I had an appointment at Thai Immigration today, first to do a 30 day extension at LakSi Imm and next to change to a Non-O at the Div-1 complex. I decided to take the train because it goes directly to LaSi station and I am staying close to the train station. I left 2 hours early. Boarding time was around 10 minutes after train was supposed to depart, then the train sat for 40 minutes, and I started realize I was going to miss my appointment since the train was leaving an hour late. So I asked one of the guys when we were leaving, he said the Train has no engine??? — so they just let people sit there for an hour and don’t tell anyone that the train is going nowhere!!!
I saw there were trains departing on other tracks. So I took it upon myself to find one that stops at LatSi station. I found an express, and they said that it would arrive at around 10 minutes before my appointment at the LaKSi Imm. Shortly after that train started to move, it stopped at sat for around 20 minutes. So I ended up 3 minutes late for my appointment, and the Thai Imm said sorry, my appointment was canceled. I will have to get a number and wait. Luckily it was not crowded at all and Imm staff me processed quickly, else I would have missed my 2nd appointment for my Non-O visa.
So what I learned is, if I want to take a short train ride from the Bangkok train station, better leave 3 hours early if I want to get to my destination on time. But nope, I will just take the BTS Skytrain instead, like I should have in the first place.
ps: I have lived in many countries and Thailand is the best, and I am grateful to be here most of the time. Just frustrating sometimes.