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Published: March 6th 2007
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Two Monkeys on the Train
Heather and April ready for bed on the upper bunks. Thai Transportation Tales En Route to Bangkok
Feb 11-12, 2007
We hit the road again on February 11. This time we were penciled in for 18 hours of travel from Koh Pha Nga to Bangkok. I was dreading the 18 hours by taxi, ferry, bus, and train. I seriously considered taking a flight to Bangkok. After some deliberation, I decided to stick with the original 18-hour game plan. Our days spent travelling were proving to be better fodder for stories than our actual destinations. Furthermore, part of the adventure in backpacking is in the traveling itself.
Our 18 hours of travel to Bangkok didn't prove me wrong regarding story fodder. Here are some tales from our travels by ferry, bus, and train. (For some readers, these tales may be an excellent cure for insomnia!).
A Pre-Boarding Transportation Tale Knowing that I was dreading the 18 hours of travel, Heather tried to put a positive spin on it. She told me that the time would pass by quickly and that there might even be Internet on the train. Her pep talk immediately cheered me up for she knew that the prospect of Internet would be perfect carrot to
A Thai Sunset....
...from a train passenger's window. dangle in front of me.
Heather and I must have suffered some brain cell damage from the second-hand joint smoke from the Munchies boat tour because:
1) I didn't even stop to question how realistic it would be for a train in Thailand to have Internet. I don't even think the CPR (Canada's railway) has Internet.
2) That was the first absurd thing that Heather had said during the entire trip. She is the most logical one in our traveling trio.
A Ferry Tale At 11am on February 11, we took a 30-minute taxi ride from our hotel to the ferry station. The station consisted of a canopy with a few plastic chairs. We waited an hour for the ferry and amused ourselves by buying fresh pineapple, mango, and watermelon (all peeled, cut and ready-to-eat). We then took a 4-hour ferry to Thailand's mainland. The highlight of the ferry trip was that I was able to buy two freshly peeled cucumbers from the Sandwich Lady. The cucumbers were meant for sandwiches but I took a chance by asking if I could have a cucumber without the sandwich. To my delight, the lady kindly obliged
A Comfy Upper Bunk?
Can you guess what Heather thinks? and offered me two cucumbers for 50 cents. I was absolutely stoked to be snacking on cucumbers instead of chips or crackers. Heather and April just rolled their eyes and laughed at me. They were quickly learning that I'd go to any lengths to ensure that I met my daily vegetable requirement.
A Bus Tale After we got off of the ferry, we had to wait 45 minutes for the bus under another canopy (aka bus station). It was then a 25 minute bus ride to the train station. While waiting for the bus, I was standing next to a lady who I thought seemed like a seasoned traveller. She looked approachable, so I asked her if there was Internet on the train. I wanted to retrieve my words as they were spilling out of my mouth because I suddenly realized how daft they were. The lady scoffed and indignantly replied "no". I must have still been on a second-hand high from the Munchies boat tour because I went on to ask her if we got a meal on the train. She gave me a look of utter disgust and flatly said "no". I am sure she thought
Dinner on the Train
April digging into our $8 meal. I was some sort of blond bimbo (Think Paris Hilton on The Simple Life). The lunacy of my questions became even more evident when I saw our circa 1970's train. I wondered if it even had running water let alone food or the Internet.
Train Tales 1. TOP TRAIN TALE: The top story of the train was my cabin mate. He was a shy, young Thai gentleman. Since our seats faced each other, I tried to strike up a conversation with him. Unfortunately, he didn't speak a word of English. We communicated via smiles and gestures. He seemed very sweet and kept looking at me in a curious way. Both Heather and I got the impression that he was intrigued with seeing a Westerner and couldn't help stealing a few glances.
He was very considerate and courteous. He offered me a tissue when I spilled some soup on my shirt. He closed the train's window to reduce the noise when I was talking on my cell phone. He even went out of his way to bid me good night with a wave.
Heather and April thought that I was a great source of entertainment for
Brushing My Teeth in the Cabin...
...as my cabin mate looks on and likely thinking that I'm a bit loopy. him when I started to brush my teeth in front of him. Not wanting to risk catching any germs in the train's sketchy bathroom, I opted to brush my teeth in my cabin. (Yes, I am neurotic about germs). Heather, who was positioned diagonally across from my cabin mate, noticed that he started to laugh when he saw me brushing my teeth. He was talking on his cell phone at the time. We speculated that he was telling his buddy "You won't believe what this quirky Westerner is doing now??? She's brushing her teeth of all things!"
2. THE TRAIN: The train was a story in itself. It was a rickety old train and made a lot of clambering and clunking noises throughout our 12-hour journey. It shook uncontrollably many times during the night.
The passenger windows (about 1m x .5m) opened completely. Some one could definitely jump out of them. These windows were useful for the street vendors at the train station. The vendors could conveniently sell food to the passengers because all food and money transactions could occur through the window. Talk about delivery right to your window! During every stop, street vendors were also
A Corny Snack...
..while waiting for the bus. allowed to come onto the train to sell food and drinks.
To our frustration, smoking was allowed on the train but only in the spaces in between the cars. All three of us slept on the upper bunks. The beds were hard and a little short (even I had to curl up). It was quite a mission for me to climb up and down the swinging ladder to my bunk. I had to be extra careful not to step on my cabin mate in the bottom bunk.
3. DINNER ON THE TRAIN: When we boarded the train, one of train crew immediately approached us and handed us a dinner and breakfast menu. He strongly encouraged us to order both dinner and breakfast at the same time. Heather became very suspicious when no one else was offered a menu. She surmised that it was not be a good sign. Not knowing any better, we ordered a 200 Baht meal and breakfast as well. We found it strangely odd that we were the only ones who ordered and ate a meal on the train. There was only one other foreigner on the train and even he did not order a meal. We found out later through him that we were likely the only ones on the train who could afford a 200 Baht meal. Most of the passengers could feed their entire family for that price. The passengers had eaten before boarding the train or bought food from the local vendors that came onto the train during stops. After finding out this information, we cancelled our breakfast. Heather's suspicions were confirmed. We were easy money targets.
We arrived into Bangkok at 5:30am on February 12. I was tired but glad that I had done the 18-hour Thai transportation trek. It perhaps wasn't worth every minute of the 1080 minutes, but it was likely more interesting than taking a one-hour flight to Bangkok.
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Jim Duncan
non-member comment
What a wonderful trip so far. Keep us posted as to your adventures. Joyce and I admire your spirit and like to read of your quirky tales. Keep having a ball. Life only goes around once so enjoy. Celia, try the foot massages. We did and really enjoyed it. Jim