Segment 3: Hat Yai to Bangkok

Red Planet Hat Yai is around 500 metres away from Hat Yai Train Station and I arrived there after a short walk to embark on the longest segment of this trip..





Hat Yai is southern Thailand's largest city but ironically isn't the capital of its province Songkhla. Its history is intertwined with the development of railway in the region; being the site of the rail transport hub turned Hat Yai from a small village in 1922 into a major commercial centre now.





Plenty of trains passed through Hat Yai Junction daily and three of them made it all the way to Bangkok. Out of the three, I chose to travel on Special Express CNR 32 which uses the newer carriages built by CRRC.



My train was already at Platform 1 and I didn't take long to find my carriage (Car 11).



The carriage is an air-conditioned second class sleeper and it consists of 40 bunk beds. The lower bunks are slightly wider than the upper bunks and cost slightly more; I paid 1105 THB (~32 USD) for a lower bunk. Booking through State Railway of Thailand's dticket app was easy enough.



The crew came around and distribute small bottles of water. It was definitely insufficient for the entire journey to Bangkok and luckily I brought a 1.5 litre of water along for the trip.



I noticed that there were three different types of train crew: the first type were in khaki uniform with peak caps and their only job seemed to be checking tickets. The second type of crew were in white shirt and black pants and they were in charge of converting the seats into beds. The third set of crew were wearing blue uniform and they were the ones doing all the cleaning.

The train departed Hat Yai on time at 5.45pm and we rolled north towards Bangkok as the sun was setting in the horizon. The first set of crew came around and checked for the tickets and directed my seat mate to the correct one.



The second set crew came around after that and began to convert the seats into beds. They were really fast and probably took less than two minutes for each bed.

Each bunk was equipped with a reading light and a plug. I could charge all my items during my long journey north.



Despite the on-time departure, we reached the next stop Phatthalung 10 minutes late. I believed that it was possible to purchase dinner from the crew but I didn't understand enough Thai to get any.

I fall asleep easily to the rocking motion of the carriage but did wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.



Each carriage had several screens which displayed the trip information. I learnt that the carriage temperature was kept at the chilly 21 degrees Celsius.



I woke up to the green Thai countryside. We were already behind schedule, arriving in Hua Hin 1.5 hour late.





Train crew were going around asking if anyone wanted to place order for breakfast at around 7am. I ordered chicken fried rice for 60 THB and it was delivered after Petchaburi at 8.45am.



After breakfast, I laid in my bunk until 11.30am when the staff forced me off and converted it back to seats. While we should have arrived based on the schedule, we were still more than an hour away from the destination.

While passing by the penultimate station Bang Sue Junction, the new Bang Sue Grand station came into view. The biggest train station in Southeast Asia, it will replace the ageing Hua Lamphong station as well as to be the terminus of the high-speed rail line from Lao border in the future.



The last stretch between Bang Sue and Hua Lamphong was through a very dense residential area and their laundry was definitely within my reach.

We finally arrived at 12.55pm after 19 hours of travel. While the train ride had been comfortable, it was nice to be back on firm ground again.



The staff were all busy unloading the used bedsheets for laundry.



Hitachi 8FA-36C (no. 4511) was the diesel locomotive which pulled us into Bangkok.





The portrait of King Rama V Chulalongkorn welcomed the passengers into Bangkok Station. The current King Rama X Vajiralongkorn is his great-grandson.



My day of arrival coincided with the birthday of the current Queen and there were signs on the exterior of the station.





Instead of continuing onwards towards Laos, I opted to spend a night in Bangkok. My hotel for the night was IR-ON Hotel, booked two nights before for 43.28 SGD (~31 USD). A combination of MRT and BTS and a short walk from Thong Lo BTS station brought me to this pretty unique property.



My room had plenty of character too.





I had a friend who's living in Bangkok and we got to hang out together. He and his wife brought me to a few places, including Hua Mum Night Market.



One of the top attractions of this night market is the restaurant with topless hunks in aprons dancing.



Our dinner was seafood in a bucket.





We ordered the large portion and it was a pretty satisfying meal.



Distance travelled so far: ~ 1,920km