Advertisement
Published: March 5th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Today marks the 5 month mark since we left Toronto in August. In someways, it is hard to think that it is just that long - it seems we have done so much and more time must have passed. We are now 6 months from our planned return date. We are still all healthy (touch wood) and our finances, which was a big concern at the start of this trip, are holding out fine as we still get our regular pay cheques during this “4 over 5” year.
After breakfast at our favourite cafe, we order box dinners for the train from the same place and head back to the hotel to pack and sort out the mailings. I have had a chance to read some of our new Egypt books and also begin to look into the following leg of the trip, Greece. One possibility in Europe is doing a lease though Renault rather than a rental as it works out to be a bit cheaper.
Evy headed out, laden with boxes, to do our mailings while I supervised Benjamin and Joshua doing the last of the packing for the train. With no sign of Evy at 1:30,
we loaded the bags down into the lobby and check out. After some time of waiting, Evy showed up out of breath and very upset, still carrying all the packages she had left with an hour ago. Apparently, it had come to more than she expected and when she went to use the bank machine to get money, it had debited our account but gave out no money. This is the second time that this has happened to us in Thailand (it turns out also to be the same bank). We got the hotel front desk to place a call to the bank for us, in order to navigate the Thai menus. The answer that they got was that the bank would make the correction and that the machine “would know” that it had not given us the money. Not the most reassuring news, but it was getting late and we had to get to the train.
As the train station is just across the road, it was not worth getting a taxi, though with all the packages to carry too it was quite a task in the heat to get everything there. When we did get there, our
train turned out to be of a considerably older vintage than the last train - and not air conditioned. This must be why this train had not filled up. As we piled our stuff aboard, Benjamin noted the broken call button by our seat (hanging off a spring) and aptly noted “I guess they don't want anyone disturbing them “. Once we had everything aboard, I ran out across the street to the restaurant to get our boxed dinners along with some water for the trip. With the iphone, we were able to check our account online and see that the bank here had indeed withdrawn the money that Evy had not received. We made a call to the Thai bank again and were told that they would make the correction but to let our Canadian bank know as well. It was very hard to hear them with the train departure whistle blasting every few seconds.
With Joshua reading his new “Archie” comic book and Benjamin finishing up the last of some school work, we began to leave Chiang Mai behind. Once the train left the station, it was a bit less stuffy with all the windows down and
the breeze blowing through. The open windows did have one advantage, in that they are much easier to take photos out of than solid glass.
The settlement leaving Chang Mai is continuous, though not as closely packed as what you see looking out of the window leaving Bangkok. Gradually we left the city behind and were in farmland with mountains in the distance. At several points we passed small brush fires by the side of the track, with apparently no one around watching them. With the lurching of the train, our bags were falling off the carrier and I had to borrow some rope from a young Israeli in the seat behind us.
As the hills in the distance began to come closer, you could see that some of the trees had orange or yellow leaves, likely due to the dry conditions. This gave an effect not unlike when the leaves change colour at fall in Ontario. It was a bit strange to see a similar looking landscape so far from home.
As well as the trees, the grasslands we passed really demonstrated how hot and dry this part of Thailand is at this time of year.
I think when you are in a city, you can't really see the seasons or the weather in the same way as there is so many fewer green spaces to reveal the effect of the climate.
With the train climbing a continuous grade now, we were getting bust of diesel fumes in the cabin with each curve and switch back. The train passed over numerous high trellises perfect for taking photos without the trees in the way. At one point we reached a hilltop station and I realized that this was all a national park that we had been traveling through.
After the park, the train cut through a long cool tunnel and we seemed to appear in evening on the other side, as if the change had happened while we were in the dark.
The Israeli, who had lent us the rope to tie up our bags, was now in conversation with a pair of English girls across the aisle. In listening to them, I realize that we haven't really done as much meeting of other travellers on our trip as you would if you were travelling alone or as a couple. Our family status, seems to make us a bit self-contained which isn't always a good thing.
Relatively early in the evening, the train staff came by and made up the beds. We were still climbing though mountains as darkness fell, and you could see the landscape briefly lit up by the locomotive lights as we rounded each curve, cool air filling the cabin.
I took advantage of the hour to read our Egypt books cover to cover in hopes of sort of getting a handle on the country which we are due to visit in a mere 5 days.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.051s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0331s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb