This Bangkok visit was just a quick stopover as we made our way from southern Thailand to the north - we'd be back later in our trip. We got straight down to business: stocking up on much needed items. Number one on the list was finding a spare pair of legitimate Havaianas in Bangkok - harder than it sounds. To spare boring you with details we eventually found a stockist: in the department store at Siam Paragon, behind the women's lingerie. Talk about a needle in a haystack!
Next on the list was sorting out transport to the northern city of Chiang Mai. We opted for the overnight sleeper train and since we're cheap and don't trust travel agents (especially around Khao San Road), we flagged down a taxi and headed to the train station. 10 minutes later, we'd figured out which train we needed and booked. Too easy!
Too easy, until we decided to head to China Town for dinner by tuk-tuk.
Now, Bangkok isn't a city known for rules, with a couple of exceptions: don't buy from Khao San Road and don't use tuk-tuks.
Jade ignores the advice and gets in a tuk-tuk. "It'll be fine" he says, I unwillingly follow and we head off towards China Town in search of street food. All is well until we turn a corner and start heading in the opposite direction. Our tuk-tuk driver then yells back to us 'I have friend, good restaurant, we go!'.
Jade and I look at each other. Shit.
"No, we go to China Town!" Jade shouts
"My friend, good restaurant"
"No thank you, we go to China Town" I yell
"Good food, China Town not good food" our driver says, ignoring our pleas
I start feeling panicky, I really didn't want to end up at some scummy little restaurant in the middle of nowhere, or worse!
"Ok, we stop!" I yell
"Good seafood restaurant, you like, my friend"
"Stop, we get off!"
"Stop!" I scream.
So much for saving face.
He shuts up. A very silent 5 minute ride later and he drops us off in China Town. We walk off in search of some dinner vowing not to take a tuk-tuk in Bangkok again.
We had most of the next day to explore the city a little before our train left for Chiang Mai in the evening, so we wandered around markets in and around the infamous backpacking ghetto of Khao San Road.
When the time came to head to the train station we flagged a taxi down. Several in fact - no one wanted to go there. Those that did refused to use the meter quoting us three to four times the meter rate. We eventually got an honest driver and took off, a short 20 minute ride in peak time traffic. But in that short 20 minutes I counted no less than five near crashes! Thankfully our driver had quick reflexes and managed to avoid the other cars coming towards us from every angle, it didn't stop us from gripping the seat and bracing ourselves every few minutes though! When we finally made it to the station it was packed with locals and tourists alike. Our train didn't leave for a while and the only seats we could find was up on the second level over looking everyone. We settled down and waited. 6 o'clock ticked over and the buzz of the train station was suddenly interrupted by a loud whistle. Everyone stood or stopped where they were and the station went silent. Then the national anthem started, blasting out from every speaker and TV for a good minute. As the anthem finished, the station came back to life and everyone carried on with whatever they were doing.
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| The busy train station |
Our train was finally called and off we went to find our carriage and seats. Not difficult: we were seats 1 and 2, right up the the front beside the toilets compartment. Uh oh. There were four beds in each section, Jade had the bottom, I the top and beside us an elderly Thai grandmother named Kae who spoke no English. Some awkward turtle moments followed as the lady sat there staring at us, not saying anything but she soon took a liking to Jade as he took out his Thai phrase book and attempted to introduce us. She also handed us a couple of banana leaf parcels she had in her bag, they turned out to be a coconut and rice mixture that is put into the banana leaf and cooked over a fire, they were pretty tasty.
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| Jade and his friend Kae |
When it came time to get some sleep a nice Thai man came round to make the beds. Yep, that's right he actually made our beds! He pulled out some flat pillows from a small cupboard, tucked a sheet around them and threw a pillow and a thin blanket on top. With that out of the way, I climbed up to my little bunk and lay down. It was like being gently rocked to sleep - just kidding. There is nothing gentle about it, the train didn't go that fast but with every slight bend in the tracks the train lurched sideways. This was going to be fun! Then the smell started to come. As mentioned before, we were right beside the toilets so every time someone opened the door to the toilet compartment the pungent chemical smell slowly seeped out. It was a smell that slightly stung the nostrils, and I may have had to do the lip gloss under the nose trick (Laura and Jess you know what I mean). Yes I was going to have a good nights sleep.
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| The nice Thai guy making our beds |
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| Me in my little top bunk |
I 'woke' the next morning and ate a terrible, cold 'western' breakfast, watching the northern landscape flash by. Jade sat with Kae and practised his Thai language skills for the rest of the morning. Kae ended up actually teaching him Thai and teaching us some useful phrases. A conductor came by and announced we'd be arriving very shortly.
After fifteen hours on a train with little sleep, a new friend made and some more Thai words under our belt, the train doors opened and we spilled out into the overwhelming heat. It was mid April - the hottest month of the year, and we'd arrived in Chiang Mai!
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