My “sleeper train” was hardly the luxury I was long awaiting for my journey to the sea. I had purchased what I thought was an overnight ticket on a sleeper berth, complete with complimentary blanket, pillow, bathroom and curtains partitioning off my berth from few others around me. I was sadly disappointed. Instead, my high hopes met my lowly seat, that reclined just enough to make you think you can be comfortable, but not enough to really get there. So similar to the airplane seats I had spent over 24 hours on just days before. Need I say, little sleep found me this night. However, no other “farong” (Westerner) was seated in my car. I suppose I remained in “real Thailand”. Live and learn...live and learn.
I arrived in Chumpon, south of Bangkok at about 0610. Bypassisng the several Western travelers anxious to book their ferry/diving/accommodation/taxi tickets at the station, I walked across the street trying to ignore the touts' shouts for me to spend my hard earned dollars with them and their packaged “deals”. Not knowing exactly how to proceed, I met a couple like me, from Oklahoma (my first American friends here) standing on the corner. I followed them to their guesthouse whose owner pointed me in the direction of the “minibus” stand where I could book my 2-3 hour journey to the town of Ranong, on the Andaman coast where I was to catch my ferry to the islands. And, once again, I was met with a tout trying to get three times the cost from me to head to Ranong with other Westerners. I politely declined the offer, not feeling good about this, and walked across the street determined to find the public bus station. A few blocks later and with the help of a kind Chumpon mother of a six year-old, I arrived at the public bus station in time to market for mango and coffee and catch the $3 bus trip to Ranong. You know you're in a fishing village when the market is chalked full with the days' fresh catch: makerel, pompono (I think), crab, prehistoric horseshoe crab?, snapper, little round silver fisheys, and squid squid squid! I traversed the maze, and found myself at a coffee/tea shop run by a three generation family. The grandmama brought me my coffee, and her son insisted on me trying a cup of the menthol tea he was enjoying (**yummy**). Many thanks later, I was gifted a sweet rice paddy with coconut and fig? filling—a perfect accompaniment to the mango and carrot I purchased for the bus journey.
WOW. The public buses in Thailand are SUPER NICE. Nicer than the minibues. Nicer than the seated train. Pleated curtains, reclining seats, Thai and Burmese travelers, and one of the sweetest Spanish couples I have ever met blessed me this morning.
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