thailand travels 3

Things had gone a bit smoothly to date, so time to experience some classic Thailand travel.
We needed to catch a bus connecting the boat at Krabi to the train station just outside Surat Thani. Luckily we gave ourselves 5 hours to make this 2 hour ride, cause we took most of it. After promising us that the bus went via Phun Phin (the train station), after we paid for the ticket we were told unfortunately the bus wasn't going that way in the low season and we would get a seperate minibus from Surat Thani. Arriving there, we were told we could ride in a coach to Bangkok to get to the train station, but it wouldn't leave for an hour and a half. It left late so we arrived only with a little time to spare, only to find our train was cancelled. We were told to go catch a bus, (bear in mind we had just got off a bus going to Bangkok). The bus was full, so we ignored a bunch of other touts selling us tickets to god knows where, and went back to the train station for a different ticket. The only space was a third class overnight ticket. The ticket seller was unsure. "Third class, are you sure?" Hmm, can't be too bad I thought. Sure if you are well, a 12 hour train journey on small, hard seats is tolerable. If you get sick and start vomitting and daiorreah, like Jo, it can be quite unpleasant. Enuf said. Well we got there eventually, checked in to a nice hotel near the train station and Jo spent all the next day sleeping it off, managing to mostly recover before flying to London the following evening.