We had dinner on the train and bought some snacks. Some nice Thai lady said we can have the 2 seats facing each other. Meaning the two bunks on that side too.
After eating, I slept until it was time to transform our seats into the beds. I took top bunk while Yoni took the bottom (I soon regretted that decision waking up in the middle of the nite over and over -it was freezing up there with the AC so close).
Sleeper car on the train
Train attendant serving juice
That was the most uncomfortable sleep or lack there of. I kept waking up after sleeping 30min thinking someone was stealing my bag (I brought it up to the bunk w/ me) and wondering if we were there yet.
My bunk and overpriced breakfast on the train
I also needed to go to the bathroom so I got up in the middle of the nite and had 2 choices, the squatting toilet or the north American toilet. Didn’t matter to me cause I wasn’t sitting on that dirty, rusty toilet seat! *shudder*
I knew our stop was Surat Thani, but I didn’t hear them announcing any stops at all.
The top bunk didn’t have any windows so I couldn’t even check to see where we were or if it was light out. And my ear plugs were no help, I could hear the train and all the banging of the sliding doors, and the AC.
One funny thing happened on the train! In the morning, an hour from our stop, a guy asked me if we had passed Chumpon. I showed him the map we had on the phone and that in fact Chumpon was 2 or 3 stops ago!! He had missed his stop!
He wasn’t happy. He needed that stop to transfer to a ferry to Ko Tao where he worked as a dive instructor.
He asked the train attendants why they hadn’t woken him up (this would have been at 4am in the morning). They pretended to check the passenger list and look confused. But after they realized their mistake they would say things in Thai and laugh.
The guy kept complaining so one of the train attendants said something that sounded like ‘make fuss’ ‘make fuss’ then ‘break fast’ and handed him a breakfast to shut him up.
We all thought it was complimentary but later she asked him to pay!!
He didn’t want to pay and moved to a different seat to hide from her.
Yoni felt bad for the guy missing his stop and having to take a ferry from Surat Thani instead and paid his bfast.
The guy was probably glad they stopped asking him to pay. Maybe he thought he got away with it.
When we got to Surat Thani we boarded a bus that was already packed. Most of the passengers were going to the beach while only 7 or 8 of us were going to Krabi.
About 30min into the bus ride, while watching HOUSE on my netbook, they told us passengers to Krabi had to get off the bus. I had to gather my stuff and pause the episode quickly.
So Random! We had to switch buses and the new bus didn’t even leave for an hr. So we had no idea what the rush was to get onboard the new bus.
The bus ride was a little over 2 hours long until finally reached Krabi town. At this point we had been traveling for 15 hours and were exhausted and hungry(bus ride snacks weren’t enough)
As soon as we boarded the truck taxi, Yoni realized his shoes were still on the bus, sitting in the overhead compartment :/
So many little things to carry, we both forgot about them.
We booked a hotel room and had our first real meal after the train food and peanut snacks. Pad Thai, Green curry and watermelon shakes. It was delicious.
We asked the lady at the hotel to call the bus station where we were dropped off. She said she called but they ‘didn’t answer’.
When we asked her again she said that Yoni should talk to them on the phone but when he picked up they had already hung up… Or maybe she had pretended to call them again. Hahaha… It was pointless.
Oh well, he had planned to throw those shoes away during the trip anyway. They were a hassle carrying around unless he wore them too.
Pics from the deelish post-train/bus ride:
This lil guy was sitting on the table watching us eat.
Krabi town was a nice little town we explored after our meal. They had a nice pier with a night market that we had dinner at.
Photos from around Krabi Town
Night Market at the Pier
Cheap & Good
