So after almost a week of relaxing beach life on Koh Chang our bus dropped us off in Bangkok and we planned to jump on the first night train to Chaing Mai, a 14-hour train ride. Unfortunately, in such a relaxed, beach-bum state, we neglected to book ahead. This left Cameron, Maren, Bryan and I in the up-right seated 3rd class section of the train with all locals and probably 3 or 4 other white people. We got some smirks and stares as we took our place and situated ourselves for the journey. Some Rastafarian influenced Thai guys complimented me on my peace sign earrings, yelling ''FREEDOM'', as I struggled down the tiny aisle with my oversized luggage, then a few hours later tried to sell us pot. All the older Thai women had towels over ... read more

I made it safely and found Maren and Maria pretty easily once I got here. The first flight wasn't bad, except I sat next to this guy who talked my ear off and sounded like he was performing a monologue when he spoke and annoyed the crap out of me. I literally had other passengers looking at me with sympathy throughout the 13 hours! I met a nice American couple with an 11 month old little boy and they lived in Japan for work and gave me a few helpful tips about saving money, so that was good. By the time I got into Tokyo and through to my gate they were already boarding. I went to use the bathroom and it was my first squat toilet and I couldn't stop laughing while I was using ... read more