Thailand

Sunday 29th May 2016 – After a comfortable night in the capsule I went back to Rhienchai Place to pack. We took a bus to the train station, arriving a good hour before the departure time. It was Sunday and with no cafes open our breakfast was a couple of cans of cold espresso from a 7-11 nearby. Before long we were pulling away from the platform, both of us wrapped in our warmest clothes to combat the ferocious air conditioning. Arriving in Ban Krut we walked half a mile to a little place by the beach called Siripong Guesthouse where 400 Baht gets you a nice room for the night. The weather was overcast and as we walked along the beach past a procession of closed restaurants and empty hotels the place had the melancholy feel of a British seaside town in winter. Happily the internet in our room was excellent and we passed the time watching episodes of Banged Up Abroad on YouTube.

Monday 30th May 2016 – We were woken late morning to what sounded like lots of fireworks going off outside our window and from the rapidity of the whizzes and bangs it wasn’t a controlled reaction. My heart froze as I realised this might be an illegal fireworks factory going up. When I was in Northern Thailand years ago one of these factories went up on the edge of town and the sound of the explosion woke me up a couple of miles away. I grabbed Alysa, still in her nightie and we ran out into the corridor. The way out was towards the commotion and if an explosion was imminent we would get the full force of the blast. With no other exits the best we could do was cower in a toilet a few feet down the corridor, hoping a couple of extra walls would provide enough protection. The bangs and cracks continued at a rapid rate for the next three or four minutes and it was impossible to tell if they were getting faster or slower. I genuinely thought this could be it. Then, quite quickly the bangs subsided and everything was quiet. We stayed where we were for a few minutes until we decided it was safe enough to grab our clothes from the room and get out. When we were far enough away we found somewhere for breakfast and let the adrenaline slowly drain away. We decided to move hotels for safety and found a cheap room up near the train station. We explained about the explosions we had heard but the owner whose English was excellent said there definitely weren’t any firework factories in town – there had been one years ago but the people had burnt it down. Reassured, we returned to our hotel to try to find out what had happened. Apparently people here mark landmark achievements in their lives by setting off Chinese firecrackers – if you are wealthy and celebrating a big event it can be 2000 – 3000 and what we had heard was a lot of firecrackers being lit. That evening at dinner we got talking to a German couple and had such a good time that it was only when the candle at our table outside finally sputtered out that we said goodbye and made our way home from the long closed restaurant.

Tuesday 31st May 2016 – We checked out at 11am and holed up at a small cafe near the train station where we remained until the train arrived about 2:30pm. After a bumpy train ride we reached Bangkok around seven in the evening. The train terminated at Bang Sue as there had been an accident at the main train station Hua Lamphong. For convenience we had booked a hotel near to Hua Lamphong but now it wasn’t so convenient and instead we took the metro to Sukummvit and checked back into Stay Hostel for the night. After another cheap and delicious dinner at Terminal 21 we went to bed – tomorrow would be an early start to catch our flight.