planes, trains, n tuk tuks….

9:45 our train pulled into Chiang Mai, both of us ahd been up for hours (still jet lagged).  The scenery was such stark contrast from the city dust of BK. Now surrounded by lush veggitation, banana trees, villages, hills and mountain backdrop, and misty morning air.  A brief moment of panic that it looked chilly and we no longer had anything appropriate to wear, due to the great Bangkok downsize of everythin including pants.  The humidity immediatly hit us when they opened the door…crisis overted, no pants needed.

A quick Songthew ride(a pick up truck w/ 2 long benches in the back that are not metered) and we were greeted @ the Parami guesthouse by a sweet thai girl named Pom who showed us to our twin room, fan, ensuite room overlooking the courtyard complete w/ mino pond andthe biggest bird of paradise 2 stories high) .  Perfect.  No Kho San Rd. situ here.  Family run b&b outside the tourist area.  Still before 11am we headed off to find the Indian Consolute to sort our visas as it may take several days and we had that time here.  First needed to stop by the happy duck photo hut for more passport fotos as i downsized those as well.  The happy duck was harder to find than its name would suggest, and a rather slow process.  An hour later we arrived at the consolute at 12:38 and were kindly informed that they don’t issue visa paperwork after noon.  Really?  8 minutes late and the capacity to issue paperwork shuts down?  If this is any indication of how the country will run, we will need to buy a watch. (yes neither of us brought one. )  Who needs the burden of time when living an adventure.

spent the afternoon seeing some of the city, and met a tuk tuk driver who offered to drive us around for an hr for 50B.  1.75$ for an hour!  that tuk tuk must run on hopes n dreams not petrol or he is going in the hole.

Sprite new backpack in tow hoped on a tuk tuk, (something dana could never have fit in) and headed to Hualampang train station.  No english signage.  Not one word.  luckily Thai’s are very helpful (even when you don’t ask) and we soon figured out platform 5 in 1.5hrs…filthy from sweating all day we were not looking forward to sleeping on a train in that condition and opted for a quick shower in the public train station shower room.  only 1oB!  surely it can’t be that bad when all the proceeds must go to keeping a spic n span shower space.  Well somebody’s getting rich.  I’ll quote B. “it’s like the ymca but with homeless people”.

We boarded the train w/ the help of 4 thai attendants (not that we needed them, just helpful remember) excited about our 2nd class, ac, upper sleeper berths.  A highly recommended combination.  Now i’ve done my fair share of sleeper trains (my first kidney stone was on a night train through germany)  and was confidant of the expectations and conditions.  wrong again. There were no private rooms at all.  just regular seats below and what looked to be closed beds above.  Our seats were the beds but the man beneath b’s bed scolded her for even trying to open it.  So we just sat in others seats and looked around in wide eyed confusion.  An American couple with two thai children next to us, looked confused as well and said that this was “not exactly what they expected”.  What happened to our highly recommended combo?   Well about an hr into the ride this snaggle toothed smiling thai attendant came round and lowered the beds, fliped cusions, mechanisms, buttons, pulled out plush sheets, pillo9ws, blankets, and CURTAINS no less!   Superb.  And we had doubted.

Snuggled into the best sleeping conditions we’d had yet.  (except we downsized our sleeping masks in BK- every ounce counts- and the lights stayed on all night)

our guest house Lamphu house had a nice courtyard filled with Euro transients emailing and skyping.  It hardly felt like bangkok….more of an EU Convention in flip flops.  Despite our rather small room, 1 bd, no sheet, fan only, we were both so jet lagged we crashed around 4pm.  woke up at midnight and staggered a whole 100yards to have dinner of french fries n fried rice n beer at what can only be described as a thai themed euro lounge.  Surprising amounts of suspicious coupled filed thru the door.  “i had no idea how many chubby european men had stunning asian girlfriends.  and decided to bring them here on vacation!”  perhaps not.

Had the day to kill in Bangkok before our night train left for Chang Mai @7:30.  So we had breakfast at the veggie organic place we found the day before and scoffed down tripical fruits, croissant, banana pancakes, and the best iced coffee ever.   (Note:  we were warned never to eat ice in SE Asia or fruit you don’t peel yourself for fear of the water.Day two and already living on the edge.

