In the morning I visit the bridge itself, which runs tourist trains over it, although I walk across. There are no hand rails and the wood is often rotten or broken away, so I walk down the middle of the bridge where there are metal plates. The trains are slow, so are easy to get out of the way of. It is early, so I am just about the only person walking on the bridge. I am glad of this, because if I had to step around people, the bridge could still be somewhat deadly.
I stop outside of the Jeath War Museum, which has not opened yet. By the entrance is a rusting steam locomotive that was used by the Japanese to carry materials for the construction.
I now have to conquer the vagaries of the Thai transport system, as I am moving on ahead of the group to start a diving course on Ko Tao. I am aiming to catch the train to Chumpon, from where I can get a ferry. However, I have misread the timetable, and discover when I get to the train station that it is Ratchaburi and not Kanchanaburi from where the train to Chumpon goes. Having walked a mile or so to the station with my rucksack on my back and my backpack on my front, I have to embarrassingly say hello again to the truckies and go with them to Hua Hin to catch a train from there.
I sit in the cab with JC on the journey south, but I am tired and don’t talk much and at Hua Hin I go immediately to the train station. The five o’clock train I now plan to get won’t arrive at Chumpon until 9pm, so I book a room at Suda’s Guesthouse listed in the Lonely Planet, and they offer to collect me from the train station too.
However, at the train station, I am told that the five o’clock train is full and that the next train at eight won’t get to Chumpon until after midnight, even if it is on time. The man at the ticket office recommends that I go to the bus station which he says is two km down the road. Being loaded with my baggage, I am now at the mercy of the tuk-tuk drivers. I speak to two, who refuse to budge from 150 Baht, telling me that the bus station is actually seven km away. With no choice, I acquiesce, but it only takes five or ten minutes to get to the station in what seems like a very round about manner. My smallest bill is a 500 Baht note and the tuk-tuk driver claims to have no change, but the bus ticket office provides me with some to pay him.
At the bus ticket office, I am then told that I can’t buy a ticket for the five o’clock bus until five o’clock, which makes me a little anxious. It is now 4pm, so I go to a restaurant across the road, where I am served beer by a muscular ‘waitress’ with a five o’clock shadow. ‘Have I adjusted my phone clock correctly?’ I think to myself.
At five o’clock, I am told that I still can’t buy a ticket because the bus is half an hour late, which makes me a little more anxious. However, five minutes later I am called to the desk to buy the ticket, and then another half hour later I am led by a man to the road where the bus stops without pulling into the station. In the bus, I am told to take a seat next to a sleeping woman who is taking up half of my seat. I try nudging her with my hips, but she doesn’t react. She slightly makes up for it later by tucking me under her blanket, which select passengers have been given, as with the AC going the bus is quite cool.
Eventually, I am dropped at Chumpon at about 10pm. I say Chumpon, but in fact I am still eight km from the centre of town at a non-descript road junction. I am greeted by three motorbike (moto) taxi drivers, but I tell them I need to phone my guesthouse. Perhaps not guessing that it might cost them a fare, one of them lends me his phone. I even get him to explain to Suda where I am so that she can arrange my collection. However, she tells me that I am too far out to get collected, so I will have to get one of the moto-taxis, telling me it should cost between 60 to 100 Baht. Of course the fee I am asked for is 100, but as the driver has lent me his phone I don’t barter. The ride isn’t very comforting with my rucksack weighing down my back as I hang on to the driver in front of me.
At the guesthouse, Suda turns out to be very helpful and she speaks good English. She pays the moto-taxi as I don’t have the change (billing me in the morning), and she sells me the ferry ticket I need at the same price I would have paid if I bought it directly, and her ticket includes my ride to ferry in the morning, which turns out to be several km away.
The guesthouse is cheap at 250 Baht and it’s clean, although there is a slight hospital ward feel about my room, with windows into the hallway. There is even soap and toilet paper in the shared bathroom, which I have learned not to expect at this price.
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