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Published: January 30th 2010
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Evidently this pic was taken before our horrible overnight train journey from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.Part 2 of Thailand was crammed with loads of random stuff over the space of 8 days and i'll try and summarise below (but believe me it won't do it justice):
Chiang Mai So on Christmas day we decided to travel for the whole day from Siem Reap to Chiang Mai (you should really check out the distance between the two places because its mileage as we began to realise). So from Sieam Reap we caught a taxi to the Cambodia-Thai border which was random. Both me and Narj fell asleep on leaving out guesthouse to have our taxi driver calling us to get out the cab at the border. It was a little confusing (and I guess it didnt help much that both me and Narj were a bit dazed) but we kinda managed to figure out where immigration and border control was and we literally just walked across luckily dodging the lady checking peoples bags and suitcases. Not such a bad border crossing experience, no problems.
Then on the other side we made our way to the train station where we were going to catch a train to Bangkok (which took approx 7hrs). The train station
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Chiang Mai night markets. was deserted and we had a 3-4hr wait there before the train departed - great! I got bored waiting at the train station so I wandered off down the main road for about 10 minutes and I came across a Seven Eleven (the best Christmas present ever is what I though at the time). I bought some cold drinks, bread, cheese slices, cucumber, lettuce and small packs of butter - and off I went back to the train station where me and Narj had a delicious Xmas lunch of cool cheese sandwiches and crisps which felt so yum at the time considering we hadnt been able to get simple food for a while.
Train journey to Bangkok was a bit of a nightmare - it was roasting (no aircon), leather seats (god knows whose bright idea that was), the hardest seats ever, the slowest train ever (I could understand why it cost only a pound now), half open windows which let all the bugs and ash from burning fires in along the way (and there were quite a few burning fires). So lets just say it was a very uncomfortable train journey. However I kept myself occupied as I
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Cheesy I know - me in my zip lining gear ready for Jungle Flight pretty much read 'First they killed my Father: A daughter of Cambodia Remembers' cover to cover during that train journey - and I would highly recommend the book too!
So after an uncomfortable train journey to Bangkok, we stopped at Bangkok train station for KFC and boarded another train to Chiang Mai - an overnight train and we had booked sleepers in a fan compartment as the aircon section was fully booked. This was another nightmare journey for me, one which I didnt get any sleep. First I see 2 cockroaches on my bed, great I thought, I'm really gonna be able to sleep well now, then the chinese guy opposite me decides to take loads of photos of us on his massive SLR - again great, atleast he found it funny. It was really hot, then really cold i.e. uncomfortable. There were loads of little flies around me and in the morning when I got up I accidently bashed my head against Narj's metal bed which was above me - and I saw flashes of white light. So overall I would say my worst train journey yet. But it took us to Chiang Mai and that I have
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Narj falling out of a tree to be thankful for.
Right, finally I'll move on to beautiful Chiang Mai. The first thing you notice when you get off the train is that the temperature is much more pleasant and much more manageable that the hot weather we were experiencing in Siem Reap and Bangkok. Chiang Mai seemed appeared more lush and quaint - very appealing. And it didnt disappoint us one bit.
The town area itself was lovely to walk around. There were quite a few nice cafes we sat and chilled in and some beautiful temples we walked past - all golden. Even though we had no intentions of buying anything we kinda got carried away in the nightmarkets - which in my opinion were the best we had visited so far. There were just so many cute handicrafts and items to buy and all at reasonable prices, I just felt like buying everything for home but I knew there was no way I'd be carrying it all back with me. We spent an evening there and came back with a few bags of stuff which we had both justified in our heads as being mandatory.
During our second day at Chiang
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Unusual flowers in Thailand Mai we spent the day in the tree tops of the rainforest on ziplines - which was such a fun experience! At first I was a bit worried as the 2 guys who were meant to be ensuring our safety smelt of alcohol and were a bit too merry for my liking. However as the day progressed they seemed to know what they were doing although they did mess around quite a bit - like for example when doing a 40 metre fall they'd just quickly drop you then hold you for a bit, then think it was funny to scare you a little by just swinging you before quickly dropping you again. Evidently it was all for fun, which it was - great experience and we with with a nice bunch of people.
