Train Trip Day 1!

So Peter picked us up around 3, and we headed over to the train station, where we went to this fancy-schmancy air conditioned waiting room and checked in. We did the regular checkin stuff and then proceeded to another table where they took our preferences for dinner - we said we wanted the late seating (9:15 rather than 6) and that we were open to sitting with another couple.

We'd gotten there about 2 hours early, so we said our goodbyes to Peter and then sat around and people-watched. There were a lot of British couples there, and the two couples sitting right near us were talking about how it was impossible to understand Americans, how we had no sense of humor, and for some reason had this really strong dislike for the Carolinas because they kept bashing them. We dubbed them "the Monty Python Group."

The average age was probably 15ish years older than us, but there were a few other couples around our age, one of who had a guy who I decided must be line to the throne (British, of cousre) so I dubbed him and his wife The Duke and Dutchess.

I am totally clever with naming, right?

We boarded around 5:30, and went to our cabin, which was the third in car A (cleverly named 3A). We had a middle-sized cabin, but it was still pretty snug. The daytime configuration is a little couch-thingie, a comfy chair-thingie, a table, and a moveable chair. We've got an ensuite bathroom, and in the main room there are shelves at the top of the cabin where we pseudo-unpacked our things to.

We headed to the observation car at the end of the train for when we pulled out, and waved wildly at people who probably didn't really care, but indulged us and waved back. Then Will and I headed back to our cabin to settle in and view the countryside from our window.

we got champagne for our second anniversary - which
is the excuse we used for going on the trip

We headed to the observation car again a bit later and chatted up one of the stewards there, who has been working for the company for 17 years. After a little bit we headed back to the cabin to dress for dinner.

(Okay, we just went through a tunnel. It was kind of creepy.)

The dress code for the train is "smart casual" during the day, which we've taken to mean nice shorts/pants/skirts and non t-shirt tops. For dinner, however, guys are supposed to wear jackets and ties and girls are supposed to wear the equivalent. However, there are totally some people who ramp it up a bit, because we saw a guy with a tux, and girls with pretty fancy dresses. It was totally the perfect opportunity for Will to wear one of his new suits from Bangkok, and for me to wear my new sapphire necklace!

will's stylin' new suit

We headed to the bar car for a drink before dinner, where there was a pianist playing showtunes and other songs and a few couples either having a drink before the late seating, or after the early seating. They announced the start of our dinner, and we went to the restaurant cabin. Even though we'd asked to sit with another couple, they sat us at a fourtop, but alone, which was actually kind of nice because (a) we got a lot of extra space, (b) we were exhausted and this way we didn't have to be *on* for other people and (c) we didn't have to sit with people who hated the Carolinas.

Dinner was kind of amazing.

the menu for the first night

We, however, were kind of pooped. It was all we could do to make it back to our cabin, which had been made up to the night setup, and promptly collapsed into our beds.

nighttime setup

We're in Bangkok!

I added a couple of pictures to previous posts, so check that out if you're interested!

So we're in Bangkok, a fact that has not yet sunk in entirely, based on the fact that every fifteen minutes or so I tell Will "Hey, guess what. We're in Bangkok!"

We survived the 7 hour layover and the following 2 1/2 hour flight, sleeping the majority of the flight, and arrived at Bangkok rather refreshed and awake, which I think was a pretty big deal considering the fact that it was after 26+ hours of traveling. We were picked up by Peter, who will be our guide on Monday through the tour company, and a driver, who took us to our hotel, which was about 45 minutes away from the airport. On the way he talked to us about the city a little bit, and also found out what we were interested in doing while we were here. We decide on a plan for tomorrow which is the flower market, the Grand Palace, and the Wat Phra Kaew, also known as the Temple of the Golden Buddha, the only place in Bangkok that can be found in Unforgettable Places To See Before You Die, which is a book that I have the goal of seeing all the places there. Will also mentions that he's interested in tailoring, because a friend of his that is Thai suggested getting suits made while we're there. So Peter tells us that he'll have a ride from a tailor pick us up around 2.

lots and lots of fabricr

So the next thing I know, we're not only in Bangkok, but we're at a tailor shop, being talked into buying suites. And apparently there's something about South East Asia that makes me less of a penny pincher, because not only is Will getting two suits and a shirt, but I'm getting a pinstripe suit with pants and a pencil skirt, and a silk shirt. Tomorrow at 2 they're doing our final fitting, and the suits will be delivered to our hotel tomorrow night.

will getting fitted

thai beer!

Bizzare.

Afterwards we can have the tailor drop us off wherever we want, and we mention the place that Peter had suggested to us, but the guy we've been working with (who is the master jacket-maker) tells us we should go to the Sunday market, becuase it's only open on Sundays, and this is the one Sunday that we'll be here. So we roll with the punches and decide to go there.

The Sunday Market is the world's largest fleamarket and was pretty awesome, but soon we're getting tired and hot because it's all outside and crowded and under tents, so we decide to head to another place closer to the hotel. The guy at the tailor had told us that we could just take the Skytrain (a monorail) back, but after walking around for about an hour we'd passed the subway station twice, but not seen the Skytrain at all. So we considered what our guide, Peter, told us about the subway (don't take it, it's too confusing) and we decided that we were tired of walking, but not about to take a cab, so we were going to do the subway!

