The airport express bus pulled down a dirty little lane and stopped. A woman got on the bus and said, "no more, end here." Guess we were at the train station. Funny, didn't look like the pictures on the internet.
The train station was actually a filthy, disgusting staging area for unsuspecting tourists (like me) who thought taking the overnight train would be glamorous, and homeless Thais trying to stay out of the heat/rain.
People were laying all over the ground and the floors. It smelled soo bad in there. I found out why later.
I wandered around the station for 3 hours while I waited for my train. I paid 21 cents to use the bathroom plus 35 cents for toilet paper. I paid 75 cents to check my email and $2 to cage up my bag so I wouldn't have to drag it around. And I watched Deadliest Catch on the Jumbotron tv. Go figure.
I was out in front of the station having a cigarette and I met the nicest homeless man! I gave him a cigarette and quickly became his best friend. In our broken English/Thai we had a nice conversation. Then I wrestled my lighter away from him and went inside to slather on the hand sanitizer. Hey, 10 years working in Oakland taught me something.
The Thai don't use tp. They don't dry their hands after they wash them, either. You'll be hard up to find a garbage can on the streets or in any public area, but you also won't see a lot of litter. You can put all three of your little girls on your mo-ped w/no helmets and drive them to school, but you can't spank your child in public for fear of arrest. Drugs are absolutely not tolerated here, but you can walk into any mini-mart and buy Xanax over the counter. (anyone want me to bring some back?)
Train station pics.
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