Tham Lot and Train Journey

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Hello!

Last, Tuesday we got a bus to Tham Lot which as we said in the previous entry is further into the Country. We asked the driver many a time whether the bus actually stopped at Tham Lot (thinking it was a town/village) and he assured us that it stopped at Tham Lot, however, we pulled up in the town of Soppong and luckily I saw a sign for the Lodge that we were staying at! Which meant we were meant to get off here! So, we got off the bus in the middle of no-where to then be told that the only way to get to the Lodge was by scooter taxi. Now, neither of us had ever been on a scooter at all, apart from Nicole who has ridden one herself. We had our massive bags and another bag each, but we were assured that it would all be okay. And to our surprise it all was okay!! In fact we both very much enjoyed the ride! The Lodge was just lovely, exactly what we needed after coming from the City, it was remote and quiet! The first day we just chilled and relaxed, the second day we went white water kayaking which was really good fun! We went through this massive cave which was just incredible, it blew us all away by it's vastness! And the third day we relaxed once again, we went for a walk and saw the local school and the nearby village which was great to see. We also saw some cows and they were all wearing bells!

On Friday we headed back to Chiang Mai as we needed to be there to catch the train on Saturday back to Bangkok! The bus journey back to Chiang Mai was much nicer than the one that we got on the way to Tham Lot. We found a nice place to stay and found some tea to eat! On Satuday we went to Doi Suthep, this is a Temple in the Mountains. This was really quite interesting as there were many Buddhists there praying and doing circles around the Buddha. There was a good view of the City, however, it was a little spoiled by the pollution.
This is where the stressful part begins! We were all having a lovely relaxing afternoon in preparation for our over-night train journey that we thought left at 9pm. We were sat having a drink and thought it would be good to just check the train tickets, UHOH....we then realised that our train left in 15minutes, 4.30pm was the actual time of our train. So we got a taxi and grabbed our bags from the Guest House and sped to the train station (in rush hour)! As the minutes seemed to fly by our hopes began to fade that we would actually get the train. We got to the train station and yes, the train had left. The ticket man advised us that the train would be stopping at Lampang at 7pm and that we could get it from there, well that was very kind and helpful of him! However, it takes an hour to drive to Lampang...never fear a very kind man in his tuk tuk crammed us in to his tuk tuk and drove us to his house, he then got a lovely big double-cab pick-up out of his garage and we were off! Luckily we made it to Lampang with an hour to spare. When we got onto the train we were pleasantly surprised at how roomy it was! Nicole did not travel well however, and we are now having a bit of a rest in the Guest House we are in, in Bangkok!

So, there is no need to worry about us, we will NEVER miss a train again....PROMISE!!
We are flying to Vietnam tomorrow and heading down South throughout the next few weeks!

Hope you are all well,
Lot's of Love,
Anastasia and Roseanna
xxx

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Comments

[g and g]

trains!!
Had to happen some time!! Glad you are ok. Take care love G&G.