Eventually found where to board the cheap water taxi after a savy tuk tuk dropped us off @ an exorbitantly priced private boat tour kiosk and we had to walk all the way back where we started.  The boat was a nice respite from the sun, and we had a great view of all the sites we’d later see on our return trip to Bangkok.   Shanty town venice, dilapidated shacks on stilts barely teatering above the water, monks perched on balconies, sky scrappers with mod condos.  Bangkok is surprisingly metropolitan but by far the filthiest city either of us had experienced.  The river polluted no doubt with every disease ever discovered and some not yet named, would splash up into the boat and the locals would instinctivly cover their nose/eyes.  My reflexes a little slow due to jet lag weren’t quick enough and i got it right in the eye.  direct shot. immediate irritation and redness followed and am now sure i have the “bangkok stink eye”.   Hope I can remember which unmarked pills were the antibiotics.

After a quick shower n snooze we checked out f our hotel n headed to Bangkok city center backpackers district Kho San Road / Rambutri street to find a guesthouse.  Kho San is a world renound SE Asia backpackers crossroads and seems more in person like a refugee camp for dreadlocked, fisherman pant wearing, leather skined travelers.  With of course the  fresh faced newbys mixed in.  We were obviously the later.  one dead give a way being the size fo my backpack.  Having a pack that can get you thru 2.5 months w/out many mod cons along the way is a challenge unto itself.  I brought the bare minimum for such a stay and even then it was 3x the size of beeler’s pack and 10x the weight.  B’s always been a light packer as i knew from our summer in Italy where she brought enough for one week and proceeded to wear my clothes the entire summer.  so  when our packs came off the belt, i assumed i would be her salvation this trip.   I assumed wrong.  one day in the blistering 103 d heat and i was seriously reconsidering my pack situation.  “nothing has ever been more miserable” was said and meant, and the thought of even one more day carrying that pack unfathomable.   I had such severe pack envy that apparently even started talking about it in my sleep.

Good news is that i was not the first one to overestimate their endurance level and KoSan is litted with pack shops all a pint sized version of my Dana Design beast.  Dana, the monkey on my back, was offloaded into the long term storage at our guesthouse and i trotted off to haggle for a 25$ north face.   We unloaded all inapropriate gear, including winter fleeces,? we both brought.  The heat is so extreme that even pants seem an irresponsible weight to bare so we both downsized all but our coolest gear.  The 9 medicine bottles each with attached prescriptions got consolidated while we hoped that no cambodian boarder patrol would arrest us for smuggling unidentifiable pills.

A two hr flight, a 3 hr layover, a 13 hr flight and I arrived in Tokyo Narita Airport which was to be my rendevous spot with Beeler before we boarded another 7.5 hr flight to Bangkok.  Her flight arrived a good 7 hrs before mine so i expected to see her already comfortably at the gate. nope. crused duty free and cafes. nothing.  Sure she’d show up soon i just waited at the gate for a couple hrs. 10m to boarding and still no sign, i was resolved to go it alone, half convinced that she jumped an earlier flight and was lounging at our agreed hotel in Bangkok.  Got in the boarding que and just before i reach the desk low and behold there she is weary eyed and concerned scanning the crowd for me.  She apparently had been there all along sitting withing 10 ft of me for hours neither of us seeing each other.  hysterical.  not a good start.  i blame the fact that she was wearing a purple fleece lying down on a purple seat.  the perfect narita camaflauge.

Arriving in Bangkok after midnight we were thermally scanned by a camera to detect swine flu , handed in our promisory notes to customs that we had none of the symtoms within the past 2 weeks.  i however had caught a sudden sneezing, running nose symtom on the flight.  All the japanese passengers wearing their hygenic masks the entire flight peered at me suspiciously in  germophobic justification and i just knew one of them would be a tattle tale and i’d start my trip in quarantine.  When the haz mat suit wearing official boarded the plane i gave them all my most intimidating shut your face stare. it worked. no one talked.