Advertisement
Published: December 25th 2007
Edit Blog Post
LONG TRIP BY EXPRESS TRAIN TO BANGKOK
All I can say is if you do this train journey be prepared for a 13 hour trip. It starts off fine and they give you morning, afternoon tea and lunch - no dinner. "Express" is an exageration as the last three hours into Bangkok are painfull, with many stops and waiting around for unexpalined reasons. The first 7 - 10 hours are fine with excellent scenery, the reason I took this mode of transport and it is fairly comfortable. I booked two seats so that I had plenty of room, something I highly recommend. The train starts off nearly empty but after Sukkothai it is a full house. You can walk between cars to stretch your legs and the toilets are very clean, the staff are washing floors and cleaning all the time. I would only do this trip again if I had a stopover along the way at a spot like Sukkothai - an ancient city worth viewing.
Believe it or not when I hopped on the train there was Nathan from the previous day's rafting trip and his parents on their way to Sukkothai sitting right next to me.
Nathan's parents gave me some more hints about places to see near Chiang Mai like the Chang Dao Cave and the Lampthang Elephant Camp (need to investigate that and maybe see what Lek from Elephant Nature Park thinks about it). Nathan reckons the rapids at Chang Dao are great, looks like I will be back here again. Nathan and his family got off the train at Sukkothai at 1510 pm after leaving Chiang Mai at 845 am. Good timimg I would say for an overnight stay before heading to Bangkok.
I would suggest you need to take a large bottle of water and snacks on this train ride, an MP3 player and a PDA to write up your journal or blog. The scenery is magnificent, especially on the right hand side with the sunshine on another perfect day, hot outside but nice in the air conditioned train. There are rice fields glistening in the late afternoon sunset and jungles and mountains when leaving Chiang Mai. I do not regret doing this trip but I was so tired when we got into Bangkok at 2130.
Oh I was offered a taxi out front of the train station at Huompholong
for 800 baht back to Silom, about a 60 baht trip, I lost my cool for the first time and told him I could nearly buy his crappy taxi for that much - so I got the Metro Subway and Skytrain (they interchange - a great transport system) back to my hotel for about 30 baht.
SUHKUMVIT AND NA NA BY NIGHT - THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE VERY UGLY
I felt so good and revived after my evening meal and catching up with my friends in Bangkok and some more tears. Well I have been away for four days and I was tired and emotional - thats my excuse. It was decided to go on an excursion by subway and skytrain to Sukhumvit - had heard there were some interesting night spots in this area.
First stop was Sukhumvit and Soi Cowboy, about 300 metres long of bars and go go. Worth a look and close to the Skytrain station, bright lights and a peek at the seedy side of entertainment here. I will say now that I have never been into any of these bars except to have a look - I am a
tourist and it is my job to check out the night life here - truly - you guys at the diggers will not believe me.
Next stop was Na Na Plaza in Soi 4. There are three levels of bars and go go and I must say it it so sleazy here it made me feel uncomfortable. There was a baby elephant begging for food in the street and on the Sukhumvit road around to Soi 4 there are beggers everywhere with limbs missing - more beggers than I had seen anywhere in Bangkok. I needed to get away from here ASAP.
On the way back to the Na Na Skytrain station something good did occur with some Thai Christmas carollers, a nice touch after what I had just seen.
When I interchanged with the Silom line at Siam station there was a huge concert happening in the courtyard near Siam Paragon shops. Chritmas Eve concert I guess although the Thais are not really into Christmas, just another working day for them. They go through the motions for the tourists at a very low level, fair enough. Time for a couple more drinks before sleeping after a
very long day on the "Bangkok Express".
Advertisement
Tot: 0.054s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0226s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb