On my way, to Chiang Mai...

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We left Bangkok on Thursday 11th February - caught a taxi (metered - so much cheaper!) to the train station and waited for our overnight train to Chiang Mai.

The train station had a huge high ceiling with lots of red seats in the centre which as I found out were not attached to the ground when I sat on one with my backpack and it slid along the floor!

We got on the train early and foind our bunks. It was an old train, but the bunks had bedding and curtains and there was a fan shared between 4 beds. It was really hot when we got on the train, but got cooler once we were training along. Chris fell asleep as soon as the train pulled away claiming that he was going to write travel journal...

The journey was rickerty. I was on the top bunk and it wasn't very wide - felt at times as though I was going to fall out. The train kept stopping and starting, not entirely sure why but definately explains why it took so long to get from bangkok to chiang mai. We both slept quite well - in fact better than in bangkok.

The scenery change from bangkok to chiang mai was incredible - we'd gone from sandy looking villages to green green and more green. There were hills covered in trees, paddy fields and ornate temples sprinkled about. When we arrived in Chiang Mai after a 16 hour train journey we were rather skeptical that there would be anyone to pick us up as our train was over an hour late (it's like home from home with the train service!) But sure enough there he was holding up a sign HAGUE LAURA!

Chiang Mai is lovely, so much less noisy, less busy and more relaxed than Bangkok. There aren't many taxis, but still tonnes of tuk tuks and also another vehicle that didn't seem to be about in Bangkok. They're called Sawngthaew - they're red pick up trucks with a roof, you can hop on to them and they're cheaper than tuk tuks because they pick up along the way and just carry on driving and driving stopping at where the passengers want to get off.

After getting settled and showered at Family Tribal Trekking Guesthouse, we went for an explore of Chiang Mai. The city is split into the old and the new. We were staying in the old part which is surrounded by what is now the remains of the wall. We wandered up and down streets passing loads of travel agents who all offered the same things. We did enquire about a few trips but they seemed a total rip off. After a while Chris found Tony's Big Bikes (A British guy who rents out motorbikes) and was in his element! Before long, I was persuaded that a motorbike was a brilliant idea - we would use it to get to Lampang to visit the Elephant Conservation Centre which would have cost is 1300B each if we had gone via an travel agent.

For dinner that evening, we had some Thai chicken curry which was cheap and delicious! Our first day in Chiang Mai - time flies when you're travelling!

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