Just a quickie

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Back in Bangkok, yet again, and glad I'm only here for 24 hours. Try as I might--and I *really* am trying hard, I just can't like this place. Not at all my cup of tea. Too noisy, too busy, too... crazy, I guess. Oh well.

Our day in Nong Khai was generally boring and uneventful. We definitely just wasted time the entire day. Much of it was spent sitting on some steps beside the river reading our books. It wasn't that bad of a way to spend an afternoon, but time definitely dragged on.

The train ride was worth it, though! For all my life I've dreamed of going on a sleeper train, and last night that dream became a reality. It was just as I pictured it. When we first got on, the train looked a bit old and run down, and I could see how the seats were going to turn into a bed, and it didn't look that great. I was afraid of a big disappointment, so I'd been careful not to get my hopes up too much before the journey. Turns out, it was everything I hoped for! Although the seats in seat form weren't great, the stewards did an amazing job of turning them into cozy beds--whipping out a little matress with sheets, blanket, a pillow, and a privacy curtain! I had a cozy little den to spend my 12 hours in. Unfortunatley, however, it was not a quite den. In fact, in was incredibly noisy and I wasn't actually able to sleep at all on the sleeper train. The train itself was loud, but the worst part was the sporadic, super loud, outside noises which prevented me from sleeping. I can sleep in the present of constant, loud noise but not when random noises are popping up all over the place. Oh well, it was still fun. And my upper bunk buddy, Lou, was great to talk to. He's a Quebecois who cherry picks and and plants trees in BC in the summer, and he was a big fan of Victoria. He also speaks Thai. We had some good chats.

My lack of sleep resulted in me spending yet another day in Bangkok in an overtired, grouchy state, and unfortunately my dad had to bear the brunt of my whining when I called him this afternoon. Nothing is able to wear me down like this city, for some reason. Oh well, tomorrow we're off to meet Erich, Troy, Mark, and Geoff in Kuala Lampur! Another huge city, which I'm not thrilled about, but at least we're staying in a super fancy hotel. With a POOL! And it will be really invigorating to have some new blood in the group. The next day Angus, Randy, and Warren are joining us. Seriously, this is going to be such a strange mixture of travellers.

Well, I'm slightly freaking out right now because I'm quite certain that Derek and I are going to be over the luggage max for our flight tomorrow, and I have to figure out what to do about it. I don't want to pay high fees for excess baggage... but I don't really want to prematurely ditch anything, either. I wonder if our hostel has a scale I can use. Probably not. It doesn't have much of anything. Well, wish us luck with this one! Next time you hear from me I'll have another stamp in my passport. Yea!

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Comments

[IslandWolfMan]

Dads are for whining
Seeing you by video was enough -- lets try that again some time.