Parks, Lizards, and the Orient Express

[Note.  Written last night!]    Today was a relaxing and low key day.  Because we were leaving this afternoon to head down south to Koh Yao Yai (a small island between better known Phuket and Krabi), we didn’t make any big plans for the morning.  Instead, we caught up on sleep then wandered over to the park near my brother’s apartment.

  A lush and open space in the midst of a hot and crowded city, being in the park felt like a deep, calming breath.   We hopped onto some paddleboats and headed out into the pond in the middle of the park to feed the fish and see what we could see.  What we saw was that the inhabitants of parks in Bangkok are not the same as the inhabitants of, say, Boston Common.

Catfish!!

These, for example, are the fish we fed,

  

                                                And the birds we saw,

And the dinosaurs sunning themselves on the banks of the pond.

Whoa.  Calm down!  I'm just kidding.  

We all saw Jurassic Park and know perfectly well that  they bombed that island at the end.  The only little survivors didn't look like this beast.  It's just a Monitor Lizard.  

    Harrowing escape from the vicious jaws of the ferocious lizards accomplished (Kidding again.  They're totally harmless.  To humans, anyway.), we grabbed our bags and headed off to what will surely be one of the highlights of the trip for the girls- the overnight train.  

    Traveling overnight on the train in a sleeper car in the US is obscenely expensive.  We’d never do it.  But here it was about $150 for all four of us one-way.  

soccer!

The train is a great way to see parts of Thailand we wouldn't otherwise (the photo to the left is out the window).  

But most exciting for the girls, the back of the bench swings up at night to create a top bunk.They came in after dinner, whipped the beds together, and in we snuggled.  I’m lying in my bunk right now, wrapped in blankets, enjoying the (relative) peace and quiet.  It is a slow way to get about- a 17 hr. trip to Krabi instead of a 1 ½ hr. flight, but fantastically fun.  Granted, our ride probably isn’t quite as lux as the one on the Orient Express which was, I kid you not, parked right next to our train in the station.  Still, an excellent way to travel!

The Orient Express.  Now that's luxury!