Advertisement
Published: February 6th 2009
I keep telling myself that one of these days I'm going to spend the time required to post actual details on this blog but so far I'm batting 0/3 on that resolution.
I left Bangkok yesterday around 5:30pm on a second class sleeper car to Surat Thani. Love, love, loved the train, it takes you through the slums in Bangkok (where people live in abject poverty, but have TV) and through the countryside and you can sit in between the cars where the door is open and watch the scenery flash by (or crawl since the train takes quite a while to pick up speed). The bunks fold down from the ceiling and the seats convert into the lower bunk and it actually makes a really nice place to spend the night - except there is no real way to tell what stop you are at so I spent the night waking in fear that I had missed the stop and was heading to Malaysia earlier than scheduled. This wasn't helped by the fact that the train schedule only lists the major stops so at one point we went pelting down the aisle yelling "surat thani?" at the poor sleeping attendant (who looked EXACTLY like patrick swayze would if he were Thai - it was uncanny), and I swear I have never seen anyone wake up that fast, only to find out we were at least two hours away from the stop.
At Surat Thani my "Aussie" (Ozzie - but that's so not how it's spelled) friend went on to Krabi and I hung around the bus station watching the sun come up while waiting for the bus to Phuket. I met an older man from Boulder, CO there who invited me to the festival he and his Russian friends were having on one of the islands (Koh Tao maybe?). They were going to do a universal dance, and sing unity songs and do yoga for the next two weeks, I admit I almost drank the Kool-aid but I had already bought the bus ticket to Phuket. The bus drive was only a little over 4 hours and I sat next to two middle aged french men named Marcel and Lauren (or Lawrence or Lorenzo?) who showed me magic tricks and card tricks and made conversation in very broken English. Right before we got to Phuket I started talking with the two girls sitting behind me who are sisters from Chile, Gisele and Bellen (sp?) here for a week or so and we have decided to travel together for the next few days. I declined the frenchmens' invitation to share a taxi to Patong Beach since I was originally planning to go to Kata Beach and because they were creepers but in the end we decided on Patong and so of course the first people I ran into were them. Gisele is amazing to have around - she lived in Pennsylvania for a year and so she speaks English very well and is a fantastic bargainer. She talked our rooms in Phuket down from 650baht for each room to 325 baht per person, which is practically unheard of for a room with A/C and it's own bathroom.
I'm kind of rambling now but I spent the late part of the afternoon passed out on the beach and am doing my best to get over my cold as fast as possible.
Tomorrow we are off to Ko Phi Phi!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.144s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0697s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Traci
non-member comment
I'm Jealous
Wow Shosh, that sounds amazing! Even the train ride sounds like such a worth while experience; especially seeing the juxtaposed poverty and modern convenience in the slums of bangkok. Enjoy the beach and your French friends...laissez les bons temps roulez and feel better! PS- it sounds like this whole "alone" thing hasn't been a problem at all for you, look at all your travelling friends!