April 14
We wake up pretty refreshed since we went to bed around 8:00
last night! Breakfast is great as always
and we are sad to realize that we will be checking out today and heading north
to Chiang Mai. Paulie is concerned that
we might get completely drenched so we spend the morning preparing for an early
departure. We leave our room at noon and
descend to the lobby where we can leave our luggage while we grab some
lunch. We have discovered that we can
sit in the breakfast area of our hotel (near the back entrance) and there is a
rice vendor within arm’s reach. We order
fried rice all around and Ohm lets us eat at the hotel tables. She gives us a
big bottle of water and helps escort us out the back way to find a taxi to
hopefully get us to the rail station without too much of a soaking. We grab a taxi right away and are off. When we pull up to the station about 10
minutes later, we are all just staring at each other and wondering how to pass
the next 7 HOURS HERE AT THE STATION!
Everyone seems to just find a spot and spread out on the floor, so we do
the same. We take shifts of watching the
bags while we wander about and visit the different vendors, 7Eleven, and local
street food carts. After a couple of
hours, this guy who was just passed out nearby, begins to inch every closer to
our little enclave. He is trying to make
conversation, but does not speak English so all we can do is nod and
smile. He begins to make gestures in
Annie’s direction and we all become quite frustrated that he will not leave us alone. This goes on for about 3 hours before we
contact someone at the information booth and she alerts the police to get the
guy out of there. In the meantime, we
have decided to pay a small fee and leave on an earlier train since we are just
sitting and waiting anyway. At about
5:00, we head outside and stock up on grilled meat for our overnight ride as
well as plenty of fluids to keep us hydrated for the long ride to Chiang
Mai. We settle in and cannot believe how
much more comfortable this is compared to the numerous overnight bus trips we
have taken. We eat get a largish bench
under which we can store our luggage. We
have a table where we can play card games and a very efficient fan above our
heads. After a little over two hours, a
gentleman comes by to set up our beds for us.
He folds down the bunks and places a soft mattress and clean sheets onto
them along with a clean blanket and pillow.
These are quite cozy and each one comes with a little curtain that will shield
it from the corridor between the bunks.
It takes quite some time for the kids to settle in. They are not able to get to sleep with the
rocking of the train and the new surroundings, but eventually we all settle in
for the long ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment