BERPETUALANG KE ACEH: Two hours plus in Southern Thailand

Continuing from The temporary public jetty at Tasik Banding...

After checking in at a hotel outside the town of Jeli and having a bit of rest we went to the town of Rantau Panjang situated near the border to Southern Thailand.

We were scheduled to meet a contact person from Southern Thailand in Rantau Panjang. As it turned out he missed the last border pass to enter Malaysia for the day and so we have to enter Thailand. to see him.

Luckily we were prepared to do that and brought our passports along.

Passing the town of Golok we then followed the contact towards a smaller town.

After getting out of Golok we noticed there were plenty of road blocks. We were told Thailand is currently under martial law. And Southern Thailand is well-known for sporadic acts of terror due to the ongoing fight between the local separatist movement and the central government.

Soon we arrived at our destination, the town of Waeng.

At a house within the vicinity seen, we spent time discussing details of a shooting trip covering a number of provinces in Southern Thailand. Oh, by shooting, I mean camera shoot ya, not violence.

Our contact asked us to spent the night at his place. But we have to turn it down because we already took rooms in the hotel near Jeli. Most of our stuffs were left there.

Besides, we were scheduled to return to the Klang Valley the following day, after 4 days having been on the road on long hauls. We surely don't want to prolong the trip as the festive Muslim celebration of Eid Mubarak was only a week away.

From Waeng it is better to return back to Jeli via the border check at Buketa. It's just this check is opened up till 6 pm Thailand time (an hour behind Malaysian time).