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October 19, 2005
Heading for Koh Payam
Tuesday afternoon most of us at Child’s Dream departed for various destinations—Koh Payam for myself, Hanoi for Pam, back home to Hong Kong for Gene (Pam’s friend), and I forget where for the rest. Pam, Gene and I were all heading to Bangkok on our first legs of our journeys, so we took an overnight sleeper train together down south. At Marc and Daniel’s suggestion, we picked up three bottles of wine, various cheeses, and a box of assorted crackers. It was also Gene’s 33rd birthday so Pam organized a cheesecake complete with candles, Christmas balloons, and a ‘Happy Birthday Gene’ sign.
Once the train got underway Pam and I pretended to hit the restaurant carriage while Gene grooved on his iPod. This is where the fun begins. Pam couldn’t blow up the balloons so I had to do that while she tied them to a piece of yellow thread. The wind in train carriage was strong so we could not light the candles. But it was all worth it as Gene was genuinely surprised as we greeted him with the cake, balloons and a weakly sung ‘Happy Birthday’.
Then we started on the cheese cake and broke out the wine. We had to compensate for a slight oversight: no plates or utensils. It is quite a messy affair to eat cheesecake on a bouncing train with only a Swiss army knife and shreds of cardboard substituting for plates and spoons. But it was certainly tasty! As were the three bottles of wine, one white and two read, which went very quickly.
(Picture removed because Pamela threatened my life.) By the time we did finish the wine off, we were the only people on the train having fun. The Aussie couple forward of us ignored us so much that they resisted taking a picture at our request. After Gene and I got into a little political debate about the Bush administration, the two French creeps just stared at us in amazement until I toasted them with my wine glass and smiled. Pam started off with a small wine spill on her shirt, followed through with a few slashes on me and the floor, dropped her hair bungee out the train window during a stop, and finished up with two major spills onto her own legs. Then she broke out the brie and got really messy with it—eating the cheese like a two year old without a bib.
More booz was definitely necessary, so I headed down three cars to the ‘party carriage’ where the katoey barmaid begged us to come hang out down there. “We need to stay near our luggage” was my defense making a quick exit after buying a bottle of “Piper 100” (the label actually reads “100 Pipers”) and three cokes. After one round it became clear our dear sloppy drunk Pamela was finished for the evening after she hurled out the train window.
Gene was the gentleman in this case, and held her at the window, patted her back, put her in bed and gave her sympathy. I played the insensitive bastard role by just taking a few photos.
With the Piper 100 only a quarter gone, Gene and I retired to the smoking lounge (aka: the space between two carriages) to discuss politics, Hong Kong, and other interesting tidbits. In his drunken stupor he offered to let me stay at his flat the next time I’m in Hong Kong (November). I certainly hope he remembers! Once the whiskey was finished we headed for bed. Pam woke us up at about 0600 with ‘Are we there yet? It is almost six!” The train was due into BKK at 0605. My connecting train was at 0745 and Pam’s flight at around 0845. It was going to be tight for them, but I was surely fucked.
Pam and Gene got off at the airport and I certainly hope they made there flights. An hour later I pulled into the Bangkok train station at 0915 with a hangover, heavy beard growth, and no tolerance of sunlight. After exchanging my ticket for one tomorrow I headed for the Ambassador hotel to catch some much need sleep. Blah.
(Somehow I think Pamela is going to demand that I edit this blog entry a little heavily, so enjoy it while you can!)
Posted by stu at October 19, 2005 05:53 AM