Train rides, Laos borders, and visa battles.

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After a delayed train from Lopburi (it was supposed to leave at 11:30, but didn't leave until 1:30) I had a pretty ridiculous day of travel. The final destination was Kanchanaburi, and busses left Bangkok every 30 min. or so, until 5:00. I got in to the Bang Sue train station at 4:45, and I was going to be damned if I spent the night in Bangkok again.

I got off of the train, found one of those half insane, half brain damaged (probably from falling off of their bikes) motor bike taxis, and said if he could get me to the Mo Chit bus station in 10 min. I'd give him 100 Baht. For anyone that has seen the Darjeeling Limited, I felt like Bill Murray in the very beginning, when he's about to miss his train. I was wearing my huge backpack, probably weighing in at about 230, 6'3" with a tiny guy driving the bike. I was holding on to my hat and wallet, we were dodging in between busses and the like, and my mom was peeing a little in her pants somewhere without knowing why. Anyway, we got to the station, I got my bus, and spent the next two nights in Kanchanaburi. I visited the tiger temple, and wandered the town.

The train left at 8:00 pm the next night, so I got to Bangkok, and was seated next to a guy in a restaurant, who was also a forest firefighter for the forest service, from Leavenworth. Which was ridiculous. What are the odds? Seriously. What are they? I bet not great.

I made it to the Laos border the next morning, got minorly scammed crossing over, but not too bad. It was a bit of a cluster there, but that just meant time. I ended up sharing a room with a French guy and a Czech guy I met on the train, so that meant a cheap room, which meant I could afford to go have a beer with them on the banks of the Mekong, and relax. So that's exactly what I did. I'm planning on waiting until monday to fight the visa battle, then off to Vang Vieng for a couple of days. So far though, this is a wonderful country.

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