A trip

I stayed a few more days at the Monastery before making the trip back to Bangkok. Half waiting for my replacement credit card and half relaxing, I think my time there was well spent.  My money was running lower and lower and endless conversations with Mastercard were not getting me any closer to having a replacement card arranged. Sister Nathinee kindly befriended me and offered to lend me money to get back to Bangkok, for accommodation, 'whatever I needed' she said. I was really taken aback that she was offering to trust me with her money when she clearly didn’t have much. I couldn’t decide if this meant I was really lucky or really down and out, I settled for feeling fortunate and well taken care of. 

When the call came that my card couldn’t be delivered for a further five days (urgh!) Sister Nathinee helped me get to the train station and somehow wrangled me a ticket on the last train even after I was told it was sold out. Days like this make me feel truly blessed. I sat next to a young funny Thai guy all the way to Bangkok, clutching my bag to my chest the whole way, determined not to get robbed again while I slept.

Way back at the end of November, during my second week in India, I met a great girl from Seattle called Diane who reminded me what traveling is all about. She left India to head for Europe and I came to south east Asia, and we met up again on the fifth of March in Bangkok. I knew she had arrived at the hostel when I heard her reassuring the staff that I was in fact not her friend, and that they were mistaken. It was too funny for words.

We hung about in Bangkok for a while, finally sorting out my money situation, posting luggage and getting new passport pages. Thoroughly sick of the city we headed north on the day train to explore the temple ruins of Sukhothai. It was so beautiful, too beautiful!