New Frontiers

The last thing we did in BKK before heading south was visit the Siriraj Medical Museum, hidden away in a far-off building on the end of the Hospital property. This place was gruesome, apart from the room dedicated to the deeds of King Rama IX which was actually a very informative look at how Thais see their constitutional monarch. After that though, the whole place was bones, skeletons, crime scene photos and preserved fetuses in various stages of development. It's actually really taxing to see it all and we somehow felt exhausted emerging from the small air conditioned area afterwards. The babies barely look real, preserved as they are, and it's made more disturbing by the shrine that we realized surrounded around each one where Thais would leave small coins and packages of candy as a sort of offering to the child that could have been or only briefly was.

From that downer we pretty much tried to make our way to the tropical paradise of the islands in the Gulf of Thailand, Ko Samui and Ko Phangan. Unfortunately once we got there we learned that it was raining. Heavily. And it would be raining consistently until after our Thai visas ran out. thus it was that we stayed exactly one night in a guest house on the beach which actually had some of the best food that we've had in Thailand, all cooked by the Thai co-owner and her sister. The menu even says they'd be happy to let guests help cook their own meal or observe the process which sounds like a blast, but we didn't really have enough time there. So there was the food and the twenty minutes of sunshine(right), but otherwise we were actually pretty miserable traveling to and staying on the islands. Next time we'll be checking the weather.

First thing in the morning we grabbed another ferry back to the mainland and proceeded to mill around the train station in Phunpin for about 12 hours waiting to ride a train halfway to Malaysia in 3rd class. Nothing better was available and we didn't want to stay in that city so we just put up, but you just know that whoever designed those train-cars and seats did it with malice. At least before that extended session of discomfort we managed to occupy ourselves playing flash games at an internet cafe and walking slowly around the evening market which was full of tasty things. There was great people-watching in the station also, from parents bathing children in large buckets on the platform to the armed military units waving their guns all over the place. Muzzle discipline, indeed. The most interesting thing was the train-side food service that we saw every time a train stopped in the station. Vendors jumped up and ran to sell their food and drink through the windows to passengers in 3rd class(and of course all the trash goes on the floor of the car when done). Inevitably there would always be one vendor caught running alongside the train to finish his last transaction.

That was our last impression of Thailand, on that third class train car. It was dirty and overcrowded and no one seemed to actually pay attention to what seats were on their tickets since none of the numbers on the seats were legible anymore. A few folks slept on mats on the floor in between seats which was probably more comfortable than the seat, except for the filth. We managed to get a 2nd class seat on a train about halfway through in Hat Yai and promptly went the hell to sleep even though it was already well into daylight.

To wrap it up, here's a few extra photos from trains and platforms and maybe other places too:

Some children merrymaking at the train station

Me merrymaking in Jenny's ear

Sleeping 2nd-class style