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Published: January 19th 2019
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We awake around 10am - really good for me as a jet lag sufferer! I am assuming it had something to do with being up at 5am on the day of travel but not actually flying till gone 9pm! We had a lot to do - this must be the most disorganised trip ever, leaving making sure we had passports, air tickets, driving licences and clean underwear - everything else is anyone’s guess!
We pack a small bag for tonight’s overnight train and swimming cossies for the pool - everything else goes into our wheeled holdalls.
It is 12 noon and we check out, leaving our luggage in storage. We go out in search of breakfast. In the daylight we realise that we walked the long way round last night but at least we know for next time! We don’t fancy noodles for breakfast - even though it is, in fact, lunchtime! We find a fancy bakery that is doing their version of egg Mac muffins - that will do.
The local convenience store is handy for stocking up on drinks and munchies and now to the hotel pool.
The pool area is great - but all
the sun loungers are towelled up. After an hour and no sign of the lounger hoggers, we decide we will be just as impolite and chuck their towels off. There may be a row later but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. We notice that others are following suit!
Five hours later and we are still on our loungers - no-one ever turned up to claim them and indeed we have had the pool area completely to ourselves for the last three hours!
It’s 6.30pm and time to think about making a move. Our night train is at 8pm and we need to take the metro, find somewhere to eat and check in.
Unfortunately none of the restaurants have opened near our hotel. We decide to make an early start to the train station to try our luck there.
Bag wheels clattering, we make our way to the Silom Road which is heaving with both vehicle traffic and pedestrians. Here we make our way up to the metro station.
We purchase our travel tokens - we are old hands at this now - and descend to the platform via the escalators.
The platform is surprisingly empty and we take our place at the front of the queueing area.
Our train has arrived. It is standing room only but not too packed and we will alight after two stops - Hua Lamphong Railway Station, which is also the end of the line.
The train station is signposted from within the metro, so it’s a nice easy walk. Ian guards the bags whilst I do a quick reccy of possible eateries. We are in luck - there is a convenience store and a handful of restaurants and bars opposite.
We sit down at a street table - as near to the busy road as they dare place it - and order chicken noodles. It’s quite tasty. We also pick up drinks and a few snacklets for the train, although it’s an overnight journey so hopefully we will just sleep through. We are due to arrive at the border town of Nong Khai at 6am.
We find our sleeper berth and are pleasantly surprised. I had left it too late to secure any first class berths but the second class compartment looks very acceptable. We have two wide seats which
convert to the lower sleeping berth and a slightly narrower upper berth above. Since the berths are designed for the somewhat shorter South East Asian community, I may need to sleep diagonally so Ian is allocated the smaller top bunk!
The train departs promptly at 8pm and the beds are made up half an hour later. Crisp white linen, decent size pillows, a freshly laundered white blanket (which has been warmed) and privacy curtains - seriously, we have had worse hotel rooms than this! We settle in for the night.
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