T.I.T

Yesterday we packed up our luggage for a week (ish) and took Bus #46 to the train station for our 7:30pm train to Phuket.

About 30 mins before our train was to leave, we noticed that the departure sign listed our train number and departure time on track 3.  When we got to track 3, we found another train whose departure time was AFTER our train was scheduled to leave.  Confused, we asked an attendant and she informed us that our train was cancelled due to flooding.  She then told us to "take a bus".  The information desk (where buses are booked) was swamped with people who appeared to be in the same predicament as we were (though they didn't know it).  And, because these things happen in Thailand, all of the buses filled up before we could book ourselves a seat.

Lost and confused, we stumbled into a travel agency on a seedy street along the station where they offered us plane tickets to Phuket today for about the same price as the train/bus combination.  We bit... $150 US and one day later, we are high and dry in a hotel room in Phuket where everything is more expensive, and the main drag looks like a cross between Waikiki and Vegas (hookers, lady-boys, and all).

But, after all, This Is Thailand.