It seemed like the conductor on the train had a broken watch because for an hour he came through the cabin shouting that our destination was in 30 minutes and about 5 minutes after his last 30 minute call, he changed it to 5 minutes. I have successfully completed my second overnight train journey. This one was a 12 hour affair from Bangkok to Nong Khai which I splurged and spent a few extra dollars for a first class sleeper cabin which I shared with Steve, a Scottish weaver.
Yesterday was another good day. It started with an early checkout from my hostel and a trip to the floating market. The floating market is a tourist trap with a couple (read 3) real vendors. It was still a blast and pretty cool to see. I got there around 9am and I am pretty sure the local market is done around 6am, but it is 120km from Bangkok and I wanted to grab some sleep.
Some grilled bananas, way too expensive but good
One of the real market venders
Traffic jam of tourists
I returned to Bangkok and didn’t really have a plan for the rest of the evening. I started by wandering north off Khao San road and stopped by a temple. It was more of an active temple than a temple that is touristed. They were running what I thought was a soup kitchen with a bunch of people in line to get a bowl of rice with some bright pink stuff on it. I then continued my wandering and started eating street food. It ranged between 10 baht (33b=$1) and 50b. My theory was that if it wasn’t really good I would only eat part of it and eat something else for the rest.
Khao San road in the day
I then returned to the hostel, socialized, and got ready for my train ride.
Far Flung Forays 