Day 83 10/12/2014

We had a leisurely start to the day enjoying breakfast at the hotel before packing up for our travels south to Bangkok.  Now that we had our plans sorted for the next few days we thought we'd go to the railway station on our way into Chiang Mai and see if we can buy our tickets for the Bangkok to Butterworth (the nearest railway station to Georgetown in Penang).  We had a slight hiccup in that the train on the day we wanted to travel and on earlier/later dates were all full.   Disappointed and wondering how we'd make our journey south we continued into town for lunch and then headed back to the hotel for a bit of replanning.  Options including changing our itinerary or finding another means of transport.  Neither of us were keen on the first option not least because we'd have to cancel and rebook accommodation plus we didn't really want to go anyway off the beaten track too much where we'd need contingency days for getting to Singapore.  We looked at the option of a bus which might have worked but didn't look straight forward and meant more time in the territory were there is still ongoing trouble between Thailand and Malaysia (the train clips this part for less than 50 miles).  In the end we opted to fly.  Neither of us are really thrilled, not least because of the extortionate cost, especially when compared to the train and we need to book another nights accommodation as the train was overnight, but mainly because we'd miss out on seeing the landscape through southern Thailand and into northern Malaysia.  On the plus side we get a bit more time in Bangkok and Georgetown.  By now it was time to head to the train station which is only c5 minutes drive from the hotel.  The train was already in so we boarded and found our seats.  The layout in the Thai trains is very different to the others we've travel on.  There are no separate compartments instead each carriage has extra large seats facing each other either side of the aisle.  In the evening the guard makes these up as one bed and releases a top bunk as a second bed.  Unfortunately we were next to the door as these were the only seats available when we booked (this should have been a clue for our onward journey!).  Our carriage steward very kindly gave us chilled orange squash which we later had to pay 120 baht (£2.30) for.  Must learn to ask if it's free first!  The carriage soon filled up and we set off just after the scheduled time of 5pm.  Despite being thousands of miles from home we were joined by a drunken Irishman, quite impressive given drinking is banned on Thai trains.  He only lasted for about 2 hours before passing out on his bed!  We settled down for the night around 9pm after finishing off our leftover pizza from lunch and crisps (healthy eating).  The beds were OK and you are given clean sheets and a blanket (the overall cleanliness of the train was much improved on anything we've been on so far) but it was noisy being near the door and we bumped and rattled through the night with disturbed sleep.

Our train to Bangkok

Enjoying the 'complementary' orange juice! 

The carriage made up ready for bed