Train Lesson 1: Check departure times

Yes, we had to learn that lesson evidently. We arrived at the Chiang Mai Train station ready to climb into bed and sleep all night, arriving in Bangkok refreshed and ready to explore! But that's not what happened. We believed our train was to depart at 7 pm so we arrived at 6 pm in pleeeeenty of time. I noticed a train there but didn't think anything of it. We sat at the little restaurant and ordered something to eat while Daniel took our tickets to check on our train. Meanwhile the train pulled away.....our train. Oh yes. We misread (or didn't even read) the tickets and discovered our train was actually to leave at 5:55. Maybe it was still there because they were waiting on us. Either way, it was gone along with our first class sleeper cabin. Daniel went back to the ticket counter and was able to purchase the last two available tickets of the night. A 9 pm air conditioned sit-up-all night rapid train. After being delayed several times, we finally left the station at 10 pm.
Bee was a real trooper through it all. She made friends with some seniors at the station who played peek-a-boo with her, hugged her, gave her treats and just "grandmothered" her for an hour plus. There was also this little old man who Bee friended all on her own. She kept going over to him, patting his hand, and right out flirting with him. He tried giving her his snacks for the train like fried pork rinds, and little sugar cube candies. The senior lady by us who spoke English couldn't believe how good Bee was with the older gentleman. She said that is so rare and we had a sweet girl with a beautiful heart. (insert proud mama moment here! )
We settled in on the train and pretty quickly started to doze off. I tried getting comfy with Bee sleeping on me...as comfortable as one can be when you know you'll have a sleeping toddler on you for the next 12 hours. Aye yi yi.....a very long night ahead!
Being a Rapid Train, it goes faster than the other trains do. This would be fine during the day, but at night not so much. It was very rocky and bumpy making it a very jarring ride. And we also happened to be just under the AC vent which literally had us so cold we were cuddling close to warm each other up. Brrrrr! I fell asleep a few times for 45 min to an hour each time. Daniel said he never fell asleep, yep rough night. We finally mad it to Bankok a little before 11 the next morning and we were SO glad to be getting off!

Next: 8 hours in Bangkok