Thailand Part 1 - Bangkok

To keep myself occupied during the long journey from Bangkok to Chiang Mai I've decided to write a blog post. I'm on holiday in Thailand with my mate Jack and we are currently on the 'express' sleeper train that was supposed to have taken 14.5 hours, but in keeping with the Thai's way of relaxed living we've been going for 16.5 hours so far with extended stops at most of the stations on the way.

30/11

We arrived in Bangkok at 17.15 local time, 24 hours after I left my flat. We had a change of flights in Hong  Kong meaning the flying time was longer than if we had flown direct. With watching a few films and having a sleep, the flight didn't actually seem very long though.

My first impression of Bangkok while travelling from the airport in a taxi was that there were a lot more high rise buildings than I expected. Other things I noticed were that lane control on the highway doesn't seem to exist and that big trains go right through the centre of city centre junctions. During our taxi journey I experienced my first bit of Thai food. Our taxi driver flagged down a food seller wandering through the traffic and bought something off him. He took one bag for himself and passed the second bag back to us to share. It turned out to be banana fritters and was a good snack to fill the void between lunch and dinner.

After checking in at our hotel, Viengtai Hotel, we went for walk along Khao San Road. This is a narrow street popular with backpackers full of bars, restaurants, clothes shops and street vendors selling everything from coconut ice cream to dried scorpions on sticks. While we walked down the road I lost count of the amount of times I was asked if I wanted a tailored suit or a ride in a tuk tuk. My answer was no everytime and probably will be for the rest of the holiday!

We grabbed some food in a small restaurant (the Orange something?) and had some amazing Pad Thai and the obligatory Chang beer. Before turning in for the night we went for another beer in a balcony bar over looking the busy street, giving us the perfect opportunity to do some people watching.

01/12

I felt surprisingly fresh when I woke up the next morning and had no signs of jet lag. Over breakfast we caught up the sad news that two people had been shot during a clash between the anti government protesters and government supporters. It had happened on the other side of the city to where we were staying at we figured that if we avoided Rajdamnoen Klang and Democracy monument (the main focus of anti government protesters) we would be safe to explore Bangkok.

We headed over to the Chao Phraya river and headed down to Wat Phra Kaeo and the Grand Palace, passing through lots of little markets on the way. As we were wearing shorts we had to borrow some funky pants to be allowed in. I thought mine quite suited me but Jack wasn't too keen. You'll have decide for yourselves when I put the photos up! After looking around the amazing Grand Palace we went to look around Wat Pho. To get here we went past the Ministry of Defense and this was the first sign of the effect of the protests. A line of soldiers were guarding the outer fence, standing behind a coil of barbed wire. Thankfully there weren't any protesters around at the time.

After looking around the temples we got an express boat back up the river to our hotel. We picked up our bags and got a taxi to Hua Lamphong train station. On the way to the station we passed several road closures due to the protests but didn't really see any large crowds.

We arrived at the station a couple of hours before our train but eventually it appeared on the departure board. We had allocated seats/beds in 2nd class which meant we were in a shared carriage, but it was surprisingly private and the beds were quite comfy. There were four beds in our area. There was me and Jack, one empty bed and Ron. Ron was a retired American who had spent several years living in England. He was travelling with his son to a circus school. This wasn't his first trip to Thailand and he'd done a lot of travelling around the world so his many stories kept us entertained for hours.

02/12

I actually managed to get a few hours sleep over night despite regularly waking up when the train suddenly jolted or became noisy.

This morning we were due to arrive in Chiang Mai at 10am. It's now 1pm and we've just been told we are 15 minutes away. So hopefully we'll be there within the next hour! Not sure if it's regularly this late or it's anything to do with yesterday being  the first day the line was open after being closed for 2 months for track replacement work. It's been a good experience though and there was some great scenery this morning. I'm glad we've done it, but I won't be doing it again anytime soon.

Update: We eventually arrived in Chiang Mai just before 2pm.