Double Date - Day 2
After a late night you would expect to sleep in but I was up by 8 AM. On my intrepid journey tour – today was a day for optional activities and I was supposed to catch up with my group at 10 AM but after last night's developments I had no option but to ditch the additional activities to go on a date with Tuan.
Since the morning was free – Lance and me went to Khao San Road, so that Lance could finalize his accommodation there and then there was the matter of giving Tuan a ring to fix up the program. Lance kept teasing me that he wanted to hang out with Tai and that I should go on the date with Tuan on my own. Needless to say I was shit scared and I had to beg and plead with Lance, so that he could convince Tai for a double date. Tai agreed to it, so I gave Tuan a ring to fix up the program.
It was a nervous and exciting moment calling her and then sorting out the program. It was decided that we would meet her at the bar in an hour from then and then go from there. Since we had the time, Lance and me decided to catch a tuk-tuk and check out the Grand Palace. The architecture and the buildings were stunning and the mind boggles just thinking about the amount of work that would have gone into it. We spent close to 50 minutes in the place and only managed to see half of it because of the time constraints. As we were rushing out to meet Tuan, I bumped into my tour group and it was a weird feeling – it was like I was the odd man out but then again what I was going through at that point was way more intrepid.
Since the morning was free – Lance and me went to Khao San Road, so that Lance could finalize his accommodation there and then there was the matter of giving Tuan a ring to fix up the program. Lance kept teasing me that he wanted to hang out with Tai and that I should go on the date with Tuan on my own. Needless to say I was shit scared and I had to beg and plead with Lance, so that he could convince Tai for a double date. Tai agreed to it, so I gave Tuan a ring to fix up the program.
It was a nervous and exciting moment calling her and then sorting out the program. It was decided that we would meet her at the bar in an hour from then and then go from there. Since we had the time, Lance and me decided to catch a tuk-tuk and check out the Grand Palace. The architecture and the buildings were stunning and the mind boggles just thinking about the amount of work that would have gone into it. We spent close to 50 minutes in the place and only managed to see half of it because of the time constraints. As we were rushing out to meet Tuan, I bumped into my tour group and it was a weird feeling – it was like I was the odd man out but then again what I was going through at that point was way more intrepid.
Me marvelling at the architectureLance and me got to the bar just in time and once we picked up Tuan, we were supposed to go and meet Tai at Chong Nonsi BTS and then decide on further program. It took us ages to get there because of the traffic and by the time we got there it was 12.30 PM. From there we went to Siam Square since that is where most of the cinemas are but unfortunately watching any movie at that point around 1.30 PM would have taken me past the 4PM deadline – which is when our tour group was leaving for the railway station to catch the overnight train to Chiang Mai. So I had to take the hard decision of disappointing everyone by saying no to watching a movie. If anyone was disappointed they did not show it and we went to grab some lunch straight away.
The restaurant we went to was like a thai fast food place but the food there wasn't that great. I ordered Chicken on Spaghetti and as I was eating it I commented on how it's texture felt like fish and joked that it was 'White Chicken'. I rummaged through my pocket for the receipt and it turned out that the person at the counter had taken the wrong order and had given me fish. From that point everyone was cracking up – especially Tai, who was teasing me about my 'white chicken' dish. While we were having the meals Tuan and Tai would talk to each other in Thai and I was so curious about what they were saying but I only got translation for half the stuff. What I was interested in was the translation for the other half that was never told to me.
As it was getting closer to my leaving time I had to go back to the hotel, so Lance and Tai went their own way while Tuan and me headed back towards the hotel. I dropped off Tuan at the bar before going back to the hotel. It was a sad feeling leaving her for the tour but I had to do it. The upside to the whole thing was that Tuan still seemed really keen to catch up with me once I got back to Bangkok.
I rejoined my intrepid tour group and from there we went to the railway station. We got there an hour and half early as we didn't hit much traffic and got there quicker than antiticpated.We put our bags in the train and were left to wander on our own, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing as it gave me a chance to bond with Dan and Amanda. We walked about a bit before buying lots of small food items for the train journey and since there was still more time to kill – we sat down in the main foyer waiting for our departure time.
On the way to the railway station
Waiting for our train's departure time in the loungeThe train journey was very slow to start off and it took ages for us to get out of Bangkok. One of the train staff taking care of the A/C coaches was a lady boy called Natalie. She was funny but also overtly feminine. Chaiya – our tour guide – cracked a joke which managed to embarrass both Dan and Natalie. Lady boys seem to be a common occurrence in Thailand and I don't know the reason for it. I am feeling really tired right now and just about ready to hit the bed. We'll be in Chiang Mai first thing tomorrow morning and that is when things will really kick off.
Through the train
Till later,
Amit
posted by Amit @ 3:22 PM
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