I’m in the middle of two and half days of travel now. I’m in Hat Yai Thailand, and I have wifi, but numerous sites cannot be reached. These include steemit, down detector, blocktrades, my crypto exchange, discord, and twitter. So I do not know if it is me or everyone. I look on fb with no trouble and do not see other people reporting steemit problems in my groups, so I do not know. My email is fine as are many other sites, so who knows? No matter what the trouble is, I cannot move money like I planned.
Leaving Thailand
I had no trouble with the hotel and even got 50 thb back for utilities. It really was a good place, even with these last weeks of problems. I got to the train station in plenty of time and had a great comfortable seat and nice people all around me.
My 18 hour train ride went very well, but I did not sleep as good as I thought I would. Finally at 1 am I crashed hard and then at 6 had to wake up and plunge off the train in moments. I barely had time to change from my nightgown! The man in the seat next to me carried my luggage off the train and I was so grateful. The drop from train to platform was an athletic event all of it’s own.
Then I was on the platform, far from anything when some kind or military or police guy saved me. He carried my heavy luggage over 4 train tracks in two trips while I crawled up and down like the old lady I am. It was big rocks and lots of tracks. I was thinking the place was trying to kill me.
The Running Man of Thailand appears in person!
I know all along he was real.
While the police guy was man handling my luggage, another guy came at a run and started pulling me up and down. He had to grab my hands to help me down and push from the back to help me up about 10 times! What the heck, Hat Yai! This was a huge obstacle course just after waking up!
Honestly, if all those nice men had not appeared, I would still be there dead on the tracks. As it was, when we finally got to a distant platform, the Running Man helped me and my luggage to a bench and I sat there for fifteen minutes to let the sweat dry and drink electrolytes before I could go on.
Finally I got to the station part and some other guy took my luggage and then he ran it a couple blocks down the street(!) with me screaming "NO!" to no avail. He took my bags to a rip-off bus provider. So I had to run over there, get my luggage back and come back to the station where I am now. The rip-off guy wanted 850 for a ticket I know is 600 thb.
My left wrist is a mess and everything else hurts. I have another day of travel, so God help me. At this point I cannot get any money. But I have enough for the bus ticket to Kuala Lumpur, so at least I can go on. There’s no point to sit here if I cannot access any sites I need. I figure I will make progress otherwise and go find the bus I need.
Now in Malaysia - Success!
Now I am on the bus to Kuala Lumpur; not at all like I planned. A bus was leaving in 10 minutes when I got to the bus company, so I decided to get on it. How’s that for good luck! My plan of sitting in Hat Yai and working for 12 hours turned into only 2 hours where I could not even post.
So now, at 1 pm, I have successfully been stamped out and crossed the border out of Thailand. I am soon to be in the main bus station of Kuala Lumpur. I’m not really sure what time that will be, but I am due to spend the night there after this bus ride. My hostel reservation is not until tomorrow.
This bus was supposed to have wifi, but it does not. The service shows, but it will not connect. The next time we stop I will see what is up with that. I now have about $10 in cash, lol. If I cannot get money out of steemit and through my exchange, I may be in the Kuala Lumpur bus station indefinitely.
The scenery passing by is a tropical paradise. I am really happy to be here, even though not when I planned to be. The bus does have power outlets, so my phone with no service and my laptop with no wifi are both charging.
Before I left the train station, I was able to get on Busy. I am logged in there and I was able to update the money that is in my wallet. But it says I have never blogged yet, even though I have over 10000 posts! I also went to incognito and 
Malaysia Boosts my Ego!
The bus stopped for a 20 minute lunch right after the border. I changed money at a place with three young ladies in headscarves. My hair is down since the pony tail is annoying on the bus. The ladies started giggling and staring at me and I asked them what was so funny. They told me I was so beautiful and looked like I was from a movie. They had me back up and turn around so the could see me better!
Then the girl doing the exchange looked at my passport and they were all stunned that I am 58 years old. "You look so much younger!"
I think I will be high on this interaction for years to come. Take that, obesity! Maybe I will get some self esteem after all.
