A Huge Emotion Sandwich
Monday, April 16th, 2007The following entry is a brief summary of a period of about 12 days. Day one and 12 involved crying, and sandwiched in between was Laughing, Cracking Up, and a fresh slice of I Just Peed a Little.
The trusty guidebook recommended reserving train tickets out of Bangkok at least a week in advance. We basically crumpled up the advice and tossed it in the garbage, showing up at the train station to purchase tix 2 days before our departure. This was a grave error in judgment. A week before the advent of Thai New Year celebrations, our only option was to book tickets in third class…for the overnight journey.
We figured that hey, it couldn’t be that bad. Our confidence slowly eroded by the reactions of people we told. Travelers laughed at us and wished us luck, Thai people gave us funny looks and retorted “Why you go third class?”. We boarded the train and were met by the same confused looks. Seating in third class is grim…basically two straight-back benches facing each other designed for 6 passengers. Six short passengers. We crammed our bags on and settled in, with both our hips and knees in constant contact with someone else’s hips and knees. This arrangement lasted approximately 10 minutes, and JR discovered the food & beverage car, where we hung out sipping Singha beers with a techno-banger German guy who kept recommending we try LSD and a few male employees who launched a fashion show with a sarong down the catwalk/train car aisle. The fun & games ended at midnight and we returned to our cramped uncomfortable hot seating arrangement for another six and a half hours of hell. Nine hours later, the train was broken down 5 miles from our final destination. The woman directly across from me (whose legs were constantly touching my legs) began a very high-pitched speech at around 3am… and was still going strong. (Literally she didn’t take a breath for over 6 hours) I was imagining ways to gag her, and finally resorted to saying “STOP TALKING. PLEASE STOP. CEASE. QUIT.” On the verge of a complete possibly violent breakdown, we decided we had to get the heck off the train immediately. [read on]
We hitched a ride from Kodaikanal to Munnar with 3 other Indian couples. A bit of a tight squeeze, but a great chance for conversation. We of course had to lie and say ... 
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