Overnight Train to Udon

We left for Udon on Monday after spending five weeks in Bangkok. When I served as a missionary in Thailand, I spent the first 10 months of my mission in Bangkok and at the time, felt a little sorry for myself that I didn't get to see the rest of Thailand. I did eventually get to serve in the north (which was amazing) but my point is that I don't think I appreciated Bangkok until just recently. It's true that it's crowded and hot with tons of vehicle exhaust and a severe lack of wilderness (duh, it's a city). But it has everything you could want or need.

I have been a little apprehensive about moving to Udon because a.) I've never been to the Isaan (NE Thailand) and b.) even though it's a bigger city, it's nothing compared to Bangkok and it's kind of out in the boondocks.

Monday, we packed up our stuff, got (half of :( ) our deposit back from the landlord, and headed to the train station to take the overnight train to Udon. Our reason for taking the train was that we have way too much stuff to take on a flight, plus it is so much less expensive to take the train. Also, we chose 2nd class so that we could have fans instead of air conditioning (first class has only air conditioning) and the air conditioning actually gets too cold. This, however, was a decision we would come to regret.

Anyway, just try to imagine getting from one place in Bangkok with 8 large bags and 2 small children and no personal vehicle. We called for taxis to come get us and our security guards (who we thought we on our side) secured a price of 200 baht per taxi. Usually, you just use the meter but in some special cases (super late at night or traveling long distances) you can settle on a price in advance.

I wasn't sure how far the train station was and trusted our guards so we agreed and got in the taxis, David and Ezra in one and me and Eli in the other. Meanwhile, our friend Pim was running to try and say goodbye to us before we left (and before she left to go back to BYU). I didn't think she'd make it, but we got stuck on our street waiting for traffic and so she was able to catch our taxi and hop it.

It was so fun to see her and a nice break for me because instead of crawling all over the taxi per usual, Eli sat quietly beside me because he was shy that Pim was now in the car.

When Pim found out that we were paying 200 baht per taxi she was pretty surprised. I told her I wasn't sure why we agreed to that, only that we trusted people. But when we got to the station the meter said 79 baht. I was like, "Pim can you please talk to him?" I hate going back on something I've agreed to do but I was starting to get the idea that we were being taken for a ride (no pun intended). I'm so glad Pim was there - and I'm sure the taxi driver was totally ticked that she made it into our car because by the end, we ended up having to pay only 100 baht per taxi. Thank you Pim!

She helped us into the station with our bags and then had to go. Which is when we realized that Eli's little red backpack was nowhere to be found. I was so bummed but tried hard not to think about the loss - just how we would cope with what we were now missing (diapers, toys and treats for the ride, etc.)

David said he thought it must have been in his taxi and ran off to see what he could do. The kids and I said a little prayer that we would somehow get the backpack back. David returned 10 minutes later and said he'd call the taxi services who would then make an announcement over the radio. We didn't think that would do much since people lose stuff in taxis all the time and no one ever gets it back.
So we went to find our seats and load our stuff.

We had about 20 minutes so I took Eli to go find some snacks and drinks. After about 10 minutes I got a call from David who said they had found the backpack! We couldn't believe it! I took Eli to go pick it up from Information and then made the trek back to our car.

So, the total cost of tickets was I like $55 for the four of us. But you get what you pay for. After spending an hour or so on the train, it became clear that the difference between 2nd and 1st class is not merely a matter of temperature. The um, windows are wide open. This means that small children who like to climb - say, two boys ages 2 and 4 - could easily climb out.

Also, the 2nd class cars are probably at least 20 yrs older than the 1st class ones and I doubt there is any regular cleaning, let alone maintenance. I don't want to talk about the toilets. I tried to take Ezra because he needed to go poop. When we came back unsuccessful, David tried to talk to Ezra about it (he hadn't seen the toilets) and said, "Ezra you need to sit on the toilet -" and I was like, "Absolutely not." They are not the sitting kind anyway so that would be a disaster.




There were also mini cockroaches. The springs in the seats were worn out. At least they closed the windows once the beds were made up. But then it was like an oven so I kept my little curtain open in order to catch a breeze from the ceiling fan. It was still too hot. Oh, AND I was totally sick with the same thing David and the kids had last week but I happened to get it later.

The good news is that the kids slept pretty much through the night and David was able to keep Eli quiet during the time that he woke up. If David were the one writing this post I'm sure a large portion would be about what happened at night - most of which I was blissfully unaware because he took care of it. Other good news is that there was coverage for my iPhone so even though I couldn't really sleep I was able to check email and stuff.

Anyway, we made it. And I have to say that though this could have been a horror story, that's not how we will remember it. Even though things were not ideal, it could have been so much worse (we could have lost the backpack entirely, it was so perfect that Pim was there just at the right time to help us sort out the taxis and then to help us unload all our stuff, plus it was just so nice to see a familiar smiling face in the midst of all this, the train ride actually could have been so much worse but the kids hardly made a peep the whole night, etc.)

Mostly, I just feel the the Lord is helping us and constantly easing a situation that could in fact be 10 times harder. I don't know if He's making the situation easier or making us stronger, but either way I know He is watching over our little family.