Train from Trang

Argh.

You see how Simon gets to do all the glamorous locations? (This is my ( Annika) first post – very exciting eh?) Well I am fighting back with a quick update from Trang. Oh Trang, the place the guidebook describes as a “transport hub” with a market, what can i say to fully convey the look and feel of this place so that you at home can almost experience this place with us as I know you would want to?!

Trang, a mere 2 hours from Pak Bara in an airconditioned mini van, rendering Simon almost immobile after disembarkation and subject to yet another physical woe, this time a hurty neck, is indeed just what it says on the tin. The hotel we checked into last night were so pleased to see us and the guy personalised a map of Trang so we wouldn’t miss out on the highlights – a concrete clock tower, the train station, bus station, some bookshops with some unusual titles in Engrish, but I’m being mean really. Come 6pm and there is a  fab night food market which we spent a good 2 hours in checking out food which we had no idea what it was! Delights included barbecued pork, some kind of wonton thing – fried of course, some pork scratchings, summer rolls and then i kind of went a bit crazy and started buying anything that looked vaguely interesting! I reckon we must have spent at least a full 3 of your English pounds on delicious food – brilliant! We polished this off with 3 bottles of Singha beer (between us, mind) and now both have mild hangovers!

But nothing that a 7 hour train journey to Chumphon, again described as a transport hub, in about 30 mins. And from there folks we go to Ko Tao to stay for a week over Christmas for basically doing very little – am planning on working my way through “War and Peace” – if for no other reason than I am getting tired of carting the bloody brick-like book around.

No doubt Simon will post from the beach at Ko Tao. I shall be focusing on providing an overview of the somewhat less picturesque but quite honestly no less enjoyable destinations that we stumble across.

Right, time to get that train, which often turns up early believe it or not and from what we see on the news something that is not happening in snowy UK (I had to get that in ).

Ciao.