7 circles of hell

Circle 1: overnight train to Surat something. Not too bad. That is why it is the first       

circle. Overnight trains are just more uncomfortable than hellish. My train left around 5:05 pm.. I was sitting next to some monks and a nice old man so that was fun. One monk kept looking at me and smiling. I don’t know what that means.  This train was a little bit sketchier than the last one, which is saying something,.

Circle 2: This train had an actual toilet. I think the hole in the ground is better. 

Circle 3:  4:24. That is when the train was supposed to get into my stop. So of course I had to ‘wake up’ at 4ish to make sure I get all of my stuff together. I hate mornings as it is but trying to make sure I don’t miss a stop at 4:24 in the am is tricky…especially since I don’t speak Thai. Luckily the nice old man had his granddaughter with him, and she told me my stop wasn’t the last one and told the train employee to make sure I got off at the right stop. He did his job wonderfully. Of course the train didn’t get in at 4:24. I feel like instead of giving a specific time, they should just say ‘sometime tomorrow’ or ‘eventually’ in the arrival slot on the ticket. Since it wasn’t in on time, I fell somewhat back asleep and an hour later (only an hour late!!) the train guy pulled my curtains back and yelled ‘you! Off here!’ oh ok thank you. I managed to get off and find my way across the street to café where I needed to wait for my bus to Krabi.

Circle 4: Communication problems. So I got in around 5:30, and I had to check in with the bus people. Apparently my bus wasn’t until 7:40. And that was ‘too long wait.’ So the coordinator lady told me to take a bus into town at 6. The bus would only take 40 minutes and then a bus would leave at 7 to Krabi and the bus would take 2 and half hours. Sounds like a plan. So the first bit was right. I took a bus into the city; it took around 40 minutes. However, the bus to Krabi was not the nice big tour bus I had seen at the café. It was gHEtto. It was still Air Conditioned. So that was a tender mercy. Also. It left at 7:30. So instead of sitting at a café for an hour and 40 minutes where I could have ordered breakfast and used the FREE wi-fi…I rode on a bus for 40 minutes and then sat around for fifty minutes…to save 10 minutes. That lady and I aren’t friends.

Circle 5: The bus. The estimates I got were 2 and a half to 3 hours. So 10:30 ish I’ll be at the beach and relaxed. Wrong. Very very wrong. The bus was a public transport. So we stopped every 15 minutes to pick up someone or have someone put some cargo underneath the bus that they needed transported. So 10:30 came and went. And then we got stuck in the mud. They were doing road work somewhere and we had to get up this hill. We didn’t make it. We got stuck. So the bus had to essentially roll back down the hill with the you know cliff on the side, and try again. We finally made it up and on our way.

Circle 6: So apparently getting stuck in the mud is not good for an already worn out fan belt. Which is why our bus broke down. It was around 11:30 -12 and we were still 40 minutes outside of Krabi. We had to wait for a new bus which didn’t come until around 12:30 ish. At this point, I was a hot mess. I was on the 9^th level of disgusting and know I smelt. After the new bus arrived we climbed on and headed for Krabi. And arrived without more incidents.

Circle 7: Oh wait. I am actually staying in Ao Nang. So now I climbed onto a truck thing with the other foreigners going to the beaches. We had to drop most people off at the pier where they took a ferry somewhere, then it was a 30 minute to 40 minute ride to my hotel. The only bonus was that there was ventilation because you know, you are sitting in the back of a truck. So I get to the hotel around 2. 2… 21 hours after my train left.  I check in, take a super long shower, get dressed, and head down to the beach. I am lying on the beach for 30 minutes tops and then a massive thunderstorm hits. Yay for day one at the beaches.

p.s. sorry for the whining, but I’m pretty sure Dante’s travels through purgatory was on Thai transportation. ok maybe a bit extreme….but really.