Flying from Sydney into Bangkok was such a bizarre experience in that you really feel like your stepping from one world into the next when you think of South East Asia. Bangkok is a crazy large pulsing mass of a city and you begin to get a feel that you are defiantly not in Kansas anymore, if in fact you have ever been to Kansas or ever reference the Wizard of Oz. After an hour or so, one train, and a decent walk I find the hostel Suk11, hands down one of the cooler looking guesthouses I have ever stayed at in my life, and I have seen a few. Recommended to me by a friend and rocking and expensive cost for Thailand (private room with bathroom $15 a night) The lounges and entry way are stuffed with Antique objects and Buddha’s and the halls look like old town wooden Thai Ally complete with indoor tin roofs and de cored like the outside of houses. Heading out into Bangkok to see things feels like being an ant entering a giant backyard. You know there must be a limit but you feel so small. The first thing I did, and I read not to get Tuk Tuk’s if you want to get around fast, instead rent a bike Taxi(as in motor bike), which I have heard is a must do but is also crazy.
I found one and after a haggle on price to bring me downtown he hands me a helmet and I get on, what the cuss did I get myself into? We zoom off through rush hour traffic at an alarming rate driving based on the law don’t die. I assumed as we zig zagged in-between vans trucks and cars that the basic laws of the road do not apply to Bikes and the like, watching us do what I have seen bikes do on television and TV when they show traffic in third world countries. Coming within inches of nearby vehicles I mix between nervous laughter and shrikes that pull nothing but chuckles from my driver who must do this every day. By the end I had broken a sweat and my knuckles were sore from clutching the handles with a godlike force I didn’t know I possessed, basically I was hooked. I took three more of these in my two days site seeing the city. After I went to see the Grand Palace, a beautiful collection of Temples, Shrines and Palaces housing golden Stupa’s, Buddah’s, Wallpaints and so much spirituality I could barely get my head around it. Though after a few days of wandering this packed smoggy city I was ready to head North and begin meditation, but first was the train journey.
Now I booked not the sleeping train which I heard are lovely but the second class ones with decent reclining seats and cheaper. Now I sleep fine on Airplanes and buses so I didn’t think this was going to be a problem. We got a meal and I settled into my large seat on a car filled mostly with Thai people. I drifted in and out of sleep as we swung out of Bangkok past beautiful little towns and quant Thai train stations filled with old men and dogs and further until we swam through darkness and jungle. I felt us around midnight going up a hill at the slowest speed and some commotion up front, but I just drifted off to sleep again, and awoke suddenly maybe a half an hour later being shaken by a women and told something I spoke little to no Thai. Everyone began getting off the bus and I assumed it was a break or something of the sort, but the lady starts pointing to my bags and the lights start dimming and I know something isn’t right. We all get out and we are standing in the middle of no wear, no lights no houses just jungle and my clock reads 3:35am. Now my exhausted, confused mind thinks maybe we are getting robbed but finally a conductor walks by as I get off the train and points and says “broken”. We stand there for another 20 minutes in the dark semi rain in the middle of the jungle and I start thinking, “welcome to Thailand when finally another train comes on another rail. Following the others lead we jump on board filling every empty bed left on the place, luckily it was a sleeping train, not a bad trade. The next 8 hours to Buddha time will be in style.
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