thewills'wanderings

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href=’http://blogs.bootsnall.com/adventure/files/2009/06/changimai-048.jpg’ title=’changimai-048.jpg’> We arrived in Bangkok from Nepal and crashed once again at our favourite guesthouse, Sanawan Palace. It was nice to be welcomed back like family and we spent the day by the pool and just enjoying being back somewhere familiar. Tim and I had a Thai massage which was so nice after our trekking in Nepal. The downside was the 4 girls hovering around watching and laughing!
In the morning we got a taxi to the Bangkok train station ready for our overnight train to Chiang-Mai at 6pm that night. We stored our luggage at the station and hit the streets to explore ChinaTown. It was fun seeing all the different things for sale especially all the slimy fishy things. What surprised us was how clean and civilised the streets of Bangkok seemed to us after spending 5 weeks in Nepal. We didn’t hesitate to eat the delicious barbequed chicken sold on the streets. It’s funny how your perspective changes.
We had a few hours to kill before we needed to head back to train station and decided we needed a bit of airconditioning so we jumped on a tuk-tuk, yes, all six of us, and asked to be taken to MBK, a huge shopping mall. We wandered around a while, then found a supermarket and stocked up on supplies for the overnight train so we didn’t have to spend lots on the overpriced train food.
After eating at the station we boarded the overnight train bound for Chiang-Mai. What a cool trip with great service! At about 8pm the staff came round and converted the seats into little sleeping berths. They were really comfortable and it was so nice to see them put white crispy clean sheets and pillowcases on, a real luxury after Nepal, where even cleanish sheets were a kind of grey.
We woke to the lush, green countryside of Northern Thailand and Tim and I couldn’t help thinking it reminded us of rural Japan. What an awesome way to travel. We’re looking forward to doing more of the same in Vietnam
After getting off the train without forgetting any bags or children, we were picked up by Steven and headed for our new home away from home!

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 13th, 2009 at 8:54 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.