Travelling... again
Trip Start
Jun 11, 2008
1
47
62
Trip End
Aug 07, 2008
Bangkok,
Thailand
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Woke up and went back to Ban's with my biiiiiiig backpack on the little bike with me and Abby. We had a nice breakfast, I bought some supplies for the journey, then I said goodbye to Abby and got picked up by the truck taxi that was to take me to the pier! Waited at the pier, got on the nice big catamaran, took a 2 hour boat ride to Chumphon. I really enjoyed the seats on the catamaran. I read my Maeve Binchy book I picked up from a used bookshop and also napped. Got to Chumphon around 12:15--ate some veggie fried rice before getting on the bus at 1 pm.
Abby and Jeroen
Bus took from 1pm-8am to Bangkok. Pretty uneventful. I was seated near a huge Asian (Chinese?) extended family instead of a bunch of backpacking westeners, so it was still loud, but loud in a different way. Cute looking little children. The bus played strange movies--Paycheck... Dodgeball... but the sound was off, so it was too hard to hear. I mainly, again, read, napped, iPod'ed.
Once I opened my eyes and thought to myself, wow, all the towns along this highway look like Hua Hin. Then I realized we were in Hua Hin. Then we drove past Cha-Am, Thayang, and Petchaburi, and we were right near the WFFT animal sanctuary! Oh, sweet animals.
Had a stop at a market. Took a chance and bought a package of dried fruit chips--but it's all Thai tropical fruit, like jackfruit, starfruit, etc. Pretty tasty :)
The most exciting part of the day was in Bangkok. We got dropped off in Khao San Rd, the main backpacker part, and I asked around if any of the other passengers were going to the train station. I found two other girls--both American, both actually from the Bay Area of California
Abby and me as we say g'bye!
. Of course. We had to struggle to find a taxi driver who would put on the meter. Other guys kept on saying "You pay me 200B, I'll take you there. A metered taxi, it drive all around before taking you where you need to be! You have a train to catch, yes?" So they're tricky--playing on our emotions, our worries of missing the train. Bangkok is wonderful, but it is true that they try to trick/charm/swindle farang out of their money any chance they can get.Still, we found a driver who put on the meter. He delivered us, very promptly, in 78B in fact, at... the bus station. I was loading the bags in the trunk when Maya, the other American, told him the train station, but I'm sure she said train station. He misunderstood, either unintentionally (language barrier) or intentionally (to make more money off of us!). He seemed really confused and rather apologetic, but who knows.
Meanwhile, we're turning the car around and going the other way all across the city, and the driver of the SUV in front of us on the highway is undoubtedly wasted. He's going up the u-turn on-ramp and his left wheels are actually on the concrete wall. There are lots of sparks as he sharply turns to get back on the road and then he almost hits the other side. He almost toppled over 180 degrees. This happens several times--almost hitting the sides or objects right in front of him. Our driver gets rather close to him, more close than we'd like. He calls someone, and I think at first he's calling to report him to the police, but the conversation goes on much longer than it seems like it should... so he's calling a friend? Who knows.
We do finally make it to the train station and I negotiate with him so that we're only paying part of the now 190B fare, not all of it
Catamaran + people on pier
. He agrees. I leave Maya and Rachel, because they want to stay outside to--of course!--smoke! Absolutely everyone smokes here and oh, I am so tired of being around it. I walk inside of the train station to use the bathroom, and who do I see, but Pooja and Jess.Surprise! We had sent emails about our plans but didn't actually know that we were on the same train, same day. They're just emerging from the bathroom where, the girls claim, for 10B, a backpacker can have one of the best (top 3 in Thailand), cleanest, warmest showers. I'm still relatively clean and short on time, so I don't try it. But it's fun running into them! Turns out we're all in the same car: the 3 of us, Maya and Rachel, as well as about 15 other nice travelers.
We hop on the train, read, sleep, chat, eat, etc... for 16 hours. It should only have been 14, but there was a big accident up ahead of us around 10 am, so we just sit for 2 hours. Lots of people have interesting stories (ie, Well, I've been traveling for about 3 years now... Jess' response to me later: If you haven't found yourself in one year's time, just go home!), so I talk and listen to them, as well as finish my book. Sleeping on the train was really, really nice--I woke up all the time, but always fell right back asleep. I had a little sleeper (a chair that turns into a bed) and a little window and a curtain. I could have done without the 16 hour part, but what's done is done, and now I am in the lovely Chiang Mai!
