Last night we slept for possibly 2 hours in our comfortable Bangkok hostel bed. It just wasn’t happening for us. The fact we had a nap the second we got in didn’t help much but neither did the alarm that sounds just outside our window all night. Like ALL NIGHT!

Tired, starving and a little peeved that our one and only plug adaptor had just blown up from using the hairdryer, we went downstairs to hand in our key, get some lunch and ask if we could store our big bags for a few days in the hostel lock up. Today is the train journey up to Chiang Mai. We need to meet some random holding a sign and do the deal which sees him gain 300 baht and us two train tickets.

People are friendly in Thailand. All smiling and happy to help where they can, even if they know they can’t. This friendliness however can be all a little too good to be true. One man, innocently walking next to us started to tell us where to walk to see the best of the city.

How lovely.

He told us where to go and what to see and how much it would be if we wanted a Tuk Tuk to take us.

Ahhh.

But then, like magic one appeared, hollering at us to get in. We declined, many times, and walked away. This super sly commission hungry salesman was clever, but not the only one. It happened again two minutes later when another random pretended to take an interest in us before seemingly plucking a Tuk Tuk from behind his ear. They are very persistent.

When we finally decided we would jump in one we did it on our own terms. Negotiated a good price and told the driver exactly where to go.

This helped none!

Everyone must be on commission here because instead of our desired destination of China Town, we found ourselves at a tailored suit shop being sat down in their back room for a personal fitting. It was hotter than the devil’s sauna outside and neither of us could think of anything worse to stroll around town in than a three piece suit. So we hot footed it out of there, told the driver to behave himself and got to China Town.

After strolling around for 10 minutes and declining the offers of 20 or so Tuk Tuk drivers, we turned on to a very familiar road. The one road we started the morning on. Our hostel road. In fact we had just taken a Tuk Tuk no less than 100 meters but with a 5 mile round trip. We will be walking a little more from now on.

We headed to the station around 5pm to meet the anonymous ticket delivery man. To get there we had to cross that deadly road I mentioned yesterday. A non Asian couple (we stick out like a sore thumb here) managed to get across successfully in one smooth run. It was impressive. So much so we clapped them as they made it to our side. Feeling confident we then took the same approach. It worked. We were even given a thumbs up and a congratulatory head nod by another non Asian couple eyeing up their chance to cross. We are proper travellers now.

At the station we used our first public toilets in Thailand. We had to pay which was ok, it was only 2 baht (maybe 4p). But we made that old classic mistake of expecting toilet paper to be included in the price. How silly of us. That was of course extra.

We then went for our tickets. We expected a tall dark gentlemen with black glasses and a long black coat and briefcase to be waiting in the shadows somewhere. In fact it was nothing like that at all. The deal went down smoothly and we were on our way.

The train is made up of 20 or so carriages all of different classes. Some had private rooms, some were just simple benches, and some, like ours, were benches that turned in to beds. They’re actually rather nice. I write this lying on the bed now after the train conductor person came and fitted it up. Soph is asleep of course but there is a moth flying around her head. So for everyone’s sake it’s best she stays that way….

It’s the annual festival of Loi Krathong tonight so the view outside is like something out of Harry Potter. Scattered with floating lanterns across the sky and fireworks going off in the distance. Someone had even thought it a great idea to leave some fireworks on the tracks ready for us to pass by. The journey is about 13 hours long so it’s good to have something to take our mind of it.

I’ve no idea when we will get the chance to post this as there is no WiFi on the train and we won’t be in Chiang Mai for sometime. Sure we will have come across much more by then.

Thanks for following x