Ulog 14 - Keep One Foot in Front of the Other

I am about to leave Bangkok Thailand for Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. Here are updates about what is going on. My main goals are packing and trying not to panic or get sick now.

Travel Plans

• I succeeded in getting my train ticket to Hat Yai Thailand a couple of days ago by going in person to the main train station in Bangkok.
• The train leaves at 1 pm on Tuesday
• Now it is late in the day on Sunday
• I will check out here at 9:30 on Tuesday and pray for no trouble or more money needed for this hotel
• This will get me to the train station in very good time.

Obtaining the ticket was a great relief. The only lower bunk left was in the air conditioned car, so this was almost 900 thb. I had an upper bunk on a previous train trip to Laos, and I do not think I am up to that again. So I splurged in this time of no money. I think it will be worth it.

Climbing up and down the bunk steps was really hard for me and I need the best rest I can get on the trip. I have pretty bad edema now, so once I lie down, I will probably be getting up each hour to go to the bathroom. I hope a lot of fluid will leave my body that night as the train rocks me.

The train portion of trip is about 18 hours and I will get to Hat Yai at 6 am on August 1 – the last day on my visa. I need to cross the border on August 1 or I will have an “overstay” and have to pay 500 thb to leave the country. With my current finances, I need to avoid that fate.

Hat Yai Plans

Once I get to Hat Yai, I will have about 12 hours until I take a bus to the Terminal Bersepadu Selatan in Kuala Lumpur. I think nothing will be open so early, so I will probably say in the train station for awhile.

Get the bus ticket

• I need to make sure I will be over the border in time. I found a bus operator a few blocks from the station called Alisan Golden Coach. They offer buses that travel as early as 8:30 am and as late as 7 pm. I'm hoping to get a seat on the bus that leaves at 6 pm and will get me to KL at about 4 in the morning on the 2nd. This will cost about 650 thb.

Go to my Thai Bank in Hat Yai

• update my bank book
• talk to the bank to let them know I will be in Malaysia for an extended time, and see what they have to say. I see two branches for the bank in KL near where I will be, so I hope I will be able to use my atm card without fees and easily, but you never know.

Get to an internet cafe I found near the train station

• sit there for the hours before the bus ride and work.
• apparently they are friendly to travelers with hours to kill. The food is fairly cheap and seems good. They have a lot of reviews - all positive.
• get whatever money is in steemit out of steemit, through my exchange, and to my Thai Bank account and then to cash. I will have a power down from both me and my son @bxlphabet that will take place while I am on the train (don't judge!) and so I want to get that taken care of while still in Thailand, not Malaysia.

Change Thai Cash to Malaysian Cash

I will leave the cafe about 3 and get the cash I have transferred out of the atm. Then I will go to a money changer and get what cash I have all turned into Malaysian ringgit (MYR.) There are numerous places I can do that; all surrounding the bus place I need to get back to.

I think it would be better to get all my money issues done in Thailand in case I have any trouble getting money in Malaysia. I should not have trouble, but you never know. I would prefer to get all the cash I can and change it before crossing the border

Ride the bus to Kuala Lumpur

• hopefully sleep though the whole trip.
• cross the border without a hitch!

Day 2 in Kuala Lumpur

• arrive at the Bersepadu Selatan in Kuala Lumpur at 4 am Wed Aug 2
• sit in their free wifi area and work until about 1 and then go to my hostel

The main bus station is supposed to be a good place to hang out, and I hope that is true. It seems like it based on reviews and the website. This is not like a grungy Greyhound station on the US. It is a nice, clean, secure place; more like an airport.

This saves me from stumbling around downtown KL trying to find my hostel in the middle of the night, and also saves a hostel night cost.

I will leave the terminal in time to check into my hostel at 2 pm. This will be a quick and cheap ride on the LRT and will get me to within walking distance of where I need to be.

Check in to the hostel and pass out for many hours.

I have six days booked and then the next two weeks, each in 7 days segments. This is the cheapest place I found online and is about $25 usd per week! The must be 50 more cheap hotels in the immediate neighborhood, so if I do not like the place, I can look further when I am there. But this cheap place has good reviews, so I hope for the best. Since I will less that $100 usd when I get there, I do not have room for error.

