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Published: February 10th 2013
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Thanks to our trusty travel ladies (mentioned in the previous entry) we got a tuk-tuk pickup from our guest house, which took us to Thanaleng Station, 30 minutes outside Vientiane (the Thais are currently funding the train line's extension themselves, from Nong Khai to Vientiane), where we got stamped out of Laos and got the shuttle train to Nong Khai, in Thailand. The stamping out cost 30 baht each, and there is no exchange booth there, or ATM, so we had gotten some baht already. We met a really fun couple at the station who had been travelling for the last 15 years, and had just spent almost 2 years travelling around Africa. Their tales of rough travelling (sometimes going without food for days because none was available, not being able to go out past dark (or sometimes at all), and finding an unexpected oasis in Uganda where they lived for 6 months and loved it), were all inspiring and amazing, though did also sound exhausting. We were rookies by comparison.
When we got to Nong Khai, we were stamped into Thailand, and boarded our train. We got the 2nd class sleepers with AC, and both got lower berths in
First night on the train
and it didn't look bad at all. the center of the car (less motion and noise, and the lower berths are wider, and even though they cost extra the prices are so low it was worth it). We had booked ahead using the amazing
http://www.seat61.com, the one-stop destination for everything regarding ground travel in the world. The Thai trains are incredibly nice. They are super clean, comfortable, and safe. We slept really well but woke up early in order to have time before the train got into the station at 06:25, though it ended up being pointless as we didn't arrive until 3 hours later. The reason it is such a comfortable sleep is because the ride is sloooooowwwww... FYI the car ladies are quite pushy about wanting you to eat in your seat and not go to the restaurant car because they then get a commission. You can ignore them and go to the other car, but they might charge you the commission anyway out of spite. It's not expensive, it's just because they're really rude that we minded. Otherwise people were nice and everything was super.
We were late into Bangkok so we didn't have time to do all the things we had planned,
Monk seating
at the Bangkok railway station, there's reserved seating for monks so we ended up walking to the pier to see some of the skyline, navigating alleyways in Chinatown, finding a money exchange that would take our leftover Lao Kip (and everyone said no one would!) and eating some delicious Thai food in, yes, the train station food court (food courts are where all the best and cheapest eateries are - though avoid the lady in the stall with all the omelettes, we were a bit green after eating breakfast there). We even managed to squeeze in a shower at the station, which was much appreciated since our next train was also a sleeper. And then, off we went to our next stop... Butterworth, in Malaysia...
Thailand in points:
- super developed, though rampant poverty visible along the train tracks...
- trash still a major problem in nearly all areas
- delicious cheap food available everywhere
- Sadie loves thai iced tea!
- pagodas often guilded
- amazing train service (just calculate for delays upon arrival)
- really helpful people and very little harrasment/touting
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mom
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love it! and love to see YOU on the road...