From Penang we booked a minibus all the way to Bangkok (instead of the train or one of the more expensive buses). The ride to Hat Yai, a city in Thailand’s far south close to the Malaysian border, wasn’t too bad. The thing was that we arrived there late and thus missed the bus that was supposed to take us to Bangkok. For that reason, we had to wait six hours before boarding the next minibus. Hence we arrived in Bangkok in the middle of the night instead of late evening.