September 12, 2007

THAILAND

Flying to Bangkok, a Great Thai Lunch, and a Train South in Thailand

With hardly enough time to finish a cup of coffee and a plate of dry toast, we caught a taxi from the guest house to the Yangon international airport at 5am this morning. It was sad to look back on an amazing time in Myanmar and know that it is now confined to memory, but such is the way life works until one comes across another opportunity to make the most of. Anyway, we landed in Bangkok on a cheap AirAsia flight and were picked up at the airport by Jo's parents' driver, Kun Jack. There is nothing like airport pick-up in a Jaguar, especially considering we spent the past couple weeks riding on the back of horse-carts, pick-ups trucks, and shoddy boats.

We arrived at Jo's parents place and had some time to check email (Myanmar blocks nearly everything on the internet). I wrote the obligatory emails to my parents - basically telling them I spent the past two weeks in Myanmar, and have now made it out safely. It is always easier with parents on the other side of the world because they are oblivious of the serious turmoil that exists in many of the countries through which I love traveling. Jo was in an opposite position with the front page of the Bangkok Post covering the protests and crackdowns in Myanmar on a daily basis, but the important thing is we were careful and made it through safely.

After compiling our Myanmar photos and showing Jo's mom, she took us out to lunch at a fantastic Thai restaurant. Thai food is easily on the world's best cuisines, and because much of the food is absurdly spicy it probably ranks as my favorite. The only down-side was that I had to give up my newly-formed habit of eating with my hands, but it is probably a necessary sacrifice to survive in the 'real-world'.

Later in the evening Kun Jack gave us a ride to the Bangkok train terminal where we relaxed with cold beers awaiting our 8pm departure. We were fortunate enough to book before leaving for Myanmar, so we had tickets for two 2nd Class sleepers and a comfy night ahead of us (all things considered). The picture to the right shows what the inside of the train looked like, but what cannot be seen is the pull-down upper bunk. It felt like sleeping in one of the storage compartments on airplanes, but it was still a relaxing night of sleep.