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Published: February 1st 2006
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Ping River in Chiang Mai
overlooking the Ping River on my 1st day in Chiang Mai It's Monday evening, January 30 and time to get you up to date...
My last blog entry left off with me leaving Bangkok on a sleeper train bound for Chiang Mai (city north of Bangkok - 13 hour train ride).
What's it like on an overnight train ride? First off, let me give you the logistics. To my knowledge, there are 3 classes of seats on Thailand trains. My train car was a 2nd class sleeper with A/C. The car included pairs of padded seats facing each other that convert into two fold-down berths, one over the other. The lower bed had more headroom and the window. The upper bed was pretty small and tight with no view out the window. Unfortunately for me, I had an upper berth. Doh! The cost was 691 baht (about $17)
The experience on a sleeper train in Thailand is largely impacted by those around you. Do they speak English? Are they friendly? Do they snore!? As for me, I was sharing seats with 3 Thai girls that didn't speak any English. You might think that is a bad thing. However, I got a kick out of watching them interact. They were
Sleeper Train
Bangkok to Chiang Mai 2nd class sleeper train. This picture shows train seats being converted to beds. all talkative, animated, and a bit mischievous. We were the last in our car to convert the seats into beds. That's another interesting phenomenon - the transition from regular seating car to sleeping car. There's a peer pressure element to it. The decision to convert is made by each group of 2. Once one set converts from seating to sleeping though, the rest feel the pressure to make the move. This was reinforced by the train workers going up and down the aisles. They did the actual work of setting up the beds (with new linens, pillows, etc.). In the case of our railway car, this resulted in all of the seats being made into beds by like 9:00. I think our group of 4 held out to the end though. The Thai girls and I would look at each other from time to time, shrug, and just keep doing our thing. I was reading up on my Lonely Planet travel guide as usual and listening to my mp3 player. They were talking, snacking, etc. Eventually, I did get into bed although I'm not really sure why. It's not like I slept. Snoring was definitely going on nearby (where did
The Dragon
Chinese New Year Parade in Chiang Mai those ear plugs go?) and there would be jolts every once in awhile to wake you up just in case you actually did fall asleep. How did I feel about all this? Didn't mind a bit. I can sleep later.
I did talk a little with a couple of Canadian girls nearby on the train, and briefly with an Australian guy that I ended up spending quite a bit of time with since arriving in Chiang Mai. That transitions me into my arrival in Chiang Mai...
Chiang Mai. I really like this city. I arrived at 7:00 a.m. yesterday (was it only yesterday???) and while heading out of the train station with no hotel reservations or really any clue as to where I was going, I was approached by the Australian guy, Justin, who asked if I wanted to share a taxi into town. "Sure, I'm game. Where we heading?" He had reservations at the Eagle Guest House. We both went there and it looked like a dive.
He dropped off his stuff at the guest house, we made our way to an internet cafe and I let him know about www.travelfish.org, a great site with reviews
Parade
Chinese New Year Parade in Chiang Mai of hotels, restaurants, etc in South East Asia. It actually is better than the Lonely Planet travel guides IMO when it comes to reviews. The review on www.travelfish.org of Justin's hotel was not favorable and he made the decision at that point to not stay there. So there we are, two travellers with nowhere to stay.
The research online continued after he went to pick up his bags from the guest house and we started making some calls. It was here that we ran into problems. We made 5-6 calls. The better low budget places were all booked. Then I did some checking on Lonely Planet's message boards and found an obscure post about some good guest house options in an alley behind the Montri Hotel (well, we were at an internet spot right next to the Montri (which was booked)). So off we went to search the alley. Sure enough, there were a ton of places (most of which looked sketchy). But after turning the corner, there in front of us was a brand new 3 story apartment/guest house called Mini Cost (not sure how they come up with such terrible names out here). We inquired within (2
Mini-Cost hotel
My room at the brand new Mini-Cost located on an alley behind the Montri hotel ($17 per night) available rooms at 650 baht per night - around $16), checked out one of the rooms (big, new with A/C and hot water), and reserved them both. They needed to be cleaned before we could check-in, but hey, we had found lodging in a great location in the center of Chiang Mai.
I hung out with Justin for most of the day. After dropping off our bags at the Mini Cost, we started exploring the city. One of the first things we saw was a parade celebrating the Chinese New Year. It was pretty cool. I've attached some photos.
So who is this Justin? Well, as I mentioned before he is Australian. Justin had travelled with his fiancee for a couple of months (through Europe, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) and now was travelling on his own for another month in Thailand, Laos, and Malaysia before reuniting with his fiancee back in Australia.
Last night was the big weekly Sunday night market where they close many of the streets in the city center and vendors sell food, clothing, trinkets, whatever. I met up with a local Thai girl, Apple, who is a university student (tourism major) at Chiang
Apple with a puppy
Apple (yes, she's beautiful) holding a little puppy. Mai Rajabhat University who knows pretty good English. She showed me around the market. She's unusual in the fact that she has travelled quite a bit out of her country. She's been to Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Cambodia and is going to Europe next month. For a university student in Thailand, that's impressive. I did meet her parents who picked her up from the market but I'm not sure what they do for work. The fact that they have a car and she has travelled out of the country show they have more money than most Thai. In my opinion, she's also beautiful, but I am being cautious and good (of course!).
Anyway, today I wandered around town, took care of reservations for a hotel in Singapore, flight to Bangkok on February 3 (actually, I did that last night), and a hotel for my last 2 nights in Chiang Mai (the Mini-Cost is booked after February 1). Tonight I reconnected with Justin and we ate at a really nice restaurant called the House. This place is very high end with a big wine list. I must have dropped around 800 baht ($20) tonight and that's a lot for dinner
Libernard Cafe
A great hidden away cafe in Chiang Mai. Loved the banana pancake and 2 Cafe Latte's I had this morning ($3) here.
What's in store for tomorrow? I'm taking a cooking class. Yep, the guy who never cooks is going to be taking a Thai cooking class, learning to prepare such dishes as pad thai, chicken with cashews, mangos with sticky rice, red curry, and others which have escaped my mind at the moment. And I get to eat everything I cook. Ummm, I'm not sure if that's a good thing.
I better wrap this up. Justin and I are meeting up for breakfast tomorrow at 7:30. I found a great breakfast spot called Libernard Cafe this morning. I had 2 Cafe Latte's with my banana pancake at this place, and am looking forward to another round.
That's it for now.
Look! There goes Dave!
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Cindy Spady
non-member comment
Dinner
Okay, when you get home you are so teaching me how too cook some Thai food! Your journals are inspiring, Dave! I am so happy for you! :)