Gazing out over my new city.
We are currently in Chiang Mai . . . . my home for the next several weeks. There were a few things we needed to do to get here though. We went back to Bangkok from Kanchanaburi and our elephant adventure (having a bus adventure to get back, but that’s a whole other story!) We had heard about the night train to Chiang Mai and even though the train is 12-14 hours and costs just as much as a flight (which is 1 hour), we knew we had to at least try the train one way.
We had a day to kill in Bangkok, and I briefly thought about going to the Grand Palace (B-Rod knew he didn’t want to fight those crowds), but finally decided against it. Even though the 30 day mourning period for the king is over, there is still a sea of people wearing black, the markets are filled with black clothing being sold everywhere and there are bus loads of black garment wearing people brought to the palace daily to stand in lines blocks long to go to the Palace to pay their respects. There’s even a whole market size area set aside for food and drinks for the mourners. It’s actually quite interesting, but produces a lot of crowds and chaos.
In the end we rode the water taxis along the river, wandered around different areas and eventually ended up on the other side at Wat Arun which is also known as the Temple of Dawn.
The Grand Palace can be seen in the background on the other side of the river.
It finally came time to head to the train station, so we bid adieu to Bangkok and set out on our way. We were in a second class car which had top and bottom bunks. The bottom bunks looked more comfortable (they were slightly bigger and would have blocked the light out a lot better), but there were only top bunks available for our journey.
The train crew being briefed before our departure.
The train stayed as seats for the first few hours of the journey.
It was actually quite comfortable. There was a dining car (which we didn’t discover until later) and the bathrooms weren’t too scungy, but we were kind of interested by the fact that the toilets were basically a hole straight to the ground. So, we left some shiza on the rails in Thailand!
At some point the crew member designated for our car came by to set up the bunks.
From there, there was nothing left to do, but to try to get some sleep.
In the morning, the bunks were once again converted to seats and it was time to have breakfast and enjoy the view.
It was an interesting experience, but there was not a whole lot of sleeping that went on that night. I had been warned and prepared for a super cold (Guatemala bus cold . . . . DawnO & RobO will get this!) passage. I had all my layers ready, but it actually didn’t end up being too frigid. What hindered our sleep ended up being the clickety clack and bangety bang of the train (we were right above the wheels), the super loud smacking of the door beside us (whose latch was broken), Rocky’s fear of falling out of the top bunk, B-Rod’s concern over the constant inspections that different “official train looking people” had had about his bed prior to our journey, but it was mostly because of the light ( joke from Flight of The Conchords) that was kept on, shined right above us and wasn’t blocked out by the curtains that had a big gap at the top. Despite the lack of sleep and the crappy, pricey breakfast (can you say train robbery?) in the morning, it was a fun experience. However, we’ll both be flying on our way back to Bangkok!
We arrived in Chiang Mai a day early, but were readily welcomed by the guesthouse that I will be calling home for the next few weeks. We’ve spent the couple days here just walking around and becoming familiar with my new place. I’m staying in the centre which is surrounded by a moat. There are a lot of temples here that I’ll be busy exploring for the next little while.
The lanterns, I believe, are leftover decorations from the Yi Ping festival that was held here at the same time as the Loy Kathong festival.
B-Rod decided that it seems slightly safer here than in Bali to rent a scooter, and since we were heading on quieter roads, it would be ok. We headed up the mountain to Doi Suthep. A temple that everyone makes the trek to, and EVERYONE was there! It’s 15 km away from the city, up a windy mountain road, so B-Rod was super stoked. It’s a beautiful temple and has amazing views of the city below, but after awhile, we could no longer handle the wall to wall people, the complete disrespect for the cultural requests to be appropriately dressed and the utter disregard for the signs such as the ones that asked people (in several languages) to not hit the bells and gongs and to keep silence. What do you think was a constant sound in that temple?
Where’s B-Rod? The 306 step climb to the top. There were cute little girls near the bottom in ceremonial dress, phonetically singing ‘. . . come take your peeekture with me. . . 30 bhat. . . ‘
No room to move!
Rocky did do the shaking of the sticks to get her fortune.
If there are any fans of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” out there, B-Rod kept referring to Rocky’s fortune as a “shit bow”. I think it’s because one of the sticks flew out, preventing me from shaking longer . . . . I really do have middle luck!
We got back on the scooter and headed up past the temple, above the clouds and to a view point. The air was crisp and clean and it was quiet and beautiful.
From the craziness of Doi Suthep, we headed down the mountain through the city and 5 km south to Wiang Kum Kam. Wiang Kum Kam is a city that dates back to the 8th century and was the capital of the area until it ended up being flooded and completely submerged by the Ping river which suddenly changed course in 1296. It was accidentally rediscovered in 1984 and has had some restoration, but there are currently some land disputes, so not much has been done in the last few years. Maybe this is why the site is practically empty!! There were some small tour shuttles that would race past the various sites as the guide shouted into a microphone, but no one stopped to look around which meant B-Rod and I had most of the sites to ourselves!! It was amazing and we kept talking about how these structures at one time were brand new with a whole set of other people walking around on them. Pretty incredible!
Hello Chiang Mai . . . . nice to meet you 🙂
Trying to interpret "It's too long to get a lover". What is that supposed to mean?
Middle luck is good. Could be worse. Could be better too, I suppose. But look at all the cool stuff you get to do on a fairly regular basis! I think you have upper middle luck. Like, #27 instead of #22.
I can't have #27 Piddy . . . it was #22 that jumped out at me. I'm thinking middle luck is pretty good. Maybe upper luck would be just too much for me to handle right now!! Maybe some day 🙂