One morning I finally said farewell to all my wonderful friends in Penang, and made my way to Butterworth to catch the express train back to Bangkok. It left at 2.30 pm and so I calculated that we would probably arrive in BKK (That is the abbreviation for Bangkok) sorry, but thought you might not know what it meant! at about 3.00 pm the following day.
After a few hours into the journey, I was lying on my sleeper listening to my travel companions chatting and talking about their adventures, and writing my much-loved blog. Trains are a fantastic form of transport, you can see so much more of the countryside than when you fly, plus it is so relaxing and one normally ends up interacting with lots of the other passengers and having a laugh and a really good time.
One of the men on the train whose name was Mark, entertained us all with his stories of the rats in Asia, he insisted that the Thais eat rats! He stated that barbecued rats are sold on the side of the roads in Thailand, something that gladly I have never seen, but to be honest I wouldn't recognize a cooked rat if I saw one! Unless of course it was a two legged one!!! Our dear friend then proceeded to go into even more details about how the trains are swarming with cockroaches and of course the dam rats! All this conversation took place at the exact time that dinner was being served. Just the sort of thing you need to listen to when you are on the point of eating. Talk about "Bon Appetite" Not Really!
I am so looking forward to getting back to the "City of Angels" the first thing I am going to do is stop at my local food stall in Soi 38, and indulge myself with a delicious fruit shake of fresh Mango and Orange, accompanied by a plate of yummy Thai Papaya salad. Which is Just the best of the bestests, especially when it without rats!!! Afterwards I had made up my mind that I was going to check into my favourite hostel, deposit my backpack and head to the nearest massage spa in Sukhumvit, where I would die and go to heaven for a couple of hours. Believe me nobody but nobody gives massages like the Thais. Don't ever visit Thailand without at least once treating yourself to this wonderful but inexpensive luxury.
It was now nine o'clock in the morning and my train was making good time. As much as I love train journeys, I am not into delays which is the English bit still latent in my make-up.
I awoke just in time to see the splendid sun on the horizon and as always, I never fail to be overwhelmed by the beauty of these occasions, naturally I grabbed my camera and click, click, click. Not so effective when you are trying to take shoots through a dirty glass window of a train. but still I think you can still see the beauty of the moment. at least I hope so. According to the news, there are heavy floods in many parts of Thailand including the province of Bangkok. It is sad to say that many people lost their lives and others had their homes washed away either by the overflow of the rivers or due to the landslides. Hopefully we won't have any problems to get to our destination.
Tanfastic! we arrived at Bangkok ahead of schedule, how cool is that? Without wasting a single second, I skated round to my favourite coffee and cake stand, ordered an extra-large iced cafe caramel Frappuccino and two extremely unhealthy but delicious coconut buns. I sat there in the Hua Lamphong station with my goodies, watching the world go by and oh my! oh my! it felt so good to be back in my favourite city. Bangkok, I love you! I do realize that on this post, I have mentioned several times the subject FOOD, but I unashamedly admit to the fact, that it is my favourite pastime. I most definitely live to eat! Not, I state the other way around. So, if anyone wishes to keep me happy, it's very easy "Just feed me" Please!
On arrival, I discovered that there was no flooding in the city at that moment in time, so I was very glad to see that I didn't need my water wings after