How to travel from Hat Yai to Penang by train

#100TravelTips This trip was not what I planned from the beginning, but since the day I finished cheering for football at Tinsulanond Stadium, I could not book a return flight ticket because it was 5 times more expensive than usual, so I had to resort to a new method, which was to take a return flight from Penang, which was very cheap at only 1,000 baht. So I made a special trip by taking the train from Hat Yai Railway Station to Padang Besar, buying a ticket at the station for only 50 baht. When I arrived at Padang Besar Railway Station on the Malaysian side, I was able to stamp my passport and the station. There were both Thai and Malaysian immigration offices next to each other. After the immigration check, I went up to the 2nd floor of Padang Besar Station. At that point, there was a Malaysian train ticket booth where you can pay with a credit card or debit card at the machine. The rest can be paid in cash at the counter or you can buy it on the KTMB website because there is a clear mobile signal from Thailand at that point. If you take the train from Hat Yai at 8:55, the train from Padang Besar to Butterworth will be at around 12:35 Malaysian time. At that time, we still had about an hour, so we could eat at the station. There was a shop where we could scan our TrueMoney Wallet. When it was almost time, we scanned our tickets at the check-in point, similar to the BTS in Thailand. Then we walked down the stairs to the platform to board the train. The train was air-conditioned and the seats were soft like bus seats. It took about 2 hours to travel from Padang Besar to Butterworth. When we arrived at Butterworth Station, we walked up to the 2nd floor of the station. There was a sign that led us to the ferry pier to enter Penang. The ferry ticket counter does not accept cash, but you can scan your TrueMoney Wallet. Or if you have a credit or debit card, you can use it. The ferry runs every 20-30 minutes. Inside the waiting building, there is free WiFi and charging ports for tourists.