I woke up around 7.30 and the room was too warm so I put the fan on. The place wasn't great for someone I'll to stay in especially the toilet so I messaged Anna to say so. I got my things together and decided to visit the hospital as she might not get my message and might need something. I went into the ward and saw her get up and go to the toilet. There was a crowd in the room and it turned out the doctors were doing there rounds so I had to leave. I went out and got a cold pizza from the shop and headed to the bus station. I wanted a bus to the Thai border and there was one soon at 9.30 and then 10, 11 and 12pm with a journey of either 1.15 or 1.50. I wanted to catch a 2.30 train on the Thai side and the 12pm bus would do just fine. I headed to town and went to the palace museum which was 4 RM entry so I went in and they had areas set up with descriptions if Royal ceremonies like birthing and circumcision. They also had some weapons and fairly good English translations. The building was nice but it was all a bit boring and I spent too long there. I left and got a quick photo of independence park in the daylight and went around the mosque again. I went into the war memorial museum which was mainly on WWII and it was supposed to be 4 entry for foreigners but he charged me 2 ringitts. There were lots of information boards on the war some about the Japanese invasion of Kelantan and Kota Bharu which had not lasted long and afterwards Thailand had administered Malaysia for the Japanese. I spent a long time there as well and had a look upstairs which I think I was not supposed to but it was still part of the museum with some artefacts and such. I left and went to the next building which some maps made me believe was a museum but it was something official with a guard who didn't want me taking photos of the building. I headed to the Kelantan museum which was a walk away and went past an Islamic place that offered to teach Islam to people and maybe had free literature but it was closed. The museum though was open and cost 4 ringitts so I went in and the ground floor was all in Malay with no translations. There was a bit about food I would have liked to understand but the top floor did have English and included Shadow puppets, kites and musical instruments. Outside they had a car which may have been used by a president or something with a hard to read number-plate. I left around 11.20 and had time to go to the shop from yesterday and buy another pair of sunglasses, tissues, a pack of peas and some biscuits. I got my things at the hostel and got to the bus station a few minutes before 12. The bus was a local one and was 7 ringitts and half empty. It only got more empty as we went and I got off close to the border where there were no currency exchange places. I walked through customs and the Malaysian side was easy but the Thai side took a while and finally the man said he could only give me 30 days for some reason as I'd not been doing visa runs but that was fine as I left in 12 days anyway. I walked into Thailand, ignored the taxi people and walked the 15 minutes in the heat to the train station. I went to buy a ticket and still had plenty of time as it was 2.10 but the man there was rebooting his computer so it took a while before I could buy my ticket which cost 223 baht. I got some water and sat on the train in a free bank of seats rather than the one I'd been given. It was hot and I wished I had more water but it would be enough and I wondered why there was so little activity although there were about 10 people in my carriage. The train didn't leave on time and I started looking out onto the platform, was I on the wrong train? At 2.45 it came to me that Thailand is one hour behind so it was only 1.45. I left my luggage on the train, took my rucksack and left the station and across the road was a money exchange that did 7.8 ringitt to the baht. I went a couple of roads in and bought a rice with egg dish for 3 RM even though we were in Thailand a lot of market sellers were Malaysian. Then I found an exchange place with 7.85 rate my ringitts became 1,800 baht. I went back to the station and bought another water for 10 baht and waited. There was more activity now and some soldiers boarded to protect from terrorists and the train left on time for Bangkok. It was a few hours to Hat Yai and I ate a bit and read a bit. We got there and I walked out of the train station and tried to get WiFi at the cafe there which I had used last time. I did connect but the signal was too poor to do anything so I headed on towards 2 hostels. I wanted to stay somewhere different and had my eye on hat yai backpackers but went past it to the Agree hat yai where I used their internet to book the Hat yai backpackers hostel. I went to the hostel and they had seen me go past and use the internet and they showed me the room which was empty so I got a good bunk. I left my things, packed what I needed and talked to the guy working there who recommended a night market for food, but I noticed there was a floating market as it was the weekend and it was open until 9 so I should be able to make it since it was 1 hour 20 away. The guy wanted to know where I was going and then said he would check on getting there with someone. I left to get to the market and back by 10pm so I could get some rest and I went using my Tone phone which was difficult as the gps didn't work. I found some market stalls on the way and bought some bananas for 20 baht only to find a better deal 2 stalls down. It was a long walk and I tried a spring roll and visited a 7-11 on the way. There was a temple gate nearby and the market was closing up when I arrived. I walked on the bridge and took some photos of the market which were some canoe type boats and behind it there was a more normal market on the land and there was a stage tent with some music. I walked along the river past the boats which weren't selling anymore and then went around the main market which was mostly closing up as well but I got a coconut pancake for 10 baht and as it was good I went back and bought the last one as well. I left the market and went to the temple which was ok and had some kind of party going on and there were life size automated puppets that stood up and prayed and sat down again. I left and headed back in the dark and it was a bit of a boring walk but some dogs barked at me a few times, I seem to remember Hat yai dogs from the last time I was here. I got to the main road and got some water from a reverse osmosis machine, I put in 2 baht and it gave me more than 1 litre so I didn't have enough bottles to store it all. I walked to the roundabout and then along the other road and it looked like I would be back a bit before 10. I turned and headed towards the hostel but about 10 minutes later I didn't recognise where I was and I didn't gave a GPS to check. I came to a river instead if the train station and after a bit I worked out I'd taken a straight left instead of a diagonal and I had been going the wrong way for 10 minutes so basically had to go back. I did find the train station and made it back to the hostel and the nan there told me there was a bus and boat to Koh Phangan leaving at 8.30 for 700 baht. It was an OK price but wiki travel had said 660 and I thought the train would be less still. I checked online and the train left at 6.40am so I wasn't sure if I could make that. There was another guy in the hostel but he was behind a curtain in a different area. I did a few things and tried to charge my phones over night and went to sleep.
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