Apr 2008

Now I'm in Chiang Mai, I find things are cheaper here than Bangkok and Koh Tao. There's a lady with a board at the railway station who's a Sales Rep and she offers hotel places. I pick a name from the board and she even has taxi's that can take you there. You have to pay for the taxi of course. There are plenty of excursions that can be booked from travel agents in Chiang Mai too.

I wonder around to get a feel for the place and book a few things to do. My short walk turns out to be about three hours as I get lost, but no worries I don't have to get anywhere in a hurry. In some ways its like Bangkok; you can do all the same things. And you see plenty of older western guys with their Thai girlfriends here too, some with big feet. But there are fewer people around here - partly because it's low season for visiting tourists.

At the hotel the Manageress suggests a 'Thai Cultural Show' I can see in the evening. At about 7pm a taxi takes a group of us from the hotel to a restaurant / village hall type place. We have to sit on the floor, which isn't very comfortable, and have a platter of food bought over for each person.

The food isn't too bad. We get a Thai green curry, rice, KFC style fried chicken and a few other things. The group playing 'traditional' Thai music in the background seem to be taking a long time to tune up. I soon realise they aren't tuning up at all, they're playing - silly me. They're quite generous with the food, which is just as well because the evening wasn't cheap, and they offer refills of all the plates - it's all you can eat affectively.

The dancers appear on stage in what I assume is traditional Thai dress, and perform their dances. The dancing is really slow and what you could describe as 'posey', but it's interesting to watch.

I've been looking forward to a change of scenery and can't wait to get on the train.

I've loaded my ipod with a couple of films and tv shows bought from Khoasan road. Totally legit of course.

I go by taxi from the hotel to the railway station. The taxi driver puts the meter on and I get to my destination quickly, efficiently and cheaply. If only it was always like this.

On the train I end up sitting with two girls and a guy from Devon. They're good company and we share stories.

At about 10pm two guys from the railway company go down the train carriage and convert the seats into beds. The 'beds' aren't perfect but good enough. You get a curtain that you can draw across and have some privacy. I had heard earlier that its best to have a bottom bunk, which is slightly more expensive than the upper bunk, but nobody complained in the morning. I watch a film on the ipod and go to sleep.

Our train stops at about an hour's journey from Chiang Mai and is delayed for about half an hour. Apparently, somebody had jumped in front of it. We could see railway workers outside inspecting the train and passers by staring. Nobody in our carriage saw anything gruesome. And we were all relieved when the train started moving again.

I'm feeling a lot better today and regret having booked another night at the hotel; I could have left Bangkok. I'm a little bored. I've heard there are some strange clubs that open in the evening around here where there's dancing goes on a stage and they do odd things, like firing ping pong balls. I can't go into specifics, but it's not table tennis they're playing. I don't fancy going there. Alternatively, I could watch Muay Thai (Thai boxing) but the main events are on Saturday night so I'm limited with options.

I go to Khaosan road early in the evening to get something to eat and do a little people watching. A little old lady, who I've bought fruit from before, sees me and asks me where I've been. I guess I must stand out a little, I haven't seen many people who look like they're from 'India', although there was one guy who looked like he was genuinely from India, as he was wearing a turban, he wanted to read me my fortune. I have a lucky face he told me. I suggested to him that in his present and future he wouldn't be getting any money from me. I explained to the old lady that I've been to Koh Tao. It was nice to speak to a friendly local for a change.

Earlier, I booked an overnight sleeper train to go to Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand. It will take fourteen hours to get there, but at least I'll be able to sleep a little and it's another mode of transport I've never used.

4:30 am and, following a long journey, I'm back in Bangkok. For the ten days or so I was on the island of Koh Tao I only ever wore flip-flops on my feet (unless I was diving) and it's quite liberating in a small way. Now I'm wearing shoes again.

We get off the bus and, here we go again," where you going ? " My patience is wearing thin, but if one of them asks me if I want a massage I might lose it.

I don't want to book into a hotel just yet, but I'm not sure what to do. How about 24 hour McDonalds ? At 5:00am I'm eating a Big Mac with fries and a large coke (diet, don't want to get fat or anything). I'm not the only one doing it either. Shortly thereafter, they change the signs in McDonalds and you can order breakfast. I know what you're thinking - no, I didn't.

After a little wonder around, I'm back at the hotel I stayed at last time - it's about 7:00am now. I book into the hotel for two nights.

I didn't get much sleep last night, so it's nice to have a shower and get forty winks.

I haven't been for a number two since Tuesday when I took two tablets, so now I take a tablet to help me to 'go'. The result is I'm going a bit too much again. I don't stray too far away from the hotel.

I leave the Koh Tao diving center at about 2pm to travel by taxi, boat and bus. It will be 4:30am the next day when I arrive in Bangkok.