Saturday 14 July
We had planned to get up early and go to Chatuchak Market, Bangkok's biggest market, to be back in time to have lunch before leaving our hostel at 1.15pm to take the train to Butterworth, Malaysia. But by the time we've had breakfast, we realise it will be quite a rush to take the Skytrain across town, look around the market, return to our hostel, and have some lunch before we board the train. It would have been great to see this famous market, but we've visited numerous markets on our travels; not only that, we reckon that we've bought most, if not all, of the gifts we want now.
We go to a local supermarket instead, and buy some snacks for our train journey, which will be overnight; we should arrive in Butterworth, nr Penang, at about 1.00 pm tomorrow, although we're warned that the train is often late arriving at its destination. We buy a couple of cakes, crisps and Snickers - not the healthiest of foods, but easy to carry on the train - and we add to this a big bunch of grapes which we buy from a street -seller. We're hoping to be able to buy at least one meal on the train.
We have a light lunch of sliced duck-breast, vegetables, rice and sauce in a street cafe opposite our hostel. It costs us about £3 for both of us, including 2 lemonades, and is delicious.
We say goodbye to the lovely, helpful staff at our hostel; one of them comes out with us to help us to hail a taxi - she can explain in Thai that we're going to the train station. Surprisingly, as happened to us the other day when we were trying to get a taxi back to the hostel from another train station, the first 2 taxis that stop refuse to take us. Perhaps the distance isn't far enough, we don't know; we just know that this wouldn't normally happen in England. The hostel staff member manages to persuade the 3rd taxi that stops to take us to the station.
This is our first time on a Thai sleeper train and we are surprised to find that the layout/design is completely different from the fairly uniform design of all the sleeper trains we've used so far, right across Europe, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazhaskstan, China, and Vietnam.
We get in the wrong carriage - our ticket says carriage 2, and this carriage has the number 2 on the outside - but we don't realise that simply means 2nd class. We find out our mistake when we realise we're in someone else's seat. A guard confirms that we're currently in carriage 9; we need to move 7 carriages down the train with all our luggage. Eventually we find our correct seats.
We're travelling 2nd class, and had expected to be in a 4 berth cabin with 2 other travellers, as usual; we've fortunately been allocated bottom bunks. But there are no "cabins" on this train, at least not in 2nd class, anyway. The seats are arranged in 4's; a seat for 2 people opposite another seat for 2 people, although each seat only has one person using it for the sleeper part of the journey.
We manage to buy a meal on the train, and order breakfast for the following morning too. The food is surprisingly good. Mine is sweet and sour chicken with rice. It's nice to be given a spoon and fork to eat it with, instead of chopsticks.
As evening approaches, the train guard comes along to convert the train seats into bunks. The 2 seats opposite each other fold towards each other to form a bottom bunk. Magically, the sloping ceiling above the bottom bunk drops down to form a top bunk, which is much narrower than the wide bottom bunk. As the top bunk drops down flat above the bottom bunk, the train guard whips out a tri-folded mattress, spreads it over the bottom bunk, covers both bunks quick as a flash with fresh white cotton sheets, puts crisp pillow cases on pillows, and chucks on each bunk a plastic bag containing a cotton blanket. Lastly the guard fits curtains with giant hooks to rails above the top and bottom bunks, so that each person has privacy for sleeping. And Bob's your Uncle - the train carriage is now a dormitory.
This bottom bunk is the most comfortable train-bed I've ever slept in - Reg agrees. We also notice that there's actually a proper ladder too for the top bunk; not just tiny footrests, as on all our previous sleeper trains. Interestingly, there are 2 toilets opposite each other at one end of the carriage - one's an Asian foot-either-side coupe down type; the other is a normal "Western" toilet. Both toilets empty straight onto the railway line, so you have to be careful not to use them at stations.
We have a restful night; breakfast is brought to us really early, about 6 am. This is because the train will shortly stop at the Thailand/Malaysia border for immigration and customs checks.
