Day #148: The overnight train to Chiang Mai

---

I took the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Apparently this is not a popular way for Thais get there: the carriage was practically all Westerners and Japanese tourists, only one Thai woman travelling with her baby. It's not hard to work out why: the journey is supposed to take 14 hours compared to under two by plane, and flying is only slightly more expensive (cheaper, in fact, if you are clever with booking). However, I enjoy overnight trains and it seemed like it wouldn't be a bad journey, once I had worked out that the top bunk I had booked came down out of an aeroplane-style fold-down cupboard.

However, it turned out not to be such a great way to travel: the carriage was very cold and for some reason the lights are left on full all night, so the fluorescent strip light shone through my green bunk curtain and lit the whole cubby hole up leprachaun-green throughout, and it was the worst night's sleep I have ever had on a sleeper train. We were woken by the conductor at 7am walking through the train shouting "Morning!", even though the train wasn't due in until 9:55am. Still, I thought this was acceptable until I found out from a Thai-speaking English guy that the train was running 5 hours late (!) for reasons that were never explained, though the Westerners who had taken the train before said that was pretty normal for this route. The view from the train was beautiful as we crawled through rural farmland and small villages, with sights like hens pottering around village platforms, cheerful bungalows and wooden huts lining the route. This kind of made the frustrations all the more disappointing, thinking how lovely a journey it might have been. No wonder the Thais all fly: the train obviously isn't a viable option if you actually need to be somewhere on the arrival day.

---