Bangkok (again) On the way back from Chiang Mai we caught the overnight train but this time had reclining chairs (not sleepers) and aircon (not fan assisted) - and the experience down to Bangkok was much more pleasant.
We had a day in Bangkok. Wanted to go to the Tiger Temple but we arrived into Bangkok too late as it would have taken
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A mandir in Chiang Mai 2.5hrs to get there and it shut at 4pm. So instead we spent the day pampering ourselves with massages. Then we randomly bumped into this guy called Kamal who we had met in Vang Vieux, Laos, and we ended up chilling with him in a bar which was nice.
Nothing much more to tell other than lots of relaxing....
Koh Samui/Koh Phangan & celebrating New Years at the Full Moon Party Koh Samui, Koh Samui, Koh Samui - I did like the island and our resort at the end of our time there. We checked into a really nice resort, figured we deserved a bit of luxury given it was New Years and it was needed, trust! Swimming in the pool felt great, walking on the resort's beach felt great, relaxing in our own private lodge (which they upgraded us to because they lost our booking ref on arrival) felt even better! Wow! And during the first evening we met up with our mate Sav (from our China tour) and his cousin Bijal - which was really cool. Sat at a beach bar/swing bar then went for dinner.
The following day was New Years Eve. Me
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Muay thai match which was very exciting to watch. and Narj thought it would be wise to check out of the resort and then check back in on New Years Day i.e. spend the night on the beach. It worked out quite well in the end. So we got ready and set off to the ferry terminal after having a bit of a faff with ticket prices. The town area was buzzing a little and it was really random because as we walked through the town we had random guys just shouting "Koh Phangan" or "Full Moon Party" at us - well I presume that's what everyone else was there for.
We caught a 25min speed boat to Koh Phangan, probably got there around 7.30pm and had arranged to meet Sav and Bijal there at some point. Me and Narj walked through the town area near the full moon party beach (sunrise/sunset beach) and my first thoughts we....'gosh this is crazy'! There was a really buzz in the air - not sure why exactly. Everyone seemed youngish and were pretty much just strolling up and down the streets getting drinks (or buckets as everything seemed to be sold in buckets), getting tatooes, or just generally walking around on
a high (although we did see some people already mashed).
And the beach - well the beach looked even more AWESOME and much more crazier! The setting just looked like the best place to have a really good night out - along a moonlit beach, with the sea, and a row of open bars/clubs along the beach all playing different music. Perfect! The night got a little crazier though - you had people juggling with fire, jumping over fires and skipping with a big rope set on fire - crazy was all I thought! One guy did it naked (which Narj captured nicely on camera). Saw so many people get burnt yet doing it again. Then there were fireworks being set off along the beach randomly - the guys we were with nearly walked into one randomly because you just didnt know where they were being lit.
So 'the guys we were with' were a nice bunch from Australia we had met in our resort earlier. Prath, Carl, Rohan and Chanker were all a good laugh and made the full moon party even more fun. We agreed to try and meet up with the boys later in our
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Emerald buddha trip when we hit Auz (which would be cool). Later we managed to meet Sav and Bijal - so there were quite a few of us I guess - very enjoyable!
Managed to do a bit of face painting, leg painting and arm painting - nice! Narj did my legs and arms nicely I must say. I painted on Narj and managed to scribble on the boys randomly. We both lit a lantern and made wishes then set it off in the air - which was sweet! We went down a slide - random. We gave the fire playing a miss, wasnt feeling up for it on the day (lol). And we did a bit of dancing obviously!
The fireworks at midnight were awesome! Atmosphere was awesome! People were crazy yet really nice and polite at the same time. It was a good New Years celebration! Ended it with crepes (with chocolate of course) and a mini disagreement with the ferry people before departing back to our resort.
And I couldnt sleep much during New Years Day - dont ask why. So I chilled on a sunbed on the beach reading whilst Narj went for a swim.
We did have a 3 hour nap then departed on Praths motorbike to the town for a really nice dinner! A lovely start to the new year!
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