So the night train was the usual affair of very efficient train staff (who seem to number in the dozens) making up the beds pretty much as soon as the train pulls away from the metropolis (i would say at speed but more like crawling at about 50km/h for the duration of the journey).

The thai people above and opposite me were quite cool. We started chatting and it turned out they were working for Beer Lao and were off to Laos for a couple of days to sort out some computer problems. Hopefully an unofficial factory trip might be in the offing. We shared about 10 cans of Singha (Beer Lao is better apparantly!) and chatted until about midnight when my head really needed to hit the pillow for seven hours of disturbed sleep 😉 ..the train goes fast, the hits some dodgy track, the stops, then appears to get shunted before repeating this process until 9.30am…

Unfortunately my stomach either didnt appreciate the runny eggs from the American Breakfast at the New Siam II, the train or the beer and (not to go into the vulgar details), I had my first very dodgy stomach of the holiday…

So we arrived and I shared a Tuk-Tuk (well actually they are Jumbos – converted motorbikes with a tuk-tuk shell) with the 2 thai guys. I realised halfway that I was without my sunglasses so we went back to the Station. For some reason I leapt on the train (which is about 20 carriages long) and acquired some help in the form of a cleaner to hunt out my seat. As I moved down the carriages, I noticed the train was moving… Mmm I thought, It appeared to be moving in the direction of Bangkok! Luckily it was just changing platforms but it mustve gone about 1km from the station (Now I was worrying about leaving my bags and belongings in charge of a person I had only met the night before)… To cut the story short. I get back and the station master hands me my sunglasses, I sign a piece of paper entirely in Thai and my bags are reunited….

After the usual border business (its 1$ extra on a weekend!) I step into Laos and jump in a 30 year old taxi, he harse smell of diesel fule engulfing the interior and make my way 22k along the partially paved road to Vientiene.