chiang mai v1.0

we left bangkok after only one night and got to the train station around midday. unfortunately, it is a very busy time to travel to the north as thais and tourists alike flee the heat of the south for the cooler north. this meant that the two earliest trains were already sold out, and we had to book seats only (no sleeping berths) on the 10pm train. stuck with a 10hr stopover with our packs at the train station we toured around western bangkok and read frommers on a bench in the shade. the area around the train station was not the best neighbourhood, however, we did catch a traditional thai game like volleyball except they only use their feet! they were so good at it that they looked jedi. both exhausted, hot, and tired of lugging our packs around we retreated back to the train station to wait on our train. lyds managed to sleep a little bit while i looked over our bags, read, and caught the thailand vs. philippines soccer match.

the train, running on "thai time," was late getting into the station. we both fell asleep right away hugging our bags in our cheap, fans only, car. i slept 5 hours and felt amazing after. the train ride took 15 hours but doubled as our accomodations that night, and provided a tour of the countryside as the side rose as we began to pass through the northern hills. i listened to the rollling stones "gimme shelter" as the sun came up. very cool. the country we passed through is very rough, poor but beautiful. by the time we arrived in chiang mai we were tired and hungry (we had declined to buy food through the train's windows at stops). it was a happy parting with the "northwest passage" lookalike car.

a quick barter with a tuk-tuk (pronounced touque-touque) driver and we were headed for the montri hotel in the old city. however, it was all booked up. armed with frommers and no reservations we started to walk the city. after a few more rejections lyds felt we were like mary and joseph with no room at the inn. however, we have learned to recite "mai pen rai" or no worries here. things just seem to work out. we followed a narrow lane and found a nice, if not more expensive guest house, and moved in. i am pretty sure we bumped someone's reservations. the accommodations were simple, but clean, and although it was not in the old city we were near the night bazaar and had two englsih channels on tv (bbc world news and a movie network). after checking in we gleefully shed our packs and toured the old city portion of chiang mai which in encircled by a moat and wall. famished we ate a simple meal and walked back to the guest house for a hot shower.