Stop in Chumphon (on the way to Bangkok)

Fnally found some Internet in a small restaurant suited to tourists.  With a little less than an hour remaining before we leave for the train station, we've found a cozy place that not only connects us with the rest of the world and calms us with reggae music, but also provides the opportunity to practice Thai boxing.

 

Hard to know what to do in these situations, but it's convenient that Thailand has evolved to the constant influx of western tourists that we need never worry that someone will hold our hand to the next destination.  Off the boat and there's a bus.  Off the bus and there's someone shoving a flier in our hands with directions to Internet while we undoubtedly need to wait the 5 hours or so along with the other tourists for our train to Bangkok.  They know our needs and are here to serve us and earn from us.  And when they aren't, there's always (always) a 7-11.

On the way to our 7-11 pit-stop for water, gum, peanut M&Ms, and strange Thai candies, we saw lots of street vendors and stopped to get a delicious fried banana crepe sort of dessert drizzled with condensed milk and sugar.  It was worth the 20 baht (~75 cents) to watch him expertly chopped the banana and work the dough.

Chumphon is a place on the way to another.  Everyone is moving somewhere, or drinking until they do.  The motorbikes are like fireflies at dusk.

In a short while we will board the train and arrive in Bangkok around 6:30 tomorrow morning.  Who knows what will await us on the other end, but I'm sure in one way or another we'll be ushered to a host of opportunities suited to our needs and curiosities.