Krabi to Butterworth via Had Yai

Got up bright and early to get our bus as arranged at 06.40am..got some supplies at seven 11 then sat and waited and waited and waited..finally at 07.00am the bus came for us. We went to the tourist office and boared another bus, not nearly as nice and full of people, so we squeezed in and set off for Had Yai! After roughly about 1hr on the rd..the mini bus started having problems, we pulled upand the driver started messing with the van, next thing we know the van is filling up with steam everyone trying to get out as quick as possible, typical we was at the back!! Radiator problem or something, another mini bus pulledup behind us and started passing our driver bottles of water..the engine still running he pours water in and it just spurts all over but he just kept pouring and pouring, then another bottle and another, finally gets back on board and off we go again..about 15mins later same again and same procedure..obviously the Thai way to sort it! On the rd again 65km to go and again the mini bus breaks down, this time there was no fixing it, so we sat there and sat there..an hr must of gone by and we was still sat there and is was hot..we was cooking! Eventually another mini bus came and collected us...!
Finally arrived at Had Yai only to find that the bus we wanted to get to take us Ipoh had left and the later bus was no good as we good get there in the middle of the night and with nowhere to stay that wasnt an option! As we needed to be out of Thailand by midnight the only option we had was to go to Butterworth and either try and get bus from there or a night train..so we booked our ticket and had 2hrs to wait..Had Yai had nothing there...and what was there was shut because it was sunday, thank god for seven 11...a hot dog some crisps and water we was sorted!
Got our mini bus for the 3hr journey..got through the boarder no problems entered Malaysia no problems..and we was well on our way..or should i say we thought we was..the driver decided to stop for chicken, then he stopped to collect more people, then he stopped to fill up with petrol at which point most of the people got out and went to the toilet or went to buy snacks..eventually we set off again after about 40/45mins at the petrol station alone!
Arrived at Butterworth only to find the train had no seats left for us and it was to late to get the bus, no other option other than to spend the night in Butterworth and try and get bus in morning, the lady at the ticket counter pointed us in the right direction. Arrived at this hotel..looked so dodgy from the outside, but again there wasnt really anything around and we hadnt seen any others and it was late at night so we went in and got a room..it was the pits, it was like a huge cell with floral bedding and a tiny sink in corner! It smelt like damp and it was just awful..no air con..just this big fan that wad so loud but didnt really do a lot, no light in the room it was outside the room..just kept telling myself the quicker we go to sleep the quicker morning will come (my sister told me yrs ago)! We woke up early got our stuff together and made our way back to bus station, got a ticket for Cameron Highlands only 1hr to wait!
The bus station was manic ticket offices everywhere selling same bus tickets but for different times and people shouting you and grabbing you to go over there and come here, it smelt to, smelt of urine..was a dirty hole..just 1hr to wait!