Monday, December 22, 2008

Our journey & The Christmas Series

We had a hideous journey yesterday. We got up at 5.30am and made our way to Hua Lampong train station.

I am constantly astonished by how much of a witch I am without enough sleep. It’s proper Jekyll and Hyde personality change. Tea will go some way to remedying this, but even that isn’t a miracle worker. It was a good job then that I had time for a cup of tea before we boarded our train.

Now, I wasn’t expecting the Orient Express but eughhh, nor was I expecting the yuckiness that was our train. It was ancient, grubby and falling apart… and bloody freezing. Would we even make it? Clearly, as well as Jekyll and Hyde, I’m a bit of a prissy madam too.

Ah well, my resistance (and standards) are much lower than they used to be so I soon got used to it but I am seriously considering the five days on the Trans-Siberian express in the Summer…

It took nine and a half hours … oh dear god… two pink Migraleve followed by two yellow Migraleve followed by more headache and no idea if I could take anything else. The absolute worst thing about it was that I couldn’t see out of the frigging window because of condensation trapped between the double glazing. The window in the loo was open but I wasn’t that desperate. I’m not even going to try and explain the complications of using a squat toilet in a swaying train! I didn’t manage to get to sleep until about eight hours into the journey. After half an hour I was rudely awoken by Son, yelling, ‘is this our stop?’ No it bloody wasn’t. Poor, well meaning Son.

A lovely man from the hotel met us at Surat Thani with lavender flavoured wet flannels and cold drinking water. Ah bless him. There was still more journeying to do though and the next leg onto Krabi was just under three hours.

We arrived at the hotel in the dark, but it still looked fabulous. It has precipitated discussions between Husband and I about a dream house. This is strictly dream material, unless they can be built for shirt buttons. I shall post pictures of this inspiration later on when the Christmas series is finished.

I’ve woken this morning, sans headache, feeling relaxed. I’ve worked out how a character died … and I’m desperate to write. Lovely Husband has taken the kids out to explore … leaving me to blog write.

It feels very odd to have had our December 25 while you’re all on the run up to it. (I’ve only played on the wii twice but I’m beginning to be converted to its charms. I shrieked with laughter as my cow ran consistently into the fences!)

8 comments:

Lane Mathias said...

Glad to hear you're writing on holiday:-)

Love the photos!

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

That journey certainly sounded like an endurance course, but loved the sound of the cool water and lavender flavoured wet flannels.

Happy writing. x

Flowerpot said...

Enjoy your holiday JJ! I'm a Wii virgin but it sounds great fun!

Rachel Green said...

What a nightmare journey!

HelenMWalters said...

That's a great photo. Glad to hear you survived the journey!

Jenny Beattie said...

Lane, thank you. As I relax, I want to write... also my next 10k of words will need to be ready in early January!

Debs, the flannel was very helpful to my poor head!

FP, thanks m'dear. The wii is fun, but I didn't get much of a look in...

Rachel, it so was. It was horrible. We're doing the sleeper back, thank god.

Helen, thank you. We did survive ... so no more grumbling, eh?

Anonymous said...

Gosh the journey sounds quite an experience, reminds me of Morocco.

Glad the hotel is lovely, you're wriitng and enjoying the Wii!

Liane Spicer said...

You are writing amid all of that? My goodness - I'm impressed no end.

I would have been prostrate by the end of that train journey, but then I've never been one to suffer stoically. Seems to have been worth it, though. Have a great time!

It's really time I Googled this Wii stuff...