We had planned to get up early and go to Chatuchak Market, Bangkok's biggest market, to be back in time to have lunch before leaving our hostel at 1.15pm to take the train to Butterworth, Malaysia. But by the time we've had breakfast, we realise it will be quite a rush to take the Skytrain across town, look around the market, return to our hostel, and have some lunch before we board the train. It would have been great to see this famous market, but we've visited numerous markets on our travels; not only that, we reckon that we've bought most, if not all, of the gifts we want now.
We go to a local supermarket instead, and buy some snacks for our train journey, which will be overnight; we should arrive in Butterworth, nr Penang, at about 1.00 pm tomorrow, although we're warned that the train is often late arriving at its destination. We buy a couple of cakes, crisps and Snickers - not the healthiest of foods, but easy to carry on the train - and we add to this a big bunch of grapes which we buy from a street -seller. We're hoping to be able to buy at least one meal on the train.
We have a light lunch of sliced duck-breast, vegetables, rice and sauce in a street cafe opposite our hostel. It costs us about £3 for both of us, including 2 lemonades, and is delicious.
We say goodbye to the lovely, helpful staff at our hostel; one of them comes out with us to help us to hail a taxi - she can explain in Thai that we're going to the train station. Surprisingly, as happened to us the other day when we were trying to get a taxi back to the hostel from another train station, the first 2 taxis that stop refuse to take us. Perhaps the distance isn't far enough, we don't know; we just know that this wouldn't normally happen in England. The hostel staff member manages to persuade the 3rd taxi that stops to take us to the station.
This is our first time on a Thai sleeper train and we are surprised to find that the layout/design is completely different from the fairly uniform design of all the sleeper trains we've used so far, right across Europe, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazhaskstan, China, and Vietnam.
We get in the wrong carriage - our ticket says carriage 2, and this carriage has the number 2 on the outside - but we don't realise that simply means 2nd class. We find out our mistake when we realise we're in someone else's seat. A guard confirms that we're currently in carriage 9; we need to move 7 carriages down the train with all our luggage. Eventually we find our correct seats.
We're travelling 2nd class, and had expected to be in a 4 berth cabin with 2 other travellers, as usual; we've fortunately been allocated bottom bunks. But there are no "cabins" on this train, at least not in 2nd class, anyway. The seats are arranged in 4's; a seat for 2 people opposite another seat for 2 people, although each seat only has one person using it for the sleeper part of the journey.
We manage to buy a meal on the train, and order breakfast for the following morning too. The food is surprisingly good. Mine is sweet and sour chicken with rice. It's nice to be given a spoon and fork to eat it with, instead of chopsticks.
As evening approaches, the train guard comes along to convert the train seats into bunks. The 2 seats opposite each other fold towards each other to form a bottom bunk. Magically, the sloping ceiling above the bottom bunk drops down to form a top bunk, which is much narrower than the wide bottom bunk. As the top bunk drops down flat above the bottom bunk, the train guard whips out a tri-folded mattress, spreads it over the bottom bunk, covers both bunks quick as a flash with fresh white cotton sheets, puts crisp pillow cases on pillows, and chucks on each bunk a plastic bag containing a cotton blanket. Lastly the guard fits curtains with giant hooks to rails above the top and bottom bunks, so that each person has privacy for sleeping. And Bob's your Uncle - the train carriage is now a dormitory.
This bottom bunk is the most comfortable train-bed I've ever slept in - Reg agrees. We also notice that there's actually a proper ladder too for the top bunk; not just tiny footrests, as on all our previous sleeper trains. Interestingly, there are 2 toilets opposite each other at one end of the carriage - one's an Asian foot-either-side coupe down type; the other is a normal "Western" toilet. Both toilets empty straight onto the railway line, so you have to be careful not to use them at stations.
We have a restful night; breakfast is brought to us really early, about 6 am. This is because the train will shortly stop at the Thailand/Malaysia border for immigration and customs checks.
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