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Published: August 9th 2008
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Hi All, Well if I didn't think we could have a worse railway journey than we did in China, I was wrong.
We boarded the overnight Chiang Mai - Bangkok train for a 4.30pm departure. It was all nice and pretty comfy if not nearly as new and shiny as I was led to expect. All was going well until it was time to sleep. We could only get upper level bunk beds which meant sleeping less than 2 feet from the carriage fluorescent lights, which remained on all night. The train hopped and skipped about all night and the creaking and groaning from the carriages meant that it was impossible to get away from the noise. I didn't get a wink of sleep and was a tad grumpy as a result.
I did manage to embarrass myself quite unwittingly in the process of our journey. Being awake all night, for no good reason, is no fun. So I was glad I had my iPod for company. I may have turned it up a tad too high and didn't notice that my singing (roaring) could be heard by quite a few fellow passengers. So at about midnight I looked over to
see Maeve half-mortified, half suffocating with the laughter and only HALF-trying to make me aware of my public concert. By the time I realised what she was trying to tell me, I'd just finished belting out 'Smack My Bitch Up' by the Prodigy. We didn't seem to make too many friends on this train journey, not sure why!!
We arrived into Bangkok and got a bus straight to Pattaya for a diving course and to meet up with Louise and Pop. When we arrived we checked in, got some long overdue breakfast and then some much longer overdue sleep. We got up and went for a bit of a wander.
Everywhere we'd been so far in Thailand we'd seen what we called 'odd couples' which consisted of an ugly, fat, balding middle-aged western man and a young usually quite good looking Thai girl and everytime we saw then we thought 'how odd?'. Brian and Lorraine told us they saw one of these men walking down the street holding hands with a much younger Thai man with the thai man's family in tow, now that's even odder. But in Pattaya the tables were well and truly turned on us and now
"No, my hat is sillier than yours"
John and Pop have a silly hat contest!!! Myself and Maeve were the odd ones out. These odd couples were everywhere, not a bit of shame on them. I felt almost embarrassed by our oddness in such company and that it was us who were the doing something wrong or strange. Maeve wasn't long making up her mind that she didn't like Pattaya and didn't want to stay too much longer, I wasn't too far behind her. We decided to leave the diving coyrse until Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef and to do the course with Maeve's friends who we should be meeting when we get there.
The next morning we met Louise and Pop for breakfast and a day touring around Pattaya, what a nice change from the sleezy centre of town. Over breakfast we caught up on the news from home and regaled them with the stories of our trip so far, seems the blog is going down a storm at home. It was great to see some familiar faces and we had a great day together. We got to see the other side of Pattaya the side that tourists hardly ever get to see and it was nice to see that it was actually
Terracotta Warriors
Then only ones to make it out of China an ordinary enough town.
We started by looking at a few of the more famous sights and made our way to a really nice temple or collection of complexes outside the town. I bet 99.9% of all the tourists to Pattaya never leave the bars, go-go bars and night-clubs of the town, what a pity!!! They had a collection of Terra Cotta warriors - the only ones outside of China. There were plenty of statues of Kung-Fu and Buddist heritage and really nice gardens, a Budda etched into a cliff and even 2 tortoises.
That night we met up again and went for a really nice meal, then a traditional Thai pub with thai Rock music then a walk down 'Walking Street'. We sat at a couple of bars to watch the 'Ordinary Couples' walk by. They came in every shape and size - Male, Female, Neither, a bit of both, Male trying to be Female and Females trying to be Male. A rich tapestry you could call it, interesting to see but I won't be rushing back to Pattaya for this 'freak show'.
We decided to cut and run and so we moved our flight to Sydney forward from Tuesday to Friday. We took a taxi from our hotel in Pattaya to our hotel in Bangkok, a 2 1/2 hour taxi ride door to door for just 20 Euro. We checked in for 1 night, got something to eat. We went to a local travel agent and 2 minutes and 2 Euro later we'd changed our flight for the next day.
In Bangkok we returned to being an 'ordinary' couple again. We then set off to see Bangkok in one day, we got as far as the first massage place and stopped for a well earned 1 hour foot massage. I think it was then as we lay there having our feet treated that I think we gave up on Bangkok. The next morning we tried to go and see this or that but we were too excited about Sydney to get interested in Bangkok. It was a pity but I suppose it's a bit like having an affair, we were too infatuated with the nicer, friendlier, prettier girlfriend of Sydney to even bother with the uglier, dirtier and more crowded wife of Bangkok. I'd seen the sights od Bangkok before and Maeve wasn't interested so we headed back to the hotel to shower and change for the cooler climes of Sydney in mid-winter.
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Kev
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Girlfriend v Wife
You know so much about marriage, John, it's scary! Loving the blog. K