What I am doing now

• packing what to take with me
  I cannot make decisions and this place is torn up. I at least have decided to take one large suitcase with a travel bag attached to the top. This is really heavy for me but my small suitcase will not be large enough. This is when I tell my self to ditch everything, and don't do it.
• packing what to give my Thai friends
  This is all my housewares and some other things they can have to keep
• packing what to have my Thai friends keep for me
  I do not even know why I have most of this or why I want to keep it.
• Throwing out a lot of stuff
  This is my favorite part right now and makes me feel better each time I dump another bag downstairs.
• cleaning the room slightly for the girls who have to clean after me
  Not my best skill.
• Doing laundry
  Not fast enough
• Trying to eat and sleep as I can
  I ate carbs yesterday and feel sick today. It's back to eggs and sardines for the moment and drinking electrolytes.

My health

When I went to the train station to buy my ticket, there were several long walks. I realize my feet and legs are really bad now. This is why I am leaving so much time on all my stops for the trip.

• My right leg is turning out oddly and this is something to do with my Rheumatoid Arthritis. I am not happy to see this new progression and I am sure it is all due to stress. Walking is not going to be easy, so I will take it very slow.

• I still have bad edema. It's somewhat better after sleeping, but not really. This is a big problem and I need to get it fixed.

• I am keeping a sick headache now. I do not usually have headaches, so I know this is from stress too.

Reaching out to kl groups on fb

I know! We hate fb! But that is where the people are, and the kl groups are coming through for me. I have all kinds of information now about

• wifi
• phone service
• good places to stay cheap
• possibilities for work
• visa info for Malaysia
• long stay info

I am in about 800 fb groups from all over the world and for many health issues, weight loss, and all other random topics. My 30 kl groups are in the top ranks of helpfulness and give me a lot of hope for the trip. I post questions as I think of them and 10 people chime in with ideas before the hour is up.

Just get a job, Sharon

I want to answer this question many people have asked me. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis. This is an autoimmune disease with many diverse symptoms. The main ones I suffer are:

• pain in joints and generally
• joint deformation
• unexplained and random swelling
• exhaustion
• edema
• weakness
• no grip in my hands
• limping

I can work and I do work. But there are days I can barely move or even get out of bed and they are not rare. I was part way into the process of getting disability when I left the us instead of going through with it. Living on disability is it own nightmare and I have many friends in that scheme. I chose not to go the route.

But I am not physically able to teach 40 hours a week at an elementary school even though I have the skills. This is the reason I choose the online life and it is only my fault I have not done better.

Weight loss work

Everyone is still fat and not taking my advice to improve, but I am not discouraged!

I made connections with a couple of people this week who I hope and think will help me do better on reaching out to help others lose weight like I did. One of the ladies told me, "you need to stop reaching out one-by-one and replying to random people who cry out for help." Instead her idea reaches out broadly and should be more effective.

The second person has training offered in how to convert traffic to sales. I am going to get serious about this once I land in one piece. I should be able to reach my obese brothers and sisters and I will.

I have been posting my steemit weight loss posts to my facebook page for obesity and they have been getting traffic. So many people are desperate like I was and I need to reach them now. They need my help and I need the income they can generate.

My son @bxlphabet

I am not sure how he is doing. He is still in his home but now the rent is one entire month late. I do not have money for either July or August. Just in the last days, his landlord asked me for more details of what is going on. I gave them to her. I hope she might have some way to keep him housed, but I do not know. I feel so scared and worried for him. He's posting and I saw he made some comments. But he is not directly talking to me now.

Again - my obesity caused my son's ptsd. I want no other parent or child to go through this nightmare. This is what drives my work even when I do not make a living at it.

In Conclusion

Time is slipping away from me and I have so much more to get done. Whatever is not done by Tuesday at 9:30 am, will not get done, and I will then be on the road.

As I say in the title of this ulog - keep one foot in front of the other, even as it wants to turn off to the side.

Whew! I will keep on keeping on and I am so grateful to you.

= =

I am blogging about weight loss to help others get thin and healthy like I did. If you or anyone you know is struggling to beat obesity, please follow along and you can do this too.

Please start here:

Set Your Goal for Weight Loss How do you know what your weight loss goal is?

Help Us Stay on Steemit

If you would like to help my son @bxlphabet and I stay on steemit, but your upvote is just not enough, here are my wallet and PayPal addresses where I will be so grateful for any help. Any input or ideas will be so welcome.

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