We've spent the last few days doing some serious travelling. I'll do my best to recap some of our adventures from the morning we left Chiang Mai until we arrived in Phitsanulok, but I gotta tell ya - it's a little fuzzy at this point.

On Sunday morning we awoke early and caught breakfast. It was Election Day in Thailand, so the restaurants and streets were particularly slow. The buffet at the Suriwongse Hotel is usually hopping by 7am, but on this day there were only a few people picking at their plates and sipping coffee.

We had a scheduled train departure for 4pm that day, and we wanted to do some last minute window shopping before heading towards the train station. As Shaunna finished her packing, I ran to the lobby to call the Litthai Guest House in Phitsanulok. I kept getting a recording in Thai, so I knew I was doing something wrong. I spoke to the lady behind the lobby travel desk, and she was kind enough to call the guest house for me free of charge. While we were doing it, she showed me a trick on how to save money at Thai pay phones.

Once we finished our packing, we headed back down to the buffet for lunch. The Lonely Planet mentions that the 120 baht buffet is popular with "non hotel guests". I'm not sure why. I found it to be particularly lame in comparison to their breakfast. I had some dry yakitake, some sushi and a few other Asian dishes that didn't quite compare to the food I've had from street vendors. The dessert tray included some jelly, gummy items with really original flavors, but I got a little ill from a couple of clear jelly balls that resembled mushed eyeballs (or flattened jellyfish).

When I got to the room to grab our bags, Shaunna handed me her lock for her pack. Unbeknownst to both of us, the lock had reset itself so that when I locked her bag it changed the combination. Normally, when you use these locks, you take it off your bag and lock it so that it doesn't reset.

When Shaunna asked to get in her bag (for what I can't remember), we couldn't get the sucker open. Other than the pissing fit in the back of the taxi from Chiang Dao to Chiang Mai, I've been particularly calm on this trip. The jelly dessert was making my stomach jump around, and I was starting to get a little stressed thinking about the long journey ahead of us that day. This lock incident, although minor, was especially frustrating. I took some pepto and inhaled a few times to let out some steam.

We carried our bags downstairs and waited while the bell captain cut the lock using a hacksaw. It's a five dollar lock, so no worries. With the lock cut and the bags in the lobby storage locker, we wandered back down Loi Kroh to poke around. All of the bars and restaurants were shut down with little signs on the doors stating, "Due to the Election today, we will serve no alcohol until 6pm."

With it being the last day of the Flower Festival & Election Day, Chiang Mai was a ghost town. Only a few stores were open, so we casually dug through piles of textiles and beautiful Thai silks.

3pm rolled around, and I encouraged Shaunna to head to the train station early. I was itching to get going, and I had the strange feeling that I might puke up the eyeballs from lunch if we kept walking around.

We caught a quick cab from the Night Bazaar over to the station, found our loading area, and plopped down on the ground to relax a bit. The jelly crap was still giving me the dry hurls, and I was beginning to wonder if maybe I had developed a bug.

After an hour of waiting (with no train in sight), I headed to the information desk. Our train was delayed by an hour. We sat and read books until the train showed up.

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Surprisingly, I was hungry again, so we bought some food from the vendors in the station. I washed it down with some water and suddenly started to feel a bit better. Our train finally arrived, and we boarded at 5:15pm. After a series of pre-departure track changes and unexplainable preparations, we left for Phitsanulok at 6pm.

I've only ridden on a train once in my life. I caught an Amtrak train from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, and I found the experience to be pretty enjoyable. Our 2nd class sleeper seats on the train to Philok (as Phitsanulok is called by the locals) wasn't too bad. Once the train departed, a cabin attendant walked by and offered us food. We bought some Beer Singha, ordered a meal, and waited for the sun to drop. Another attendant walked through the cabin and set up the sleeper beds.

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I was under the impression that we would get to Philok around 11pm (our regularly scheduled arrival time), so I asked to keep my seat in its regular position. Shaunna and I agreed to take turns in the cot until we reached our stop. Around 9pm I wearily crawled into the cot while Shaunna did some writing in her journal. During this time, the train made a variety of stops in smaller towns along the way.

I awoke at 10:30pm and joined Shaunna at the table. 11pm rolled around, and I asked an attendant (in Thai) if we were close to Philok. He merely shook his head and made a waving motion to indicate that we were pretty far off. Shaunna jumped into the cot, and I did some reading in the Lonely Planet to prepare for our trip to Sukhothai the next day.

After countless stops and a few fuzzy moments of lucid dreaming, we finally arrived in Philok at 3am, four hours later than we had hoped. Surprisingly, the town was still awake. The street vendors were still selling food to crowds of people, and taxis stood by waiting to take us to our guest house.

At this point, I was feeling a bit dismayed with the Thai train system. I'd read that it was very reliable. Our travel plans included another train ride to Bangkok to catch a flight. I was having a bad feeling we might miss our flight...