Bowling for Visas

So it's been a while. Partially because we have been in Kota Bharu, Malaysia getting visas and the interwebz there is not so prevalent.

As I had mentioned in previous blogs there were two things I needed to take care of, WE needed to take care of. One being a visa to prolong our stay in Thailand. The other a job also crucial in prolonging our stay in Thailand.

As of this saturday after 24 hours of bus riding and 6 or so hours of waiting for buses, we come back to Ao Nang victorious, with our Tourist B visas raised high above our heads in celebration.

As for our journey to getting the visas, that is another story that I will tell....now.

We had heard from many different people via internet, bars, schools, random conversaton- very different bits of information when it came to aquiring a visa. We had an option, get an education visa good for 3 months for 2k baht. Or get a free tourist B visa for free good for 2 moths and a 30 day extension (essentially 3 months).

We decided to go with the Tourist visa because we learned from several sources that when it came time to change it to Non-Imm B visa (for work) we didn't have to leave the country to get it upgraded.

SO in order to get that visa we needed to go to Kota Bharu, Malaysia. It is right at the border of Southern Thailand and Malaysia. The area around the border, on the Thai side has had problems with Terrorism for a long time, road side bombings and such. I was none too thrilled to know that in a day we would be in a small minivan touring through that area. We were told, however, that during the day it was safe because of the armed guards, which turned out to be 18 year olds with assault rifles and green camo. We were also told that Kota Bharu was the easiest consulate to deal with. In and out, no questions asked, pick up your visa in the morning, see ya later Kota Bharu.

So before the trip even started I was anxious. Maris seemed excited about going to Malaysia, in any other case other than passing through an area known for being the most dangerous part of Thailand, and I would have been right there beside her, excited. But I wasn't I was a bit scared actually. It was the first time I have dealt with that since i have been out of my home country.

Not one time, since I have been in Thailand have I been as scared as I was of the prospect of traveling through that damned area. But in order to keep attitudes of the, very out of the way trip, I kept my anxiousness under wraps.

The morning came, we had to be awake at 5 o'clock waiting by the beach for our bus to pick us up. As one crappy bus every 15 minutes drove by, we started to get nervous we were going to get stuck on a heaping pile of crap 70's porno van, but 30 minutes late, aka RIGHT ON TIME, our van pulls up. It parks alongside the curb and the mist surrounding the ocean and streets made it look like the Magical Bus from scooby doo had just pulled up. Minutes before we hopped on the van, we heard a large slapping sound. We looked towards the sidewalk adjacent the beach and see what made the noise. It was a stingray about as big as a basketball and wide as a Kentucky Derby Style debutant, Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, sun hat. Large.

We boarded the bus, once again with one Large pack and a smaller one. We stopped and picked up a couple people. A girl from California, a guy from New Zealand and a few other thais along the way. The ride was going fine. I overheard the New Zealander telling the girl from Cali that he was traveling to Had Yai, our final destination on THIS bus, before we changed to another. He said he was stopping at HadYai to meet is partner who lived in Southern Thailand, but he "didn't dare go meet her there" she had to meet him in Had Yai because of the danger. Overhearing this only magnified my anxiety.

Four hours later we stop in Had Yai and switch buses to finish the rest of our trip, 4 hours south to the border and then a 45 minute taxi ride to the consulate. We had to stay overnight, so luckily Maris's father got us a place at the Marriott for 2 nights (thanks! it was great!). It ended up being a 3 night stay.

So we boarded the bus that worried me. As we got further and further south we started to see Checkpoints. We stopped in one, to be waved along by a man decked in green Camouflage donning an assault rifle and a notepad. They had these "checkpoints" for several kilometers. About 30 minutes of every 5 minutes getting to a point where there were gates set out in the road in a pattern that made it impossible to go straight. A gate to the right, then 10 feet and gate to left then another 10 feet and one to the right. So anything passing through had to serpentine through these gates. I believe that were there to slow down and oncoming car that might be dangerous, maybe a way to get a better look at those driving to check their notebook to see if they were dangerous, maybe to slow down or recognize and unmanned car bomb, I am not sure, but it made me uneasy.

So we finally passed through. It was not nearly as bad as I had thought it would be. We did not see anything scary, the soldiers all kind of smiled at us. We made it through safe to the Malaysian border hopped in a taxi, exchanged our Baht for Ringet and 12 hours after jumpinh on the first bus we were in Kota Bharu.

