Now we’re going to start doing some miles around this
country. Using some diverse types of transport.
Firstly, we had a taxi transfer booked at 8am to Koh Samui airport in
order to make our 945am flight to Bangkok.
This all went smoothly, we even landed earlier than scheduled. Always happens when you are in no rush
whatsoever, doesn’t it?!
Having collected our bags, we had the entire day to make it
over to Hua Lamphong, the main train station in Bangkok. It was very straightforward. The entire journey on the airport rail
connection and then transferring onto the MRT (Metropolitan Rapid Transit)
system cost only 65 Baht each (about £1.60).
We have been told that taking an overnight train is a
must-do experience whilst in Thailand, so we had booked our tickets to Chiang
Mai online when we were doing our mass booking in Koh Phi Phi. What you are actually paying for is someone from
the Asia2Go Office to take your money over the road and queue at the train
station to secure your tickets! But the
system appears to work. Alighting from the metro we were a few steps away from
the Asia2Go office where I showed our booking reference and my passport and in
return we were handed our tickets for tonight’s 735pm train to Chiang Mai! And the tickets cost less than £30 per
person.
We had achieved all of this and it was only 2pm. So, we found the left luggage office where we
could get rid of our big rucksacks for the day for £2 each and headed to a
coffee shop. I did some online
researching to see what tourist attractions were nearby and found the Temple of
the Golden Buddha was only a few streets away.
Sadly, I realised we wouldn’t be able to visit there today because I was
wearing shorts and they’re very strict in religious establishments here about
people covering their shoulders and knees.
Maybe we would just have to leave our tourism time in Bangkok for our
return in a week’s time. I decided
utilise the extra time to get some blogging done instead!
We ventured over the road from the train station to get some
Thai food for an early dinner. The station was impressive, inside and out:
We still had another hour and a
half to waste until 7pm came around and we collected our rucksacks and went to
board the night train to Chiang Mai.
I didn’t know what to expect, but it was amazing! We’d booked a second-class air-conditioned
coach which someone had warned us can get quite cold compared to outside. Our berth consisted of an upper and lower
tier, the lower tier had two seats opposite each other and a table which came
in handy for card playing until we set off. We were brought menus to select our
dinner and/or breakfast choices and people were walking up and down the aisle
selling snacks and non-alcoholic drinks (there is a strict no drink or drugs
policy on the train, enforced by scary looking guards). The start of the
journey out of Bangkok was understandably very slow. We stopped off at a few more stations to pick
up passengers and crawled past crowded intersections and lit-up shanty
towns. Being dark, I couldn’t get many
good photos but here’s what it looked like on the train:
Learning a few pleasantries in Thai as we go, you notice
that ‘kah’ is a word used to mean everything in Thai it seems. Thank you is ‘Koh ban kah’, hello is ‘Sawadee
kah’, ‘kah’ gets used A LOT at the end of sentences and the longer the word kah
lasts the better it seems. So, on the
train you would have the sellers going past with Pringles calling
‘chippie-chips kaaaaahhh’ and suddenly at 930pm one of the guards came down the
train shouting ‘bed time kaaaaah!’ The
staff then come and make your bed up for you, by force! There’s no arguing that it’s not your bedtime
yet… They make your bunk as cosy as possible in the circumstances with a
pillow, sheet, blanket and curtains for privacy. I took the top bunk as it was slightly
narrower than the lower one. I could
just about lie straight and fit both my arms on the mattress if I tilted my
pillow up! Simon wasn’t so lucky on the
lower bunk, he had to choose whether to bend his legs or his torso to get in
and keep alternating his position through the night! So, we were in bed for 10pm. Even wearing ear plugs, the hum of the train
was quite loud and the ride was not what I would call smooth, but it was all
about the experience. It was a shame
they didn’t dim the lights in the carriage, but I planted my face as firmly as
I could into the pillow to achieve a feeling of darkness and had a fitful
night’s sleep.
People started moving around 6am and then, as expected, at
7am it was ‘time to wake up kaaaah!’ I
went to freshen up and by the time I returned our booth had been transferred
back to normal seating so we could relax and enjoy the view as we headed
through the Thai countryside into Chiang Mai:
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| The front of our train heading round the bend... |
We had ordered a set breakfast of cookies,
fruit and coffee. There was far too much for us, so we took the extras for a
snack later on.
Right on time we pulled into Chiang Mai station at 840am and
were welcomed by a hoard of available taxis.
Only 200 Baht later and we were at the Duangtawan Hotel, a 4-star plush
number that Si had managed to bag because we have used booking.com so many
million times they gave us about 60% off the normal room price! But we were way too early for our room. Time for some blogging and to plan the
activities for our three days in Chiang Mai.
No spoilers….
 |
| No point in talking about the weather in Chiang Mai... |
We got into our room at 2pm, did some afternoon relaxing and
I visited the rooftop pool for an hour or so.
Having freshened up, the furthest we made it tonight was up to the 24th
floor where there was a very posh Chinese restaurant with the best view of the
city lights.
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