This is a big difference I have noticed before in Malaysia. In all the other countries I have been in SE Asia, I am invisible and rarely talk. Everyone is super nice, but I’m on my own unless I talk first. No one is curious about me at all. This is especially true in Thailand where almost no one speaks English anyway. I can go weeks in Bangkok without speaking a word except hello and thank you.
But in Malaysia I am fascinating to everyone. On all my trips here (this is the 4th) people come out of the woodwork to talk to me and want to know everything. THe first time it happened i was quite stunned. I talked more in Penang for three days than I had talked in Thailand for a year.
Everyone in Malaysia speaks some English and most speak very good English. I have never been so interesting in my whole entire life and it is tiring but very fun. I’m so glad to be here now regardless of my insane circumstances.
Still on the bus
It is now 3 pm. I slept and we just had a bathroom break at a gas station. Still no wifi. Going back to sleep. It is hot as can be out there and very cold on this bus.
More Napping on the Bus
I think it is an hour later here than in Thailand, so it is 5:40 pm. I do not have wifi to check the time. So now I am just praying for good news when I get to the station in Kuala Lumpur. This will be
- comfortable seats somewhere
- good wifi at those seats.
- cheap and good food I can eat.
- access available to all the sites I need in order to get more cash
(Keep reading! My dreams came true!)
I feel like this bus trip is a bit endless, but tomorrow at this time I should be stretched out and sleeping in a comfortable hostel bed. I think this trip is 8 hours and we left at 10:30 am, so maybe we are almost there.
Right now my hands and feet are really sore and my fingernails are all broken from running into my luggage. But I don’t think this bus is the place for a manicure, even though I have the implements with me.
Later...
The stop above turned out to be Ipoh Malaysia, and the scenery south of there was fantastic with lots of strange rounded mountain type features. If nothing else, this trip has given me lots of landscape photos.
8 pm at another Gas Station
It looked like they were going to have good, cheap chicken at this stop, but they were sold out. I’m napping good on this bus, so here I go again.
Woo Hoo! I’m in the KL bus station now!!!!
The bus made several stops when we got to the city, and then the last one was here at a the Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS) Station. At the first stop, almost everyone got off, so I went to the front of the bus to make sure it was not for me.
There was a nice couple sitting in the front seat and they told me they were going to the station too, so I should follow when they got off. Then they helped me with my luggage and pointed me to where to go for the free wifi. I told them my sad story of having no connectivity and all my sites being down earlier. Like everyone, they want to know where my people and my friends are, and I tell them it is just me.
The man in particular was stunned. “You have no one here in Kuala Lumpur? Why did you come?”
I told him the brief story of weight loss
ME: Everyone is fat in America
THEM: Oh we know that already
ME: I try to help them lose weight like I did
THEM: That must be a hard job
I said I was here because I wanted someplace cheap to live and had to leave Thailand due to too many and the visas. They asked me if I had retirement, and I said no for four more years.
I said I am just trusting in God and the money and sites will be here and that now they gave me good luck by helping me from the bus. I am not worried about next week right now, but it will be fine.
They are going on to the south and had another bus to catch, and we said goodbye.
So I got here to the wifi spot and they appeared again with food and juice! My story must have really worried them! I had to really hang on to myself so I would not cry. They think I am brave. But I’m not. I just know that what you need will always appear.
You never saw me eat so fast and with such happiness! You are seeing an old Malaysian banana photo I happened to have processed.
We exchanged emails and they will be back from their visit to the South in a week. So now I have my first Malaysian friends even though the lady is actually Thai.
As you see, my sites are up and I can move money. I will still be on one thin dime, but I can pay the hotel rent for a week, with something to spare and I will not even need to buy food tonight.
My photos in this post are from other older posts. There is only so much I can do at the moment. I took photos on my phone and I do not know how to download them yet.
I have 14 hours left in this bus station. As promised, it is beautiful here and safe. Now I will move money even though steem/sbd is down and see if I can find a plug to charge my laptop. These are no outlets here where the wifi is.
EDIT: And now it seems I cannot use my debit card! Yikes. I'm going to plan C, D and E while exhausted.
= =
I am blogging about weight loss to help others get thin and healthy like I did. If you or anyone you know is struggling to beat obesity, please follow along and you can do this too.
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