Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (Well, Sort of...)

Sunday November 21st, 12:20 PM Bangkok

Today I get out of Bangkok. I have an overnight train
leaving at 7:15 PM which will get me to the train
station outside of Surat Thani sometime Monday
morning. I can't wait to take the train down there. I
just picked up a book and will probably wind up
killing it before I even get to Koh Samui. The book is
from author Jake Needham and is called The Big Mango
(sorry to you English majors out there, I'm not able
to underline the title, sue me)

Making the trek to Hua Lamphong station couldn't have
been easier. The Bangkok Metro station (Sukhumvit) is
only a couple blocks away from the hotel I was staying
at and the trip to the main train station only took
about ten minutes. Even though it takes ten minutes,
I'll be leaving at 5:00 PM. I enjoy hanging out in
Bangkok, but I want to see the beach and get out of
the congestion and pollution for a couple days. I
think it will also give me the opportunity to get
refreshed on my Angkor Wat itinerary. I'm only there
for 3 days, I plan on spending the 4th picking up a
few souvenirs in Siem Reap's Old Market.

After the train to Surat, I take a bus from the train
station to the ferry for Koh Samui. I suspect that
I'll be using my phrasebook and Thai-English
dictionary exclusively. Although, I suspect that Samui
is more paradise found than paradise lost. Part of the
"progress" brought on through Western influence I
guess.

An interesting observation from Breakfast this
morning. I had a group of tourists sit next to me and
was surprised, no shocked would be a better word at
one of the women commenting on the English skills of
the waiter. I decided to hold me tongue, but really
was tempted to point out that the waiter's English was
probably much better than her Thai. I try out my Thai
with the manager of the bar I frequent, and several
times, I get a blank look or laughter when I try to
speak it. Damn tonal languages.

Separating Me From My Money - A First On the Streets
of Bangkok:

A good and last tale for the day. Before coming into
the internet "cafe" (ok, no coffee is served, but its
air conditioned - sort of, and 1.5 Baht a minute there
are roughly 40 Baht to the dollar) I ran to get a
little more emergency Baht in case there aren't any
ATMs and ran into a gentleman that just wanted to ask
me about America. Pretty harmless huh?

Typically, the exchange goes like this:

Stranger: Hello, where you from?
Me: Amerigaa
Stranger: How long you stay in Thailand?
Me: Couple weeks
Stranger: (and this varies) I sell you; you want to
buy; I take you on tour; i.e. hello stupid Westerner,
let me separate you from your cash.

Actually, the guy wanted to know what the chances of
one of his relatives coming to America to work. And
then commented that the "threat" of terrorism makes it
unlikely. Truly sad.

I'm not the political one, you'll have to go to the
http://declineandfallofwesterncivilization.blogspot.com/
for that, but why under the threat of terrorism do we
disallow people the opportunity to come to the U.S.
and earn a better standard of living that what they
have in America? Just a thought.

Coming up - The Thai foot masage (I'll write part one
on the train) or How does a 100 pound woman kick a 260
pound man's ass?