I made it to paradise
Sunday, July 13th, 2008It took me 20.5 hours to get here, but i finally made it to Ko Pha Ngan in the gulf. I was originally going to the Andaman coast and then come here, but i need to relax a bit. I left the hotel in Bangkok at 6:30pm last night to head to the train station and arrived in Surat Thani at 7:30am, an hour late. The sleeper cars were sold out so I thought I was getting a seat in an a/c car, but no such luck. It wasn’t hot when the train was moving, actually, I got chilly later in the night, but it was sooooo loud with the windows open and I had a very difficult time sleeping. The bathroom was quite pleasant though, very spacious and it didn’t stink either. I didn’t realize how bouncy trains are though until i was trying to pee. I’m not sure, and i hope i’m wrong, but it kind of seemed like the pee went straight out onto the track because it sounded like I could hear the noise from the outside coming up through the toilet????
anyway, when i first got on the train there weren’t a lot of people on there yet and the few that were on there were together and my seat was next to one of them. they all looked at me, then looked at each other and began to say something. they didn’t seem too thrilled that I was in their section, they didn’t seem mean or anything, just not thrilled. They were a family and the one girl around 22, asked me where i’m from and she said that she lived in phili last year for a little while, she was friendly, but she wasn’t staying on the train, just sending off her family that came to Bangkok for her graduation. So her mother was the one beside me and once the train got moving she got up and moved to a different seat but left her purse sitting on the chair beside me, at least she trusted me 
about an hour into the trip she had moved to the seat in the row in front of mine on the other side where another woman had been sitting. the woman that was sitting there previously had moved to the space behind my seat (i was in the last row) and laid on the floor to sleep. I didn’t understand this and even smelled my armpits to make sure i didn’t stink, and i didn’t because I freshened up before getting on the train. eventually, after a few stops the train filled up and the only empty seat was the one beside me. for a few hours i stayed within the limits of my personal seat, but then i decided to stretch out for a while and figured she could wake me up if she wanted to come back to the seat. at around 6 am she did just that. she then went into the bathroom to freshen up i guess and came out all spiffied up with her fancy fake pearl matching ring, earrings and bracelet. i really don’t understand why she slept on the floor?!?! she was around 60 years old too. i’m only 32 and i can’t emagine how i would’ve felt in the morning after sleeping there!!! I’ll just think of her as the dog lady from now on because she slept on the floor and after she woke up she spent the rest of the time standing behind my seat with her head out the window. weird. [read on]