Bangkok-bound

Apart from the occasional thump and crash at or near stations it was a relatively pleasant overnighter. I had awoken to sound of more clunking and clanging, but this time it had been from inside the train carriage itself. I realised once I had poked my head through the curtain that people were transforming their beds into seats so they could enjoy the view as we “whizzed” through the Thai countryside. It was raining an James seemed to be awake and tapping away on the netbook below me. I clambered down and we exchanged morning pleasantries before we attempted to convert the two beds into two seats, with a reasonable degree of success. It needed the train attendant to help us properly sort it all out, as we stood by and watched so that next time we wouldn’t feel so incompetent.

Comfy?!

We would be arriving in Bangkok soon enough, so I began the last few chapters in my book and James put some tunes on as we coasted through the sodden last few miles towards Bangkok. We eventually got in 2 hours later than we had originally anticipated, but not a problem, we would still need to book into our hotel and then look at getting down to the Vietnamese embassy to sort our visa out ASAP. It didn’t take long to negotiate the underground system, although looking back at it now we could have probably chosen a better location. We had a short, hot and sweaty walk down to the hotel and booked in for 3 nights, not the original 4 that we had actually booked – we needed to shave off two days from our Thailand trip…remember? But from the look of the hotel we were in for a treat. On the 8^th floor we were, and it was almost as good as Las Vegas. We even had complimentary flip-flops, although they looked well-used we appreciated the thought.

His and His flip-flops

We decided against getting straight out to the embassy as we would need to fill in some forms first and we were both feeling the strain of the journey from Krabi, so we got showered and settled in the hotel room before setting out for a bite to eat. Easier said than done, for we walked along the main road for over 22 minutes (I had my stopwatch running to gauge the distances on the map) and didn’t see a single good place to eat. Sure, there were street vendors and McDonalds, but we wanted something more. As we continued our trek we veered towards the river hoping that there would be some eateries near there, and that the lightning that was crackling around us would not bring forth huge torrents of rain before we found somewhere to eat and shelter.

Walkin in the rain...

The place we found was part of a hotel (the Riverside, or some such place) and it was great. The menu was varied and the Chicken in Oyster Sauce was delicious. The ham omelette with rice in the middle was also tasty, according to James, and the beers were inexpensive. We waited til the rain had finished before paying up and leaving. It really wasn’t a night to be wearing white plimsolls as the pavements in that particular area of Bangkok leave something to be desired……like pavements. We didn’t find any bars for a nightcap so the local 7 Eleven sorted us out, with two 640ml bottles of Archa for 75 Baht (£1.50), some cheapo Mikado sticks and some……wait for it……cuttlefish flavoured crisps. What a banquet.