Travel by train

Ty

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As I have said( and will probably say again) travel days are the hardest. And often you have no way of knowing what your travel will be like. Each travel day involves at least two taxis, to and from hotels and onward transport. 

Our last travel day was from Penang Malaysia which we loved, so I was sorry to be leaving. That says a lot, considering we were in Malaysia for over 3 weeks and still enjoying the culture.

We flew from there to Bangkok, a huge smoggy hot city.. Somehow we made our way through the airport to a small local train which we barely hopped on as it left, not sure that it was even going to the main train terminal. As it turned out, it did go there and the conductor didn't even charge us for a ticket. 

We arrived at a very old train terminal full of travelers on their way to various points and saffron robed monks. We could not buy our train tickets for the overnight sleeper online, so we were hoping that it would not be sold out. Jim had read that the train was " comfortable.". Maybe in a private sleeper car, which we had hoped for, but by the time we bought our tickets we could only get second class upper berths. We meandered about the depressing station for a whirl then went outside to the nearby restaurants for dinner before our 8 pm train. We had delicious and inexpensive pad Thai and a green curry. I told jim that the simplest street Thai food there was better than the best Thai fod we can get at home. 

So, on to the train...

As I mentioned, we both had upper berths across from each other and once they made up the beds, around 8:30, that is where you went. No dining car, no lounge, this was it! 

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As you can imagine, these small berths were also not so comfortable for a 6'2" guy. I was not thrilled, but what can ya do? 

I got out my travel essentials ( top photo) including my eye mask made by my friend JoAnn, my travel protection cards made by my friend Gloria, put in my headphones and cranked up the volume! Now I understand why teens spend so much time with earbuds in- it really transports you to another place.

Oh, did I mention that they kept the bright neon lights on all night? , 

After some 12 hours, we arrived near the Thai border, but we still had a tutuk ride, another bus and a taxi ride before we arrived at our hotel in Laos. At the end of the day I had a travel meltdown, with a little crying jag. By now, Jim is getting used to to these...