 8am, 11am, 3pm and 6pm. Jing Kai and I attempted to check out accommodation in Ipoh but we realised we were a little far from the main centre of activity. When Zi Kai arrived, we decided to catch the 6pm bus to Cameron Highlands.
We had dinner first before boarding the bus. It was my first time up Cameron Highlands and the scenery from the mountain range was just stunning as the sun started to set. The bus stopped at several towns along the way and we were a little lost but I was glad we met Ying Xin who gave us pretty useful information. At least we now knew the bus would take us to Tanah Rata and Brinchang was the best bet for accommodation.
We went straight to Tanah Rata and it was great that the Unititi Information Counter assisted us in booking a cheap but very decent accommodation at Jasmine Hotel. The tours they offered were pretty interesting but we had to turn them down as they were a little expensive and we felt we could manage on our own. It was getting late and no one was keen on my proposal of walking 6km to Brinchang thus we took a taxi, or rather, mini-bus courtesy of Unititi straight to our doorstep.
The staff of Jasmine Hotel provided excellent service and were very friendly - we were glad to have found a nice place. We took a walk around town, bought some snacks, scouted the entrance of the trail up Gunung Brinchang and checked out the steamboat restaurants before retiring for the night.
Total expenses over 18 days: S$535
Participants: LSH, Zi Kai, Jing Kai, Lim Hwee
Anyway, we were not very interested to hang around any longer than necessary and quickly checked out the stores selling express bus tickets to Malaysia. Surprisingly, different stores quoted us different rates (quite extreme) and made baseless claims about their competitors. In the end, we decided to purchase the cheapest tickets (370baht for SE Super) we could find and proceeded to have breakfast. We realised we had not enough money to pay for breakfast - we were slightly short - but the aunties were kind enough to accept whatever we had. It was not the first time in the trip that we were "broke"!
Someone shouted at us and we realised our "bus" had arrived. We were ushered onto a tuk-tuk that would supposedly take us to our bus. We were a little wary but there was nothing much we could do at the moment. We took a spin around town. It seemed that Hat Yai was very much a quiet place, perhaps only coming to life at night.
We stopped at a parked Eltabina Ekspres coach in front of a tour agency. Surprise, surprise. We were rather glad that it was Eltabina and not SE Super. The person in-charge, a pleasant Chinese lady, checked our tickets and invited us to settle down and wait for the bus which was only due to leave 45min later. She was fluent in Mandarin, Bahasa Melayu and Thai. Impressive.
The bus didn't fail to impress too. After spending days on coaches with small and uncomfortable seats, Eltabina Ekspres seemed overly luxurious. While it was not the fastest on the road, the quiet hum of the engine and steadiness of its air suspension system made the ride a dream. The driver took the down slopes cautiously and other coaches always pulled ahead but our coach closed in on the steep mountain passes. I reckoned our bus had a lot of horsepower and could attain much higher speeds comparatively but the driver was not pushing it.
We reached Ipoh safe and sound. The driver dropped us at a Petronas petrol station on the outskirts but he was kind enough to give us directions to Medanki. We caught a city bus there but Zi Kai left some stuff at the bus stop and only realised when we were on the bus. We agreed to meet at the bus station.
The three of us arrived at Medanki. The Kinta Omnibus Cameron Highlands - Ipoh Ekspres ran four times a day from each location - 8am, 11am, 3pm and 6pm. Jing Kai and I attempted to check out accommodation in Ipoh but we realised we were a little far from the main centre of activity. When Zi Kai arrived, we decided to catch the 6pm bus to Cameron Highlands.
We had dinner first before boarding the bus. It was my first time up Cameron Highlands and the scenery from the mountain range was just stunning as the sun started to set. The bus stopped at several towns along the way and we were a little lost but I was glad we met Ying Xin who gave us pretty useful information. At least we now knew the bus would take us to Tanah Rata and Brinchang was the best bet for accommodation.
We went straight to Tanah Rata and it was great that the Unititi Information Counter assisted us in booking a cheap but very decent accommodation at Jasmine Hotel. The tours they offered were pretty interesting but we had to turn them down as they were a little expensive and we felt we could manage on our own. It was getting late and no one was keen on my proposal of walking 6km to Brinchang thus we took a taxi, or rather, mini-bus courtesy of Unititi straight to our doorstep.
The staff of Jasmine Hotel provided excellent service and were very friendly - we were glad to have found a nice place. We took a walk around town, bought some snacks, scouted the entrance of the trail up Gunung Brinchang and checked out the steamboat restaurants before retiring for the night.
Total expenses over 18 days: S$535
Participants: LSH, Zi Kai, Jing Kai, Lim Hwee
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