January 28-31, 2019, Bangkok, Thailand
28.01.2019 - 31.01.2019
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Laos and Thailand, 2019
on baixing's travel map.
It was travel day to Bangkok. I had a late breakfast of red curry because Liz told me I had to and then slowly packed up and left.
The same ferry man took me back to the other side of the river. I think he was surprised to see me again. I hoped he wouldn't tip the boat over out of spite from me running away the day before. I caught a horrible mini van and then an equallyhorrible bus to Bangkok.
The border crossing was very easy. There was no visa to purchase any longer. Last time I went to Thailand, I think it was 20 dollars. I had some green herbal soup to eat and then we arrived at probably 4 a.m. I found the hostel I booked very easily across the street from the railway station.
January 29, 2019
I slept for a few hours and paid for early checkin. The hostel was near Chinatown, so I wandered around the river area there for a while. I felt very claustrophobic and lost, until I found a Chinese shrine with lots of red lanterns. It gave me a sense of relief and peace for just a moment. I walked around until I got really tired.
For lunch, I went to a nearby vegan restaurant which was full, so I sat with a group of women who were au pairs in Australia. 
It was interesting talking to them because I had no idea that it was a thing westerners did in other western countries. It seemed like a pretty shitty life though. The parents give them a small salary and they eat and sleep in the family's house. Sometimes they are expected to cook and clean as well. One woman said that the mother she worked for stayed home all day and just stared at her. Yikes.
January 30, 2019
My parents' flight was delayed for a day because of a major snowstorm. They had a hotel in Cambridge for the night. So, I just stayed in Chinatown for the day again. I followed the tour in my guidebook, I think it was Insight Bangkok. I wandered around lost among a bunch of junk for sale.
There was a gold shop with a small museum on the top floor, 
a temple with a live crocodile and lots more other temples.
The Chinese temple was really crowded because of Chinese New Year coming up. I went back home for dinner and had overpriced pad thai near the station.
January 31, 2019
I woke up crazy early in the morning, took a shower and dressed but forgot to look at the flight status of my parents' plane. I picked up some Thai iced tea for everyone and breakfast for myself, but then realized this detail when I got to the airport train station. Luckily there was a screen with the arrival times on it. Unluckily, the screen suddenly turned off before it showed me the flight coming in from Paris I was looking for. I tried to get help from a janitor, but a nice English speaking lady saw me and checked the flight status for me on her phone. It had definitely left Paris, but there was no guarantee they'd be actually on it until I checked my own email when I got to the airport. Who knows if they made their connection with all the delays and everything right? I found the exit they were coming out of and waited there for a couple hours. Finally, they saw me and we went back to the hostel to store our bags for the day.
I thought they'd want to take a nap or something, but they weren't tired, so we walked around crazy Chinatown like I did the day before.
Our train didn't leave until 7 p.m., so we had a leisurely dinner also at the same place I was the night before, right next to the station. We boarded our train on time and this horrible passive aggressive woman was in the bed beside me. She tricked my dad into putting her bag up on the rack for her.
"Two months in Asia is a long time you know," she said humbly bragging. Yeah lady, everyone here is also on a two month vacation, you're not special. Also we managed to do it with a smaller bag than you. Did you have some problems with that? I thought in my own head, gloating to myself. I found out she was a doctor's secretary back in Ottawa, so that explained everything about her. She just spends all day every day bullshitting and covering her ass. Gross.
Sleeping on trains in Thailand is not very good. The lights are on 24/7 and the air conditioning is cranked. On top of that, the blanket they give you is very thin and not warm enough. The bottom bunks however, are cozy and dark, but I was suffering on the top.
