Bangkok to Chiang Mai

  Bangkok, Thailand
Sunday, May 4, 2008

I get up around 10 today and decide to check-out of the hostel and then head straight to the train station and see if i can get on the overnight train to Chiang Mai that night.  I leave my bag at the hostel in case i can't and jump on the Sky train and then the metro.  It is so easy to get around and i am at the train station before i know it.  I get inline and a lovely lady with a timetable and pictures of the different carrages comes up to me.  I find out that i want the 7.35pm train and 2nd class upper sleeper berth.  (the upper sleeper berth is cheeper than the lower and makes me feel safer - though these trains have a good reputation!)
Luckly there are berths available and i buy my ticket for that night.  I have a few hours to kill before i have to go back for my bag so i decide to go and see the emerald budda and the Grand Palace.  I have to walk through China town to catch the boat and get to see great architecture.  It is so different to India here, the streets are clean and don't smell, the people are friendly and i haven't been stared at once, i feel really happy just wandering through the streets.
I get on the boat and am sitting watching the banks of the river when a dutch girl asks me where she has to get off to see the budda.  We get talking and decide to go and visit the Budda together.  The temples here are much more fun than the ones i saw in India and are so brightly coloured.  We spend a few minutes walking around all the different rooms and sitting in the emerald budda room.  The emerald budda is a lot smaller than i though he would be and i am not that impressed, but  his house is very beautiful!
Unfortunately i have to leave before seeing the Grand Palace as i need to go and pick up my bag and get on the internet to book somewhere to stay tomorrow night.  It turns out that the dutch girl is also on the overnight train and so we arrange to meet in the train station before the train and i head back while she visits the Grand Palace.  (i'm calling her dutch girl as i realised when writing this that i never asked her name and she never asked mine!!)
I get back to the hostel in plenty of time and get on their internet.  I find a hostel through hostelbookers.com that has a 98% rating!  Am looking forward to this hostel!
The sky train and metro are not so easy with a huge backpack on, but i make it to the train station with plenty of time to spare.  I find the dutch girl talking with 2 english girls and we waste an hour before the train talking between us.  We take it in turns to buy some food for the trip and before we know it we are boarding the train!

Snug in my berth

We are in different carrages, but the dutch girl comes to find me around 8.30pm and we chat away until the porter comes to make up the beds around 9.30pm.  The beds are great, you get sheets and and cover, curtains and even a pillow!! 

The night train berths

I sleep well, with the motion of the train rocking me to sleep!
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