Peeing on a Moving Walkway
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008That is what going to the bathroom in a hole on a moving train feels like (I’m guessing, as I’ve never urinated on an actual moving walkway).
I look back at my last post and laugh at the wording of this train trip. Such ease, just normal, as if hopping on a train from Bangkok to Phuket would be as simple as signing my name as I have thousands of times. What was supposed to be an 11 hour journey ended up taking a full 24, long, smelly hours.
The thing is, in Thailand, although nicer and “easier” than India, there are still glitches in the system. After asking 8 different tuk tuk’s for rates to go to Huampalong train station, and getting ridiculous numbers, haggling, and eventually walking away, we found a guy to take us for a reasonable rate. We arrive at the train station with enough time to sit down and grab some fast food dinner. The station is packed, with every seat taken, and about 200 Thai’s sitting on the floor between the rows of chairs. This is where Josh and I planted and brought our food. I had forgotten about the Thai tradition of raising and saluting for the National Anthem every day twice (all that I remember is the 6pm one, the one we were there for). It was great. I love visiting places where the people have such pride in their country. In fact, you can get arrested and jailed for talking smack about the royal family here.
Alright, we board the overnight train. In an effort to save money, we went for Second class, with a fan. I don’t think it made any difference. The train was old, in another effort to save money Josh and I had top bunks. The train smelled, I already told you about the bathroom incidents, and no one spoke English. But, I had stopped on the streets of Bangkok to have someone put the last season of “The Office” on my Ipod for the ride. It was blissful, except for the fact that I couldn’t sleep.
When we arrived in Surat Thani, we got ushered onto a bus with a bunch of other Westerners and dropped at the Westerner bus depot. We told the people where we were going and were given a sticker (very official) stating where we were going. So eventually, a small pick up truck comes to get about 10 of us to take us to a travel shop, where the alleged bus was picking us up. On the truck were 2 Israeli’s, 3 Austrains, 2 guys from Minnesota (one of which had fallen through a roof the night before the train ride and hadn’t cleaned the blood off of his face or clothes yet), and 2 other Germans. We arrived at the travel place and waited for a mini bus to pick us up. One did, drove us a block, and we arrived at yet another travel office. A crazy Thai woman started yelling at us that we needed to pay another 200 Baht (33 b to the dollar) to go straight to Patong, the area of Phuket we were all going to. We all declined, yelled, and got picked up by a LOCAL BUS, that made 25 stop along the way, to Phuket town, not even Patong. To make a ridiculously long story shorter, we arrived in Phuket town, Josh staked out the best way to get to Patong, which was, in fact, another local bus, which saved us a bunch of money, but again made too many stops that were unnecessarily long.
We arrived, found a cheap place with the Israeli’s, and have been relaxing ever since. It has been raining here today, so we may see a movie, but are taking a ferry tomorrow to Koh Phi Phi, my favorite place in the world. If I remember correctly, they have cheaper internet, and I will finally be able to return some emails.
As always, I hope this finds my reader(s) well.
xx
swarjam