Tues 12th Dec – Overnight Train, Khao Sok

My apprehension around the night train is understandable. Small confined space with many people, toilets that can’t be used while the train is stopped (all waste falls straight out of the train), lights that stay on all night, baggage blocking the walkways. However, it proves to be fun, and I would do it again. The highlight was two hours spent in the dining cart. Unlike the sleeping bunks, the dining cart has no air-conditioning and the windows are wide open. It is ear shatteringly loud and bits of grit hit your face when the train is at speed. The fresh air and noise connects you more elementally to the train, and passing through small towns, citites, fires by the side of the road, is wonderful. Two of my old tour group come into the dining cart and join me and we chat about upcoming adventures and thank each other for the company, as after today I split off from them as they continue to a more beaches focussed tour with a seperate group. It is a relaxed and memorable way to conclude what is by definition a transient friendship. I would spend hours more in the dining cart watching southern Thailand fall into the deep evening, but it shuts at 10pm and I’ve only purchased a tea this whole time, so the pissed off manager of the cart pushes us along.

To sleep, the bunk is just long enough for me, although is a squeeze with my backpack, small bag and shoes. I have an eye mask and ear plugs, and this largely protects me from the noise of hawkers throughout the night that get on at one stop, try to sell their wares, and get off at the next. I wake up three or so times but never for too long. There are no stops announced so it’s important you are in your allocated bunk, or else the conductor won’t be able to wake you up before the stop.

The train arrives at our station at 5am, completing the 12 hour journey. All departing passengers are bleary eyed and confused. They don’t want to wake up yet equally don’t want to stay on the train. Khao Sok is an hour drive from the train station. These transfers are where a tour group reveals its benefits. I have not escaped a state of delirium from the long train trip and would have really struggled organising the minivan to Khao Sok. All transport I have done independently centres on me handing over my phone with Google maps on it to the driver and simultaneously hoping my phone doesn’t get stolen and I arrive somewhere in the proximity of the destination. The tour group leader explains Southern Thailand has lower levels of English comprehension than Cambodia, which exposes me entirely to people’s inherent good spirit and persistence to help.

The small minibus trip to the resort is instructive, as the scenery on the train was limited to what was lit through the dark. In the bus, as the sun rises, it is clear that the South is entirely different to the North. Where rice paddy swamps covered fields in the North, in the South they are crammed within every inch of palm trees. In the North, a mountain range would arise in the distance, coaxing your eye to the horizon over miles of flats. In the South, limestone mountains erupt everywhere, and there is no horizon to speak of as we drive beneath them. The north grows the fruits that need a stable climate, such as strawberries. In the south, crops need to be resilient to the tropics, and plants like Durian survive.

The resort at Khao Sok is beautiful. We have an entire day with no activities (the first since I have arrived). I couldn’t have asked for a more captivating spot to spend an afternoon. I read, I have lunch at the resort hotel and I nap. After the searing, full sun heat in Bangkok yesterday, this overcast day in the jungle of the South is heaven.