Night train to Bangkok

I never took a photo so grabbed this one off google

We left our lovely holiday resort in Koh Phangan early in the morning, and took a minbus to the port, where we had to wait around 3 hours for the boat. when I saw all of the hungover rahs at the port who had been staying on Koh Phangan for the full Moon Party, I was so glad we had stayed in a remote resort in Koh Phangan,. The port was full of gap year types/ annoying 'laads abroad', dressed in fluorescent clothes, with fluorescent paint still in the crevices of their faces, left over from the FMP. They reminded me of Australia and everything I hate about travellers. Thank god we only had to be in their company for a short while whilst we waited for the boat. We busied ourselves for a while, by having a drink at a restaurant, and then the bulk of the youths left for Koh Tao, making us extremely pleased that we had done Koh Tao first when it was quiet and not overrun with obnoxious gap yahs. The boat to the mainland was fine and at the other end, we had to get on a coach that was waiting for everyone going to Bangkok. We were a little distressed to be getting on a coach (we have heard bad stories about coaches, whereby a man gets in the hold with the bags and roots through everyone's belongings whilst you're sat on the coach. Several of our friends have had this happen to them and have ended up with more/ less items in their bags that when they first started their journey). One of our friends was missing all of her memory cards with all of her photos, another found a new soap in a plastic box in her bag when she unpacked after the journey. The men apparently get into the hold and go through everyone's bags, taking no care to put things back properly, so things get lost/ jumbled up. Its quite alarming because we as travellers have no come back/ proof other than that things have gone missing on the journey. One of our friends woke up in the night to catch a man from the coach company searching through peoples hand luggage whilst they were asleep! She went to the Police in Bangkok to report it, but they fobbed her off and told her to go to the British Embassy instead. For this reason, Jemma and I have gone out of our way to avoid night buses in Thailand. Anyway, on this occasion, we had to get on a coach, and it wasn't night, so we just had to hand our belongings over and hope that it only happens at night. The coach journey was about 3 hours, and they dropped us off outside the train station, where we hurriedly wolfed down some street food so as not to miss our train. No need to do that; the train was delayed by 4 hours. So we sat there, from 6pm to 10pm, on the station platform, as the sun set, with rats running around us and a cockroach running over my hand at one point! Also at some point, Jemma either lost or had her camera stolen. She isn't sure which, just remembers that the last picture she took was of the sunset at the train station. Luckily, whilst sat on our bags on the platform (no seats), we met a lovely French couple, who helped us pass the hours, and engaged us in conversation on all matter of topics, from French politics, to Elephant trekking and Thai boxing. When the train finally came, we had formed a small bond with them and they even invited us to stay with them at their home in the French Alps! The train came and it was not the most luxurious of experiences. A cabin of dirty bunk beds packed along the aisles – with mine conveniently located just opposite the stinking toilet and only fans to keep us cool. I tried to get to sleep, but the stench was so horrific, I had to ask Jemma if I could squash in top to toe with her. After an hour of trying to sleep, cramped up and sweating, she decided to get in my old bed and said that she thought it was a health hazard because the mattress and surrounding wood was damp for some reason and absolutely stank. She couldn't sleep so got up in the middle of the night and found another empty bunk. I hardly slept at all. The train was the most noisy, rickety, wobbly train I've ever ridden on in my life, and every time I'd nod off, a loud whistling train would rush past ours and wake me up. This happened about every 8 minutes, so I'd have an 8 minute snooze and then be shaken awake by a screeching noise and an extremely rattly cabin. It was a nightmare! Somehow, the hours passed and morning came. The conductor came and folded all of our bunks up so that they now turned into seats and I was sat opposite a Thai girl and an old man/ young Thai girl couple. The train was really hot and I was hardly getting any breeze from the window, so I was relieved when we finally got to Bangkok station. When we got there, we went for a farewell coffee with the French couple (I had an iced chocolate) and then we said our goodbyes and made our way by taxi to our hostel!