A night in an overnight train

With the „Overnight Train“ we went on the third day of my Thailand trip around 5 pm from Bangkok in the direction of Surat Thani to Khao Sok Nationalpark. Spread over two wagons, we had several bunk beds in close succession. At first, the upper beds were folded up and the lower beds were set to normal seats. Around 6.30 p.m. someone from the staff came and prepared the beds for us. The lower beds were much larger than the upper beds and also looked much cozier.

The night we all more or less beat around each other’s ears. In total, I slept 4 hours that night, while others only slept for two hours. Because the beds were so narrow, you could hardly move. In addition, the bright ceiling light was not switched off at night. We had a curtain in front of our beds, but this did not really help.

Shortly before five I was finally awake. It was planned that the train would arrive in Surat Thani at 5.30 am. However, the train was a little late, so we didn’t arrive until 6.30 am.

Off to Khao Sok Nationalpark

After we got off the train, we left all our luggage and kept only a packed backpack with us for the coming night. Afterwards we went to a small café for breakfast. Directly afterwards we drove on two buses for an hour to Khao Sok National Park. During the trip we could see a lot of Thailand’s culture, people’s ways of life and nature.

Arrived at the national park we took a small boat, which brought us to our accommodation. After an hour’s drive across the water where we could enjoy the view over the national park, we arrived at our accommodation for the coming night. That night we stayed in „Floating Bungalows“. Here there was nothing more than the bungalows, a bathroom and a cabin where we ate. Also we had no wifi or reception, but that was completely fine for us.

Spending time in the water

First we put our things in our room and then jumped directly into the water. In the water it was almost as warm as on land. At 12 o’clock there was lunch. Right after that, some of us borrowed a kayak. With the kayak we paddled to the other side of the water. There we took off our life jackets and jumped into the water. After a short swim break we paddled on.

In the meantime, however, our arms were slowly getting tired and due to the fact that we were swimming in the water for a while, our sunscreen was of course completely washed off. An hour and a half after we left, we were back at the bungalows. Of course, we had all gotten a sunburn on our arms and legs. The rest of the afternoon we spent with floating tires in the water. For safety reasons, we had to have a life jacket with us all the time in the water, which was of course very annoying.

Before dinner we played a round of cards together and then I went to take a shower. The shower was just a shower hose in the toilet under which there was a large bucket, which was already overflowing. Of course, washing your hair there was a big challenge.

At 7 pm we had dinner. After dinner we all gathered on a large jetty and played a few more games. The games we played were „Mafia“ and „Black Magic“. Especially „Black Magic“ was quite overwhelming because you had to find out how the game works in the course of the game.

Stars in the middle of nowhere

Around half past 10 we slowly went to sleep. But I still unpacked my camera and took pictures of the starry sky. At 12 o’clock I was finally in bed. The starry sky in the middle of nowhere in Thailand was just so beautiful that I couldn’t get enough of it.

In the morning the alarm clock rang again at just before six, because we had to leave the national park by boat at seven o’clock to make our way to Koh Pha-ngang.

If you would like to know what I experienced during my time in . Please read my next blog post Beautiful Sunsets and Fullmoon Partys in Ko Pha-ngan – Thailand Travel Diary.