Farewell Mekong, Hello Samui!

We arrived in Nong Khai on Thursday and took a tuk tuk straight to our guest house. Sadly our first impressions of of the place were less than good. It seemed to be a bit of a dump and we found ourselves wondering why the Lonely Planet had told us that it was a "charming place where travellers find themselves staying longer than expected". Fortunately however, when we arrived at the guesthouse we were pleasantly surprised :) The staff were lovely, the accommodation and food were cheap and it lay right alongside the Mekong River (we will never be rid of that river.....). We had to move rooms to start off with though as they seemed to be building something right outside our window, and after the night we had just had on the bus we really needed some well deserved shut eye! We were later allocated a super romantic, beach-type shack with a four poster bed :) Bit more expensive (8 euros) but it was worth it! And it had a mosquito net! Good job though, as as it was we got eaten alive - we had about 20 bites between us by the time we left....

Our one night stay in Nong Khai consisted of not very much. It rained on our first afternoon (see video). We ate, slept, drank beer, talked to these two German girls we met, Elke and Anna, and went on a few walks up the promenade (see picture). There was a 21st birthday party on for one of the girls who worked at the guest house and we were invited, but we were so shattered we just went to bed - we are party central. We were just looking forward to getting on the overnight train to Bangkok the following day in order to take our flight to Koh Samui :)

We arrived to catch our train at 19.00 at just after 18.00 only to find out that the travel agency in Luang Phrabang had told us the wrong time of the train. We were really anxious so we thought we better just get on the train; it had already arrived. However, the guard took one look at our tickets and refused to let us on. He said we should have got on in Vientienne in Laos, at the border. We pleaded and pleaded with him to let us on, saying that we had paid almost 4000 Bath for the tickets (around 80 euros, which is A LOT of money in Thailand) we were both almost crying (Silvia did an especially impressive performance - I, Silvia, was born to be an actress ...), but he just said no. In the end a random guy said he would help us and got us two tickets, and we jumped on the train not with a second to spare.

When we looked at the tickets he gave us we discovered that we had two different ones, one 3rd class (you are practically travelling with the animals) and one 2nd class, which was a bed. We were so depressed. We had another 13 hours to go on the train and we didnt want to split up and go in separate seats. 3rd class was actually quite scary and we couldn't have slept because we couldn't leave our stuff because it could have got stolen. It was the lowest moment of the trip. We just felt ripped off, empty and tired. I just wanted to go home.

After a while of just staring out the window at nothing in particular, we decided to try and speak to someone about what had happened. We took our stuff to the 2nd class and found a guard, who luckily spoke some English and was willing to listen to us. We were outraged that there were two beds sitting there in 1st class with our names on, but that we just weren't allowed to get on because we didnt get on in Laos.

The guard let us sit in the little compartment between the carriages and listened while we told him what happened. Then another person came along, and another, and another. It seemed the whole train knew what had happened to us. We couldnt understand what they were saying, but we got the gist. Or so we thought. The guard then went on to tell us that we had been ripped off by the travel agency that we had bought the tickets from in Luang Phrabang. Our ticket wasn't real and they had told us the wrong time of the train so that we would have missed it and never been any the wiser, because we would never have tried to get on the train. We were gutted. There was no bed for one of us. In the end the guard told us we could share one bed if we paid him about 5oo Bath. We accepted as we already felt awful and squeezed ourselves into a bed less than the size of a single one. The night was helped along by a few Singas and tiredness, but we were so upset about the whole situation it took us a while to get to sleep.

We thankfully arrived in Bangkok safe and sound however and made our way to the airport in what can possibly be described as the most terrifying taxi ride of our lives - seriously this guy was a car crash waiting to happen, I was RAGING at him, especially considering the events of the past evening.

Once we arrived in Koh Samui we had left our troubles behind (see picture). The flight was great and the airport is amazing. It has only been open for 2 weeks. Our hotel is amazing, everything is amazing! We are right on the beach (a bit pricy but we think we deserve it!). See the picture for the towels arranged on our bed when we arrived!

Just a quick note on the flight: the service provided by Bangkok Airlines was excellent, we could wait to check in in the lounge area, with internet connection, papers and food (I, Silvia, ate so much, while Amy was staring at me wondering how I could possibly feel hungry after the slice of panettone and 2 sandwiches with cappuccino I had had at the train station .... ). For the first time in my life I could see Amy happy about flying ... Actually the flight was just 40 minutes, just the time to eat (again!!) and we were there already :)