Life as a Local in Syros, Greece

After leaving Koh Tao, we planned to spend a few more days in a different part of Bangkok before we would travel up to the school where we volunteered to teach English.  Since the overnight bus was so uncomfortable to the point that neither of us got any sleep, we decided to try the overnight train.  It left from Chumphon at 11:30 pm with its final stop in Bangkok Central Station (about 9 hours later).  The only problem with this plan is that we had about 8 hours to kill in Chumphon which only offered about 4 hours of entertainment, so we waited (one of us grumpily) for a few hours at the station for our train.

Once on the train, we were amazed at the comfort.  It was the softest and most comfortable bed that I have slept on in Thailand.  Really my only issue is that I got cold on the train-the only time on our trip so far that I have been cold.  Jeanette laughed when she woke up to see me wearing both my sweater and rain jacket.  The little blanket that they give you on the train was no match for their AC units in my opinion.  Somehow, Jeanette never felt cold on the train.

The only aspect of the ride that bothered her was that at every stop vendors would get on the train to try and sell snacks (boiled eggs, fried chicken, etc).  It really made no sense for them to be selling stuff at this time; this was even at times like 2 am in the morning.  At first, we thought it was one of the ticket men on the train letting people know the station where we had just stopped; we were much less annoyed at that idea.

All in all, we really enjoyed the train ride and highly recommend it for any other travelers in Thailand.  Our tickets from Koh Tao to Bangkok, including the ferry from the Island to the mainland and a transfer bus to the train station, were 1200 baht each ($34).  This was for a 2nd Class Sleeper AC Car.

Sorry about my posts getting further and further behind.  The train trip was on the night of Feb 25th.  I also think Jeanette plans to add a little more to the Koh Tao article.