Ratchaburi: Heading South
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Ban Bo Kradan,
Phetchaburi,
Thailand
Friday, June 19, 2009
I had to catch a suppose-to-be 2hr bus to Ratchaburi to catch the train. As I was in the taxi, a monsoon of pouring rain (2 ft of water) along with dramatic lightning strikes and power outages occurred. I grabbed my umbrella and off I went into the flooded streets determined to get to my next destination!
The bus was delayed because of the storm. By the time the storm had finished, school was out and hundreds of schoolchildren dressed in navy blue and white uniforms descended upon the buses at the stn like swarms of honeybees. The bus became rather full quite quickly and wihtout aircon, I was thankful I had a window seat.
A lady sat next to me carrying a baby and 7 giant bags. She struggled with baby and bags and I offered my help in English although she probaby didnt speak a word of it. Suddenlty she handed me the baby smiling. She had to hold her bags on her lap as no room on the floor of the bus or seat.
So the next thing I knew, I had a baby (NOT MINE!) my giant backpack and my bag on a suppose-to-be quick 2hr bus ride which turned into a full-out 4 and a half hr ordeal as we dropped the many schoolchildren off at their respective villages along the way. The baby was quite calm (THANK GOD!) and preoccupied herself with the Canadian flag on my backpack opting to chew it on several occasions and sometimes to tear at it with her tiny hands. On the other side of things, babies become quite sweaty in the heat and I had to move the poor child from thigh to thigh, shifting luggage occasionally, so she wouldnt suffer so much from my bodyheat.
Nearly 30 villages later and a gas statin fillup, we FINALLY arrived in Ratchaburi in the dark. I had 30 mins to make it to the stn to catch train. Yikes!
I was dropped off at a dark intersection and was indicated to go straight up the rd to the stn by the smiling driver. It turned into quite the 30-min walk in the dark!
I arrived at train stn at exactly the time I needed to be on it. I went straight to the conductor and learned it delayed 3 hrs. I decided to venture for some FOOD. I made it to what I thought was a Thai family restaurant. Nearly 20 Thai girls dressed in very little descended upon me like bees to a flower. OH MY!
About 5 of them asked me my order at the same time (apparerntly business was slow) and I ordered food and for the next 2 hrs I entertained them by learning Thai numbers with their help. I then headed back to the stn and caught the train to Surat Thani. However, this was after several false alarms of the train arriving and then....welll....NOT arriving.
