Decided to head to bangkok in the morning as I wanted to get there ahead of time before the mass of people decend upon the capital for the Kings birthday on the 5th. Theres really nothing else I want to do back there but I've always missed the celebrations before and would be a shame to again. So gathered everything and had Pon drop me off at the bus station for a local bus that drove the 20 minute ride to the Thai border. Bus is a liberal term here and its really just 30 people crammed into a stretch van. I had about a quarter of a seat and the edge digging into my ass for 20 minutes. It was a pretty shitty 20 minutes. After that though the process is painless just waiting in lines to get stamped out of laos and then again to get stamped into Thailand. From the thai side the train stations only 2 minutes away where I had a 4 hour wait for my train. Could have been brutal but I went across the street and was lucky enough to meet and english guy to chat with and waste away the time. 

      Four hours later I'm boarding the train car ticket in hand for my SLEEPER section lol. Never again will I do the seated 11 hour trip screw saving a few bucks. These seats turn into full beds when they get taken apart by staff around 8pm. Until then I traded stories with a guy from the UK which is always fun. Was kind of disappointed when they started doing the beds right away as then everyone has there curtains up and if your not tired its quite boring. Just tossed and turned for hours until finally sleeping the remaining 7 hours of the trip away. Hell of alot better than being awake for 12 hours sitting down.

      Arriving in Bangkok I was very happy to be off the train was a little ansy getting off as I stepped out while it was still going a bit. Coming to bangkok specifically for the Kings birthday it was interesting to see things already getting prepared in places you wouldn't expect. The entire train station had been transformed into a Tribute to the king and even a specially painted royal yellow train with an interior fit for royalty was being prepared to look pretty on one of the tracks. Flowers lined it all the way around and I'm sure alot more decorating was to come. 

     This train station just has so many themes going on. Its a giant airplane hanger looking structure on the outside with tracks running threw it and now it has a museum like interior....

      Made my way to the front of the station to get a taxi but the taxi stand had an insane line so I just grabbed a moto at a inflated price but alot quicker. It being only 9am I was pretty sure that rooms would be full of people who hadn't checked out yet so need to stall a couple hours. So it was great running into the same guy from the train to kill time. Went and found some place to eat and gave the staff a laugh as I wanted a burger even though it was 9am. They made it though, so awesome. While its always nice hanging out with good company I was really relieved when the time came to go check into a room and drop my bags for a bit. Same place as before so my laptop even had the wifi code remembered which made relaxing a breeze. and so here I am finishing up 3 days of holes in the blog and trying to figure out what to do today.