The Night Train To Bangkok

For those of you just joining us, I am recapping, in excruciating detail, my family and friends’ trip to visit me in Thailand over the holidays. It all started when I met my family in Bangkok, after which we hopped down to Koh Tao, met up with friends, and celebrated Christmas. The whole group island-hopped to Koh Samui where I said goodbye to my parents, followed by a quick jaunt to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Koh Pha Ngan with even more friends, after which we finally made it back to Koh Tao to unwind. These recaps will be winding down soon as it all comes full circle and the last remaining visitors and I head back to Bangkok to say goodbye!

The days in Koh Tao were coming to an end. After all the diving and the day tripping, there was precious little time left to soak up the sun…

Enjoy the company of friends…

Eat deliciously wonderful steak in the mountains…

Share a laugh over Korean Barbeque…

And to soak up the atmosphere of a Muay Thai boxing match.

Before I knew it, my little sister Olivia and my friend Zoe and I (the last ones standing!) were packing our bags to go to Bangkok, where both my girls would be flying away from me. The roughly 12 hour journey from Koh Tao to Bangkok can be miserable, or it can be great fun, depending on who’s along for the ride with you. It all starts with a pickup truck driving you to the pier.

Then a two-hour ferry ride brings you to Chumphon, where you walk down a rickety dock (which made Photo of the Week here!) and get on a minibus which brings you into town and to the train station.

Then a train brings you all the way to Bangkok! This was my first time ever taking the train. Every other time I have been rushed off the ferry and crowded immediately onto a bus for an eight-hour ride where a horrible Hollywood film is played at full blast volume, there is no food, I never get any sleep, and we arrive in Bangkok at the horribly awkward hour of midnight.

Those days are over. I am so in love with the doing this journey by train now! After the ferry ride we had a few hours to kill in Chumphon, meaning we had a nice civilized dinner before checking into our comfortable (albeit small) bunks and getting actual sleep all the way ’till Bangkok, where we arrived at the semi-civilized hour of 6am. The train is favored over the bus by traveling Thais as well, so you get a more authentic trip than you would surrounded by other backpackers. But the best part of all is it’s only a few dollars more than being tortured traveling by bus!

And one more bonus? Watching this sunrise over the freeway taking us into Bangkok…