Country Number 2

So I have just arrived in Penang after a 23hour train journey. I thought it was going to be the hardest trip of my life, but it didnt prove all that bad. I baorded the train all fine in Bangkok, crammed my baggage including my guitar under seats and sat down. Train set off, all was well and good. People boarded all along the line with various different typesd of baggage. one woman across the aisle had got on with two carrier bags filled with fresh herbs, so whenever the door opened a draft would carry the smell of basil through the carriage. It was the sort of experience you would expect to read about in novels.

Soon, a fella who spoke reasonable english came round with the menu. It was a choice of 4 different set menus for 150 Baht. I only had 200 so this was ideal. He asked if i would like a drink with my mealm a beer maybe. SO i asked for a chang and thought nothing off it. Then something in my obviously lethargic brain woke up and remembered i only had 200 baht, i probably coulnt afford this beer. I managed to get hold of a waiter and try to cancel the beer. After maybe 5 minutes of hand gestures, broken sentences and the token, slow english speech of a tourist who does not speak the language i thought i had succeeded in cancelled said Beer. When meal time came the first thing i was served up... yep, a beer. I tried to tell him that id cancelled it but he went off to get the guy from earlier who spoke a bit of english. I explained that i had tried to cancel the beer but he merely informed me again and again that the waiter i had spoken to did not speak english. As if i wasnt already aware of this fact. As i was speaking to him the waiter camer back and before i could stop him he had cracked open the beer and left it for me. no going back now. Once this had happened the english speaking man said i could no longer cancel the beer. Trying to not to get irate i just left it and turned to my meal. I hadnt eaten that day due to some form of hangus overus, a condition frequently encountered on the khoasan road. I wolfed down the food and didnt touch the beer, in the hope it would help if i hadnt drunk what i didnt want, nor had the money to pay for.

I heard the voice of JR, my friend with a law degree and morals (rarely seen apprently) ringing in my ears with approval of the irony.

When the man returned to collect the money he put down a bill for 240 Bath... i pulled out my wallet, showed him i only had 200 baht, and half a dinari still left from Bahrain airport. Finally the penny dropped and he realised why i had wanted to cancel the beer. He let me off and let me keep the beer, which, at a litre (no imperial) lasted me most of the evening.

He returned to me several times to ask if I wished to visit an ATM as there was one at the next station. he also offered to lend me some ringitt then accompany me to an ATM at butterworth. But i kindly declined all his offers well aware that he would probably take more than the 40 baht i owed him in commision. It may have been mean, but I felt pretty hard done by, Karma as they say.

The evening rolled on and a thai couple came and sat down oppoisite me and my deck of cards to see if i wished to play a game. I suggest rummy, they hadnt heard of it so i managed to teach them. The woman spoke pretty good english and had an anglish literature degree. The man was a lawyer. After i had taught them rummy, and beaten them every game, we switched to a game of their choice called Dummy. Almost identical to Rummy but with 9 cards intead of 7 and the odd strange twist it was still good fun, easy to grasp and killed a lot of time. They then asked me to teach them another game, taking into consideration the mans occupation, i decided to teach them the game 'Cheat'. I heard the voice of JR, my friend with a law degree and morals (rarely seen apprently) ringing in my ears with approval of the irony. Eventually the man got the hang of it after his wife had explained that you had to cheat to win. A concept which entertained them both, and myself, no end. We played for a long time. Talking about my travels. They offered their sofa were i ever to visit Hat Yai, offering also to take me on a tour of the city and into Bhurma, obviously the thought of that, maybe, being a bad idea for me didnt cross their minds. I was touched to be asked nonetheless.

Around 9, or at request, the seats were all pulled out and around and turned into beds. I pulled the curtain across and got to sleep. Thai people have a wonderful capacity to get comfortable in any position. British people do not. The bed was just too short for me, but i managed anyway, with the sound of happily sleeping thai people, probably impossibly curled up, around me.

The next morning went by very quickly with lots of sleep and a very brief stop off somewhere on the border so we could sort of Visas. As a British national i walked in, got stamped and walked out, as did most of the train so it was a quick process. As we waited we could see police scouring the train with a sniffer dog. Once they were happy there were no drug smugglers on board we all clambered back on with all our baggage and set off again. I slept, a lot. so sooner than i expected we pulled up in Butterworth and i arrived.

Surprisingly, im kind of looking forward to the journey back.