Doug and Kerry Hudson arrive in Malaysia, South East Asia

World Trip >> Asia >> Malaysia >> Longtail

Our journey from Thailand to Malaysia was rather, erm, interesting shall we say? Instead of travelling over land and queuing up for hours at the border waiting for the lazy immigration staff to look our passports over, we decided it would be cool to cross the border by boat, thus beating the crowds and getting our Malaysian adventure underway in double-quick time. Our plan was to travel by long-tail boat from Satun to Kuala Perlis. What we didn’t know was that this is the favourite smuggling route from Thailand to Malaysia…

We bought tickets for our long-tail boat and were told it would depart as soon as they had fourteen passengers. We went to wait for our passports to be stamped. This took quite a while, as the immigration officials were in a meeting. Actually, we had seen them lounging around in a back office, drinking tea and looking very laid back, but the official line was nevertheless in a meeting and to argue the point would be a very bad idea. A British ex-pat, now living on the Malaysian island of Pulau Langkawi, kindly explained to us that they were waiting for their bribes...

Apparently, Malaysian maritime officials fine heavily any boats that arrive late in Pulau Langkawi. The Thai immigration officials know this, so they don’t stamp any passports until they have received a tasty bribe. The boat operators know it’s cheaper to bribe the Thai officials than to pay the fine to the Malaysian officials, and so the bribery perpetuates. It was fascinating to watch this corruption proceeding so blatantly, but it was also very inconvenient, as we weren’t even going to Pulau Langkawi but to Kuala Perlis on the mainland!

Eventually they stamped our passports, looking very disgruntled as they did so. We went to wait for the fourteenth person to buy a ticket for our long-tail boat.

Doug observed some mysterious packages being unloaded off another long-tail boat that had just arrived. The customs officials were kept from investigating by some very aggressive shoves. Oh dear, he thought, what on earth are we getting into here?

Suddenly it was time to leave, and our transport was revealed: it really was just a long-tail boat, and one way or another we now had to fit fourteen passengers and everyone’s luggage onto it. We managed it somehow, squeezing in four to a bench. We prepared to be uncomfortable for the next hour. The canvas tarpaulin roof was unfurled, to shield us from the spray coming in from the sides of the boat. Unfortunately, this had the secondary effect of making it extremely hot and stuffy in there, not to mention leaving us completely blind to where the boat was going.

Doug had seen too many films where, with no warning at all, such boats were suddenly riddled with violent machine-gun fire. He found it easy to imagine how the Chinese boat people must feel when they set off for Australia. We were just a little bit nervous!

Happily though, we arrived in Kuala Perlis, safe and sound. There was nothing to worry about after all!

Welcome to Malaysia! First stop: the Cameron Highlands. But not without the nightmare bus journey from hell first...

World Trip >> Asia >> Malaysia >> Longtail

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006