Day: The Fourth To The Seventh, Part Too

Ok, so its now Wednesday morning. We catch the railcar to Chiang Mai from Bangkok Central and its only 15 minutes late which is apparently a small miracle. It's about half "farangs" and half locals, three cars and a driver at each end! The one at our end at the back does a lot of sleeping, so he should be right for the trip back... There's a lady assigned to each car as a hostess, and we even get lunch, plus three coffee and snack breaks. Its an 800km trip that takes 12 hours though the middle of Thailand north of Bangkok. Its got air con to die from (of hypothermia, shit but was it cold...April had to borrow my jumper and even the hostess was wearing a jacket). A twelve hour trip gets you through a lot of countryside, the first 2/3s was flat and almost all rice fields and villages, the last 1/3 we climbed into the hills. All this for $24 each....

Got out at the station and there's a guy holding a sign saying "Nigel Mark". That's a coincidence, I think. Some else arriving at Chiang Mai railway station at same time with almost the same name!

Out wasn't long before we were at the Vanilla Place guesthouse, with a very friendly older man showing us our rooms, and recommending all sorts of places to eat and visit. Right next door was a fairly classy restaurant, where we proceeded to lower the class by spilling drinks and taking mad photos of each other (you get just a little loopy after 12 hours in a train...).