March 28, 2017

The alarm was set for 5:00 a.m. which would give us lots of time to shower, have breakfast in the room and pack everything to be able to catch the 7:15 a.m. train to Bangkok.

We got to the train station early and were told that we couldn’t buy tickets until 30 minutes before the train, about a 15 minute wait. We chatted to the other tourists while we waited for the train, a South African married to a Brit and another Canadian from Winnipeg. Then the train arrived, very similar to the one that was waiting at the station.

We knew we would have to lift the bikes up the stairs from the platform. We were helped by the station staff, but Ralf’s bike would not fit through the narrow door into the carriage. No problem they would go through the window! Ralf’s went first then mine and then the bags. The Brit gave us a hand getting Ralf’s bike through the window. We did a quick count of the bags and we were on the way. About five minutes which means we may have delayed the train by three minutes.

It was a three hour trip to Bangkok, we had cycled most of the same route out to Kanchanaburi.  

We had cycled through Nong Pladuk but did not know that this was the start of the Thai-Burma Railway (the Death Railway).  The lady in white is a Buddhist Nun. 

At Nong Pladuk the on-board food service arrived. About a dozen people got on board and sold everything from drinks to food.

They got of the train a couple of stops later, and headed back down to Nong Pladuk on another train.

The conductor on the train mopped the carriage after each stop.  It seemed to be a pointless task.

There were a couple of times that we had to wait for other trains to go by. We were on the slow train.

Just in case the train is really busy, there was a sign to tell people not to sit on the roof.  It should have also warned not to stick your head out of the window.

As we came into the outskirts of Bangkok we were amazed at the “housing” close to the tracks. I guess they don’t have side yard setbacks in this country.

We got the iPad out to check the route to the hotel. If we could find the ferry crossing it would only be a couple of kilometres to the hotel, if not it would be 7 kms.

We found the ferry crossing, the boat arrived everyone crowded on, there was no gangplank, we had to lift/roll our bikes onto the boat while it moved up and down with the swell on the river. We headed across the busy river and docked again we had to maneuver the bikes over the gap and then headed to our hotel.

We were surprised to see a bike lane. Of course, as with all bike lanes there were some problems with the concept. The bonus was that the bike lane actually had a divider to stop cars using it. However, scooters would use it and tuk tuks would be parking between the dividers.

Of course, the other problem is with the buses. They have to stop but cannot get close to the curb because of the dividers, the passengers have to cross the bike lane to get on the bus. At one bus stop, we waited while the passengers got on and off the bus, one man kept saying thank-you, thank-you. I guess he had a few close calls in the past.

The hotel was easy to find as we began to cycle towards the reception area, a security guard told us we couldn’t ride down that way. We ignored him and told him we were staying at the hotel. We were concerned that we would have to leave our bikes in the street and not in the hotel. The bikes couldn’t come into our room, but was close enough to the reception we were o.k. with leaving them in the open. We locked them with both locks just to be on the safe side.  We have a nice room for the next few days.  The hotel (the Rambuttri Village and Hotel) has a pool and is close to Kah San Road a busy tourist area.

Today is the anniversary of when we met in Israel. Way back then Ralf took me for a Chinese meal. Today we spotted an Israeli restaurant (Shoshana). Tonight we ate middle-eastern food and were surrounded by Chinese.

Love you millions Ralf.