Countries : 1
Cities : 4
Massages : 2
Time away : 11 days
Books read: 2
Going from Pai which is in the north of Thailand down to Phi Phi Island (in the south) was always going to be long and arduous and the most time on transport since I had left the plane in Bangkok but I hadn't envisaged it to be quite this tiring.
We got a bus from Pai down to Chiang Mai, back through the winding roads and sickening swerves the Thai drivers seem to face on a daily basis. After getting back to Chiang Mai I made the split second decision to jump on a sleeper train to Bangkok and meet the rest of the group at the station. This sleeper train was different to the others as the seats were transformed into beds with ease by the experienced on board staff. It was here I met and talked with two primary school teachers from Thailand with whom, with broken English and lots of hand motions managed to discuss the different schooling of the kids and some of our experiences.
With arrival at Bangkok train station I had two hours before the others arrived so I sat and carried on reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a very trippy book! All of a sudden during a particularly odd section of the novel amongst the hubbub of noise you'd expect in a train station a loud unfamiliar slightly melodic sound bellowed from the speakers. With that everyone stood to attention and I followed suit not wanting to be rude and tried to lip sync with the rest. I assume it was the national anthem or king's prayer but I can't remember.
About twenty minutes later again whilst I was ploughing through my book a whistle sounded and everyone started to move the chairs into another rectangular formation. Strange I thought but I duly gave my assistance.
Around 9.30am-ish and my decision to get the sleeper train was justified as the others stumbled off the train complaining of the numbness of their botttoms from sitting in one position for the last twelve hours!
We went into Bangkok and put our things in Joes room while we all went our separate ways to deal with visas or presents, two very different jobs. Just before we met a physic who claimed he could tell us our mothers name just by looking at us and then claimed if he got it right we would each have to pay him £30 each, yep not something we were willing to gamble no matter how good his guessing skills were.
Eventually it was time to leave to ge another sleeper train this time to Surat Thani and with this it was time to bid adieu to Joe who was catching a flight back England, back to work and a interview for his Gtp. Although I know that there's many people I'll meet and bid farewell to over my travels he was the first one that Id spent time chatting to over the last week and he was now heading back.
The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful with the exception of a man shouting Phi Phi to us in a loud and high pitched voice as we got off at Surat Thani after we repeatedly had told him we were going to Phi Phi.
On the bus down to Krabi to ferry across to Phi Phi we met a young German guy called Hassan who seemingly tagged in as Joe had tagged out of the two girls and two guys grouping we had.
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