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Published: November 23rd 2006
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Today I got the train from Bangkok Noi/Thonburi to Kanchanaburi, where I‘m going to stay for a few days. The journey there was interesting as we passed houses on stilts and people working in paddy and sugar cane fields. Not all of the stops had station platforms so people were just jumping off onto the tracks. At every stop sellers were getting on with baskets of food and drink, walking up and down the train, and up and down the track too so that whenever we stopped or slowed down they were trying to sell things. All the doors and windows were open so by the time we got to Kanchanaburi I was caked in dust and dirt. When we arrived at the station I looked around for a taxi to take me to the pier to get across to where I‘m staying. There didn’t seem to be any around so I succumbed to the man that had been following me around since I got off the train and asked him. It turned out that he was a Saamlaw driver (cycle rickshaw), and he must have been offering me a ride. We agreed a fare of 18Baht (or so I thought)
and off we set. Now this guy was old, and here he is pedalling with me and my two heavy bags. For the whole journey I was worried that he was going to keel over. We didn’t go at a particularly fast pace, but once he got his momentum going he wasn’t going to stop for anyone. We were heading for a junction and he didn’t show any intention of stopping, enjoying the freewheeling of a slight downward slope. Nope he’s not thinking about stopping, luckily the truck heading for the side of us did, just in time, and we shot across the road. On the way we went right through the middle of a temple too, which made for an interesting ride as there were speed bumps! When we got to the pier he then announced that the fare was 80 Baht! That’s more than a Bangkok taxi! When I got to my room, I almost turned around again and jumped straight back on the boat. The photographs actually make the room look ok - believe me they should commission me to do a brochure for them. After 5 minutes of looking around I realised that there wasn’t a
toilet. It was outside. And when I say outside, I mean outside. Not in a separate building outside. No, just the toilet, outside, attached to the wall. Covered in ants. Then I started having a look around inside, and moved a pillow. There was a huge, ugly brown spider at the back of it! So I had to go and get someone to move it. He just laughed at me and picked it up by two of it’s legs, leaving two behind and the other two kicking and bucking to try and get away.
Did I mention the lizards also. There were 4 of them. In my room. I would have been happy to cope with that though as they should eat the bugs.
So at this stage I’m thinking of getting straight on the train tomorrow back up to Bangkok, and I’ll get a day trip back down here. I was seriously thinking that I would just sit and stay awake all night, go for breakfast at 7, then go. I also decided that the only thing that was going to help me through this would be alcohol, and hopefully a mosquito net to maybe give me some possibility
of sleep. I asked them to write ‘mosquito net’ in Thai for me and set off back over the river and through the market. I don’t manage to find a mosquito net, but I do find cans of beer and buy a six pack. I’ve worked out how many I need to get me through the night (approx. 1 can per 1 ½ hours as I don’t want to fall asleep) to keep me going until 6.30. I get back and go to have dinner thinking that there may be some people that I can get talking to, but they’re all Thai. I manage to get a little bit of sleep, fully clothed, wrapped head to toe in a sheet, but keep waking up every 30-40 minutes. Not helped when the mother of all storms with thunder, lightening and lashing rain starts at 3am.
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