FRIDAY 26 MAY
I managed to get quite a good night's sleep - had two seats to myself. Mustafa also had two seats
but didn't sleep as well. The bus arrived at Surat Thani at about 6:30am. We weren't told about
having to change buses but got on another minibus, again thinking that this would take us all the
way to Phucket, but this one terminated at Krabi. We waited almost two hours there before boarding
another minibus. This one went to the Island but not to Phucket town. Had to change again! It was
almost 2:30pm when we finally arrived in town. We'd missed Jum'a of course.
We weren't told about all the changes when we bought our ticket. But we didn't ask. The air-con
ticket price was the same as a fan bus from the bus station, so I thought we got a good deal.
Hadn't expected to arrive 8 and a half hours later though. From now on I will always take public
transport and not these tour buses. Actually, besides Vietnam this was the first tour bus that I
took.
Booked in to a cheap place in Phucket town. Shipped half of my clothes and shoes and the sleeping
bag nack to London. Mustafa also shifted some stuff. Inshallah, they will get there (by ship)
before we will!
After a late lunch took motorbikes to an Island off the East coast. Not much to see there. In
walking back to the town we kinda got lost! I never get lost when I'm travelling alone! Sleep
followed a beard trim (mine!) and dinner.
SATURDAY 27 MAY
On Friday we'd booked overnight buses for Hat Yai so we only had a day for the beaches of Phucket.
We tried to get an early start but it was 8:30am when we finally left the hostel. Had breakfast at
the same Malay place that we had lunch the previous day so that we could leave our backoacks
there. Met a couple of very dodgy Patans who wouldn't beleive that we were in Thailand
legitimitely! They also wouldn't believe that we could get in to Malaysia legally and showed us
the illegal route! Very dodgy characters.
Before hitting the beaches we went on top of a viewpoint. The views of the East coast were
fantastic but we couldn't see much of the beaches of the West coast that we were headed for.
First up was Kata beach. The beach was good but the clear water and the waves were even better.
The beaches in Phucket were good but not as good as I'd expected, certainly not to the standard of
'world famous beaches' as the Lonely Planet would have you believe. (This is the first time that
I've used LP and I definitely wouldn't recommend it to anybody. Go for "Let's Go").
We walked around a rocky headland, which took about an hour and a half and involved some funky
(climbing) manouvers and seeing Mustafa in constant fear of crabs, to get to the next beach,
Karon.
Karon is a bigger and dirtier beach but not dirty enough not to swim. Prayed on the beach just
before lunch. You know, not long ago I would've been shy about doing that and even walking around
in a lungi on the beach would've felt awkward. But we walked around the whole Island in our lungis
and it felt totally natural. Earlier, I forgot to mention that in my last day in Phnom Penh, most
of the time I was travelling about the town in a lungi. I did get quite a few stares but it didn't
matter at all ( I probably liked the attention but that's not why I was wearing it - trousers
take longer to dry) Now I don't understand why I don't wear lungis outside of the house in London.
Too cold? But that's only in the winter and fall. Definitely not in the summer. It would be much
more comfortable to wear a lungi in the summer heat than to wear a trouser. The only reason I can
think of is that I haven't been wearing a lungi because nobody else wears them. It is not the done
thing. But that is the most stupid reason ever. It is pathetic but i'm sure that was the reason
for it. It is difficult to imagine that somebody would not do something they knew was better only
because they would stand out from the crowd. I can't believe I'm like that, or rather was.
From Karon we were planning on going to a couple of the more remote beaches. But we thought there
would be public buses going there but there weren't. Taxis were way too much. So we walked/ran
about 5km to the busiest beach on the Island, Patong. Got there just in time to see the most
spectacular sunset ever!!! Much better than the one at Angkor Wat. I couldn't help but be totally
inspired by it. The blend of colors in the sky looked unbelievebly beautiful. It was marvellous!
And the most satisfying and joyous thing is that it is a totally natural thing that happens every
day! I think too many of us take the beauty of the sunrise and sunset for granted. I won't from
now on.
The taxis were too much and it was too far to walk - 23km - so we took motorbikes to Phucket town.
Ate at the Malay place and met those dodgy Patans again! They still tried to lure us to their
dodgy ways but we just got an overnight bus to Hat Yai.
SUNDAY 28 MAY
Arrived in Hat Yai at about 4:30am. Immediately got on a bus bound for Yala. Regretted not doing
wudu before boarding - we would've missed the bus - but Alhamdulillah the bus stopped to fill up
with petrol. Went to Yala to search for a friend of Mustafa's from his Syrian days. Arriving there
at 9am we headed straight for the Young Muslim Association of Thailand (YMAT), thinking that
somebody there might know him. They didn't but told us how to go to his home. Well, vaguely
anyway. He, Sufyan, didn't live in Yala City but in Yala State, in the province of Yaha, in the
village of Borah. Went to Yaha town by bus and from there took a motorbike to the village. The
driver asked around a few places and eventually we found the house. But only a house, no people.
Sufyan's family came a while later but there was no chance of meeting him - he was still in Syria!
The family were very hospitable, as one would expect. Mustafa was very careful not to drink any of
their water following his troubles in Delhi. I drank and am alright now, alhamdulillah. I played
soccer with Sufyan's relatives while Mustafa got stuck in a toilet without water! On leaving, they
tried to give us 100 bhats. But there was no way we were gonna accept. The hospitality was great
enough. They gave us a lift to Yaha bus station and we returned to Yala with about 30 minutes to
go before the train for the Malaysian border was due to leave.
I returned to the YMAT office while Mustafa went to take a picture of a mosque. He called a few
minutes later to say that he'd lost his way! I went to look for him but to no avail. He eventually
made it to the office with less than 5 minutes to go. I thought the incident was a very unsubtle
attmpt by him to deliberately miss the train so that we'd have to stay in Yala. But he insists it
wasn't! Anyway, while he was lost in the mystifying concrete jungle of Yala, the President of YMAT
invited us to stay at the centre. I was ready to stay and Mustafa agreed when he arrived.
After dinner, which was at a Pakistani place and paid for by the President at his insistence, we
were invited to a meeting of the YMAT with a delegation from the National University of Malaysia,
Kuala Lumpur. The two lecturers and their students were researching about Islamic movements in
minority Muslim countries. It was a very interesting meeting and they were also intersted in our
opinions.
PS: Zafar, I'm sorry that I won't get to England before you leave for Pakistan again.
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