11-13 (Monday)

Today we leave Bali. I took my stuff downstairs and ordered breakfast then went back to help Joyce. She was half way downstairs by then with a broken or messed up wheel on her big suitcase. We left at 7 a.m. for the airport. Our flight left at 9:15. We were checked in and through immigration by 8:00. That was really fast.

Bali has got to have one of the shortest runways anywhere. When you land the pilot is hitting the breaks with all his might and when you take off he pulls up before you can blink your eyes and you're out over the Indian Ocean saying, "Bye, bye Bali." The pilot told us on the left side of the plane to look at the volcano as we flew over northern Bali.

Even though it was almost 10:00 we got breakfast on the plane (Singapore Air) consisting of an omelet, fruit, potatoes, sausage, baked tomato, a roll and tea or coffee. We didn't get some damn snack box that we had to pay for like on an American carrier.

We arrived in Singapore close to noon. We did free internet while we were waiting for our flight to Bangkok.

We boarded that flight at 2:10 and this time had a fabulous lunch: chicken in wine sauce, noodles, salad, roll, chocolate cake and beer or wine (free of course!)

We had planned to go from the Bangkok airport directly to the train station. We were hoping to get on a night train to Phitsanulok north of Bangkok. After getting all our luggage - Joyce's with a wheel that didn't work and now mine with a broken handle we set out to find a taxi to the station. I went outside and was getting quotes around 900-1000 ($24-$28.) We knew we had only paid around $10 the last time we were through here. While I was out negotiating Joyce came out and found me and said, "We're on the wrong floor! Remember the last time we went downstairs to get our cab?" Sure enough that's where all the "public" metered taxis were. We hired one to take us to the station that a couple of "information" people told us to go to.

I was sitting in front with the driver. I felt really sorry for him because he appeared to have tourets. He could not hold his hands or head still. Sometimes BOTH of his hand would jump off the steering wheel. In Bangkok traffic that's not what you want happening. He wasn't making sounds that are associated with tourets but he couldn't keep his body still. I pretended not to notice.

He dropped us where we told him to but we knew right away it wasn't the right station. Joyce sat beside the tracks with our luggage while I went in to see about getting tickets. The guy told us there were NO 1st class tickets available and NO second class sleepers either. All the trains that we saw coming through that station looked awful. They looked like trains you would see in India. We knew we needed to get to the main train station so we hired another taxi to take us. Unfortunately we found out the same information at this station. We booked two seats (not a compartment) for the 10:10 p.m. train arriving in Phitsanulok at 4:30 a.m. Since we had to wait almost four hours for the train this was a much better station. There was a place where we could leave our luggage - which we did - there were lots of food and drink stands, a toi-let and good security. I got so tired and sleepy waiting all those hours. Finally we went and got our broken down luggage and headed for track #10, car 11, seats 1 and 2. We didn't see all the cars on the train but our car looked dilapidated. Somehow we got all our pieces onto the train but when I tried to pull my large suitcase down the aisle it was too big to go between the seats. One of the guys that worked on the train picked it up for me, carried it to the front of the car and put it on the overhead rack. He did the same with Joyce's big suitcase. Our seats reminded us of the slow boat in that they were uncomfortable and the space between the edge of the seat and the wall in front of us was only inches. The only good thing I can say about our car was that it was air conditioned.

Right before we chugged out of the station a bunch of college kids (they sounded like they were from the US) got on. We thought "oh, no" they're going to be partying all night. They actually settled down before long.

I was surprised that they never turned the light out all night in the car. It was a miserable night . . . the seats were tiny, they didn't recline but rather pitched you forward and part of our luggage was under our feet all night. I cat-napped but no real sleep. When we got ready to get off at 4:30 a.m. I looked behind us and told Joyce the college students must have gotten off during the night. She said, "Look on the floor." Sure enough there they were sacked out all over the floor in the middle of the aisles. I don't know how they could sleep on those hard floors.