The subway wasn't all that confusing - the only part that threw us off was the fact that they gave us what looked like a little token, but you don't put the token anywhere when you're entering - you just put it on this pad and it reads it or something, and let you through. We took the subway one stop - to where it met up with the Skytrain station - and then hopped on that until we got to the transfer station. Will was incredibly excited to see an advertisement with a football (soccer) player he is a fan of (because he's a football (soccer) nerd like that). We decided to look around near the transfer station and saw that it was right by a big mall, which we entered in order to find some water, and ended up drooling over some donuts that they had with random toppings, like white chocolate and cheddar, and caramel.

Cesc Fabregas pimping Pepsi

We got back on the subway and headed to our stop on the river, so that we could catch a water taxi back to our hotel. Right when we got to the pier, the sky opened up into a torrential downpour. It was covered, luckily, because it was really kind of insane how intensely the rain was coming down, and how it came out of nowhere. Or maybe I'm just saying that because I've gotten spoiled from living in LA, and had I been living in Texas for the past two years, I'd be thinking it was no big. But anyways, it was pretty intense for us. It let up just a bit after a few minutes, and our taxi came up, so we hopped on and crossed the river, mid-downpour. Pretty fun!

the rain was significantly more downpoury than it appears here

We got back to the room and changed out of wet clothes, then headed downstairs for dinner. One of the restaurants at the hotel has really good Thai food, so we went there, and ordered a 3 course pre-fixe menu that looked good.

Unfortunately, about 3 minutes after we ordered the food, we began to crash, hard. We lost our appetites and just wanted to sleep, because we're pretty sure our bodies were telling us "Ummmm, it's 5am. Why are you trying to feed us instead of letting us sleep?" We did the best we could eating the food (which was pretty awesome, so it was a shame that our appetites weren't cooperating) and then went upstairs to crash, around 8:30. My goal had been to stay up until at least 8pm, so I figured the fact that we lasted an extra 30 minutes was pretty impressive. (Will was saying that 8pm was going to be no problem, and though I was silly for thinking we'd be tired so early, so I guess I showed him!)

All in all a very fun, succesful day in Bangkok!

Singapore Airport Con't

We just walked by a bar that had two monitors with sports playing - table tennis and EPL soccer. I think Will is considering moving here.

Singapore!

So we've safely landed in Singapore, and are now just waiting for the 7 hours of our layover to pass so that we can hop on our plane to Bangkok. Unfortunately, all the official sleeping places in the airport are booked up, (probably because it's 2am local time) but we found a lounge that has semi-comfy chairs, free food and drinks, and (most importantly) free wi-fi, so we're hanging out here for a bit. Will is passed out in a chair, but I'm up because I slept on both legs of our previous flight, so I'm not particularly sleepy at the moment.

doesn't he look comfy?

The LAX to Tokyo leg was pretty uneventful. We got bulkhead seats, which was pretty awesome because we had mad legroom, and the other guy in the section of our row was from Conroe, Texas. He works on oil rigs and his last stop is Indonesia. He's been all over the world - he said that he rarely works in the Gulf of Mexico, but instead spends a lot of time in Brazil and West Africa, as well as time in other places. Like Indonesia.

us in tokyo. do we look like we've been on a plane for 12 hours?

While we were waiting to check in they had those big screens with their advertisement pictures, and of course showed all the business and first class seats - recliners and little cabins that turn into beds and stuff like that. There was only one picture of coach, which we thought was pretty funny, since that's what we were obviosuly going on. The plane was pretty intense - we didn't do the A380, but it was still a 747 with personal monitors where 100+ movies and tv shows were on demand. So we entertained ourselves with that, and the food was pretty decent also. They only had two selections if you didn't pre-order (International and Japanese) but you could pre-order with a kind of ridiculous specificity. The people in the middle section of our row had gotten what I'm pretty sure was the vegitarian Indian, and it smelled amazing.

(Will is totally snoring)

When we got to Tokyo we originally thought we could stay on the plane but then they told us that we couldn't. Which caused momentary panic because neither of us could find our stubs of our boarding passes, since we'd not put them in a special place, because we were originally told we could stay on the plane. But we went through transit security and showing them our baggage claim ticket was enough, and then I found my stub and they just wrote Will out a new one. So that was pretty painless.

(Actually, it's the guy behind Will that's snoring, not Will)

The second leg was pretty easy as well - we had the same neighbor, and we both slept for a good portion of it. Now we're in Singapore, just waiting for our Bangkok flight. I kind of can't believe that it's 2am on Sunday morning, but I suppose that's the international date line for you.

Yay to the first part of the first leg of our trip being over!

Travel Prep

Okay, so in 2 days we leave for our summer adventure in Bangkok, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Amount of packing done? None. However, I called our credit card companies yesterday to tell them that we'd be abroad so that they wouldn't shut our cards down when we used them while we were over there. And it seems like we're going to be using them a lot, since at the moment it seems like our plan is to just bring nothing and buy everything while we're over there.

The dollar is strong right now, right?