Thai Christmas

For most people here in Thailand Christmas day will be just another day; the banks will be open and it will be business as usual. Schools and colleges will operate normally. One exception will be Daruna in Ratchaburi, a Catholic school. In fact looks as though Christmas is gonna be a huge gig there involving road closures especially tomorrow when there will be a big Christmas party for the students. There are Santas, New Year bunting, people wearing Santa hats, but it will be largely just another day. A far cry from the shutdown in the UK

We are heading south on Christmas day to Hua Hin where we will board the sleeper to Malaysia in the evening. We will hopefully end up on the island paradise of Langkawi early afternoon on the following day. I like travelling by train in general and I particularily enjoy the Thai railway service and I love travelling by second class air conditioned sleeper. If you ever visit I recommend the sleepers. I also recommend you visit one of my favourite websites Seat 61, a true gem if you are interested in travelling the world's railways.

We will start off in huge seats, Luna will hopefully be in the one opposite me. At some stage the attendant will collapse the seats into two sleeping berths one above the other facing longways; each berth has drapes and we shall hopefully have a nice kip as the train gently rambles down to the southern border with Malaysia. And I really like Malaysia though Langkawi will be a new destination.

All being well we will go to midnight mass at Daruna; this will probably be said in Thai. Have some sleep and drive down to Hua Hin in the morning and meet up with some friends there and maybe manage some turkey in one of the expat joints. Take it nice and easy.

Last year I made a lot of money working in London and I worked Christmas day. It is nice being with Luna and it will be nice for us to spend a first Christmas together.