So, time to go home... A 1hr flight… just 3hrs door-to-door? Or an 18hr marathon via taxi, boat, coach and overnight train? The latter of course! Not sure why – something about an adventure I think. And Liz and the girls had never been on a Thai train before. All the usual stresses: taxi drops us off at the wrong pier with ten minutes to spare, suitcase breaks in three places; squeeze on to boat with a hangover (I think the collective noun is) of full moon party revelers, 25 years our junior; dropped off at ‘the wrong pier’ on the mainland; long hot bus journey with our tattooed and barely-clothed th(r)ong who – if they’re awake – consider us with some amusement; an hour wait for the train at Surit Thani in the Thai equivalent of a greasy spoon. Liz asks for a large bottle of beer before I can even get the words out and A, empathetic as ever, massages her shoulders.
The train is a comparative doddle. We find the right carriage and compartment and the conductor sorts out the bunks and bedding. It’s a 12hr journey: Liz and I wake up every time we stop at a station but the girls sleep pretty much right through. At 5.30am we are brought breakfast and we slip into Bangkok’s Hua Lamphong Station at dawn. Dump the bags at home and straight into work / school. OK, so not a big deal really, but for us it was An Adventure.
The train is a comparative doddle. We find the right carriage and compartment and the conductor sorts out the bunks and bedding. It’s a 12hr journey: Liz and I wake up every time we stop at a station but the girls sleep pretty much right through. At 5.30am we are brought breakfast and we slip into Bangkok’s Hua Lamphong Station at dawn. Dump the bags at home and straight into work / school. OK, so not a big deal really, but for us it was An Adventure.
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