Our final morning in Bangkok was left for free time. Some used their time for shopping, others for sleeping, a small group went to an amusement park, while another group inspected the Grand Palace, home of the Thai Royal family.
In the mid-afternoon, the group boarded a State Railways of Thailand sleeper train to begin the return journey to Singapore. The first leg was a 24-hour journey to Butterworth in Malaysia – made somewhat tense by a student’s announcement immediately after we pulled out of the station that he had left his passport, cash, traveller’s cheques and identification in the video games room back at the hotel. Enquiries to an Immigration Official on the train established that nothing could be done until we reached the border crossing at Hat Yai.
The journey was far from the most relaxing train trip that I had ever experienced.
