The overnight sleeper to Bangkok is certainly the way to go, for no other reason than you get to stretch out. Here’s the train during the day:

The top berths there fold out, and the seats below are made into a bed by the porter. We chose to pay about 300 baht less for the no air con train, and it was definitely worth it. It was actually chilly at night, despite the lightweight blanket provided, and I was happy that we packed a bed sheet, as it gave me just enough additional coverage.

Here’s the menu of food available on the train. We ate just before we got on, and did not order or bring any food with us. Come morning, this was a bit shortsighted of us, because we were very hungry, and the vendors that walk the train only had some pretty tired looking meats for sale. At least we had lots of water.

We arrived in Bangkok around 11 am, and our hostel, which was chosen for its proximity to the train station and to Chinatown was ready for us to check in, wash our dirty faces and drop our packs. In a few minutes we were headed for chow from the nearby street carts (fantastic fried chicken, and okay roasted duck noodle soup) then a nap, because sleeping on the train wasn’t as awesome as I thought it would be. I was in constant fearof falling out of my narrow berth, despite the straps that I assume were there to keep that from happening.

But when we woke- Chinatown/Yaowarat Night Market! One lane on each side is kind of blocked off for pedestrians, but these are loose rules. Carts are side by side by side, with all kinds of soups, seafood, noodles, dumplings- it’s a bit dizzying.

We ate many dumplings, of which I took zero pics.

We went back to Chote Chitr the next day for more prawns, this time we got the red curry prawns with long beans again, but also the yellow curry ones. Oddly, we got 3 prawns each instead of 2 like last time.

Then, Chinatown again…

Brent got a delicious seafood noodle soup, filled with squid and shrimp, but I didn’t get a pic.

Dogs in clothes. I can’t tell you how many dogs in clothes we’ve seen here. We even saw a cat in clothes, but I couldn’t stop laughing long enough to get a pic, and it trotted off, no doubt highly embarrassed. The dogs don’t seem to mind, but why is this so popular all over Thailand?

And pre-sunrise on the 20th, we are off to Cambodia! Zoooooom!