Midnight Train

The last person of our group had just barely stepped onto the train when I massive thunderclap sounded and it began to pour rain. We had impeccable timing. The train was old, not quite up to par with Amtrak. It was a jerky and rocky ride, and the wheels on the tracks were very loud outside the window.
The setup wasn't actually bad. There were four beds to a cabin, I shared a cabin with my roommate, the kindergarten teacher from DC, and of course, the tour guide. Man, that guy could sleep through anything, including his own snoring. The food on the train left something to be desired. Someone from our group ordered chicken and ended up with tentacles as their entree, and the kindergarten teacher ordered a soup and something that looked like this in it:

Yikes. However, worse than the food was the bathroom situation. Between each train car was a small space with a few sinks, and then a "toilet" confined in a space similar to an airplane bathroom, including the folding door.Once inside, there was a step up to make the space even smaller, and then on top of this 6 inch step was a pedestal. Not quite a western toilet, but not completely on the ground like an Asian toilet. There was about 3 inches of space on either side of the pedestal to stand on while squatting over a hole 6 inches above the 6 inch ledge. There was no toilet paper. However, it was nice enough to have a bar that was inexplicably wet for you to hold onto while you balance precariously on a pedestal on a ledge, and your face was about half an inch away from a large window with a beautiful view of the countryside. Unfortunately, there wasn't much room for the garbage can, so they decided the best place to put it would be on the ledge next to the toilet so while you are squatting, your face is just about even with the opening of the garbage can, which, by the way, is where ALL toilet paper gets thrown. Never again. I'm not sure if this bathroom is just as bad or worse than the one at the Asian gas station. I'm all about having new experiences but I have my limits. I will ride 20 miles on a bicycle through Bangkok traffic before using that bathroom again.

Luckily, the sleep wasn't too bad on the train, the white noise from the tracks helped drown out the snoring of the other passengers. We made it back to Bangkok at 8am and we all said our goodbyes at the train station. I returned to the Bangkok Centre Hotel with Kitti and the kindergarten teacher, the three of us were continuing on to the south the following day.