Good lord. What was supposed to be a 12hr overnight train ride turned into a 24hr ordeal. The train from Bangkok to Nong Khai departed on time, and I was supposed to arrive at 8:25am, but when I woke up, we were stopped and nowhere near Nong Khai. Due to heavy rains during the night, there was flooding along that tracks. It took us a while to figure out what was going on, due to language barriers. There was talk about waiting for a free shuttle to take us to the next train station, and then there was talk about paying for a truck to take you to the next town, and then there was talk about the train we were on would go back to Bangkok....it seemed like such a mess. You would think there was a standard procedure, but there didn't seem like one.
But in the end, I took the free shuttle, and was able to get on the next train, so total time delayed was probably 6 hours. I met a couple other travelers, so it wasn't so much of a lonely ride: one girl from Belgium and a couple from New Zealand.
When I finally arrived, the head of the volunteer organization, along with two other volunteers, were there to pick me up. They were kind enough to drive my new friends to a hostel as well.
So glad everything worked out!
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