My new favourite thing is sleeper cars on trains. They bring
together my two greatest loves – sleeping and trains. As I am writing this I am
on my way in a second class air-conditioned sleeper carriage train from Surat
Thani in southern Thailand to the capital Bangkok (Approx 698B = $28NZD). About 12 hours total on a train which,
really is nothing considering I was on a train for three days straight this one
time (from Vancouver to Toronto). But it wasn’t this awesome. You probably think
I’m weird but I don’t care. As soon as I stepped into the carriage I was trying
to figure out how the beds came together and pretty much everyone sitting near
me – mostly Thais - were looking at a wide-eyed me like I hadn’t been on a
train before.
The top bunk, where I’m sleeping folds down from the roof and
contains the bedding, sheets and pillows for both beds. The bottom bunk is made
by converting the two seats, which face each other, into a bed – sort of like a
fold out couch. You pay a bit less for being on the top bunk, I think mostly
because of the perceived inconvenience. You don’t get to see anything out the
window either, but it doesn’t really matter because its night time (duh). I
guess that’s also the downside of the night train is that you don’t see any of
the countryside which is the whole reason I take trains whenever I can. The
night train however, does take care of one night’s (amazing) accommodation and
you get to your destination quite early so you pretty much have that entire day
to do stuff. I’m scheduled to get in about 5.30am or something which is not
ideal, but its ok, I guess.
I’ll also be taking a train probably from Bangkok to Chiang
Mai in northern Thailand too – I can’t wait!
Both beds are single and the mattress is thin, but still
quite soft. The top bunk also has two leather straps which stop you from
rolling out (I don’t really want to test them out, though) and there’s a tiny
ladder which you climb up. Its easily long enough for a 5”5 or so me to stretch
out fully, but I’ve put my bags at the end of the bed so I can get to them
easily – and mitigates the whole theft thing. You can also sit cross-legged and
do things like write and change without hitting your head – although the roof
does slope downward because that’s how the carriage roof is shaped.
I just took photos of one of the guys putting the beds
across from me together. Totally not weird.
 |
| Setting up the beds on the sleeper train from Surat Thani to Bangkok. |
The only really annoying thing is that there are no plugs in
which I can charge my things – including my iPod which I used during the five
hour mini-van journey from Phuket to Surat Thani (450B = $18NZD). There was a
lot of waiting around today. I was meant to leave Phuket about 7.30 in the
morning but the minivan didn’t show up till about 8ish (I was really tired and
not feeling too hot. We’d been out that night to Bangla Rd, the main strip in
Phuket, to celebrate my birthday, see.) We got to Surat Thani bus transfer
point for everyone else who was heading to either Koh Pha-nang for the full
moon party or to Koh Samui. I had to wait to take another minivan – which
turned out to be the same driver who took us from Phuket – for about 40 minutes
to get to the train station (600B = $24NZD) where I waited for about 4 hours
for my train. I thought the train station would have a plug somewhere where I
could charge things, but it was not to be. So I sat, feeling a bit sick and
eating some snacks I bought the night before which I didn’t feel like eating
that morning.
Turns out the wait was worth it though. At least until this
point – we’ll see how the sleeping bit goes.
Twelve hours later and we get to Bangkok about 7am, kind of still tired and cold from the air con. The sleeping turned out alright, but I kept getting woken up during the night which must have been people selling food as they came through the carriages at each stop. Seriously you guys? It must be like, 2 in the morning. No one wants your steamed buns.
Here's a video of the beds being set up (not on the train I was on, but same same).
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