Our stay at the Marriott was booked for Thursday and Friday, we were there wednesday night. We found a small hostel, dingy, smelly and probably infested with bugs. We made a pact that we would not go back to the room until we absolutely needed to for sleep. Turns out that time came faster than we had expected. We got in and passed out, woke up at the crack of dawn and high tailed it out of there to go to the consulate and check into the Marriott.

We checked into the Marriott. Absolutely wonderful place, the polar opposite of our previous digs. So we learned a bit about Kota Bharu. One it is a muslim town, so they didn't serve beer anywhere but maybe one or two chinese restaurants. We learned that the town was 70% Chinese and 30% Malaysian and 40% Thai, you do the math. I don't think the guy that told us this information was a Mathlete.

I learned a little about myself on the trip to Kota Bharu. I generally am a very open-minded person who would not fall victim to stereotyping, but all the years of having American news channels pumping fearful information into my head about Muslims did a number on me. I can honestly say there were a couple occassions while we were there that I felt a bit worried. One time was on our trip to the consulate in the morning from the Hostel we stayed in. We got in the taxi with a very old man with a beard and muslim hat (not sure what they are called). We knew where the consulate was from where we were. So he starts driving, gets on his speaker and says something very quickly. He doesn't speak English and he showed no signs of excitement in having us in his cab. He then starts turning down into neighborhoods, very run down neighborhoods-in a direction going AWAY from where we were supposed to be going. We got deeper and deeper into these neighborhoods. My mind started reeling, where is he taking us? I thought, one more turn in the wrong direction and we are getting out of the car. Just as I thought this to myself he turns onto the main road and there we are, right in front of the consulate.

There was no reason to be scared, it's just having so many years of CNN and fox news distributing terrorism fears, that even though there was no reason to be nervous, I was.

Anyhow, we walked around Kota Bharu, it was not a walking friendly town. No sidewalks, so we constantly walked on the street, so it was kinda of crappy having to keep your eyes behind you at all times.

We went bowling twice. Maris and I had never bowled before, so we did. It was a blast, Maris ALMOST broke 100. I bowled a 160 and then a 70. Consistency is not my strong suit. See anything wrong with this photo?

We watched movies in the hotel room and checked out the various malls in the area. The food was meh. No vegetables, so maris was reduced to eating Cabbage and white rice for the week. I felt bad for her, but all I ate was chicken fried rice, so I wasn't much better off than she was.

I wish I had more to say about Kota Bharu, but I don't. We bowled and watched movies. The food was meh, the weather was meh, the people were not the most friendly, The transportation was non existent, things were more pricey than Thailand for some odd reason and all in all I wish we could have gone somewhere else that didn't require us to travel 12 hours on a bus through dangerous territory.

The last night we were there I laid in bed hearing cars peeling out around the hotel. Again a bit of anxiety hit me, thinking about what would happen if there was a terrorist attack, a car bomb down below or something of that nature. Not sure why I was thinking of this, besides the fact I was in a Muslim town. To my knowledge KB was not dangerous and hadn't had any sort of attack that I was aware of, but I think I was thinking more about the town we passed through. It made me realize that in only two instances did I feel fear of something of that nature and both were semi-unwarranted. I thought about what it must be like to live somewhere where those fears are warranted and expected and prevalent and real. If ever I find myself not happy about anything in my life and I can always now know that one thing that will make me truly happy is to not have to live in fear, because for abut 15 minutes of fear I felt in that area, a lifetime of that is a very very unsettling concept to me.

Goodbye Kota Bharu, Hello Thailand. It's good to be back.

Halloween was not anything special. We went to a small bar that celebrated. We watched fire dancers and listened to bad music. It was the first time I hadn't dressed for halloween in my life I think, so it was kind of disappointing. Anyhow, sorry for the length, just had a lot on my mind.

This is literally 30 seconds before he threw one of those into a booth filled with people on accident. If I wouldnt have moved to take the picture it would have hit my right in the face.

Night market at KB. Anyone interested in a baretta or glock shirt? No? How about a Dora the explora tee?

And for those of you who are printing this out (you know who you are :) ) sorry about the excessive use of your printer paper.

Take care and be well!

Til Next time.

_Brock