As well as coach repairs we have still got people in repairing our house and it looks like it will be a long job, we are getting much of the materials and our ever faithful Celtic Princess has been great, it is carrying passengers today but yesterday it was carrying a load of tiles and laminate flooring!
I can now feel a trip to Thailandcoming on – more memories! We spent most of our time in Pattaya but took a trip up to Chiang Mai in the North. We took the train from Pattaya to Bangkokwhich was quite an experience, it was the local train and there is only one train a day! The local trains have only one class and that is third which means basic but comfortable seats and no air con but huge roof fans and completely opening windows – I thought it was great, I sat back and watched the countryside roll by and the trip was made better by a lovely happy Thai lady doing her best to sell me cans of beer for the whole trip – marvelous! Now the day we traveled on was our wedding anniversary so I surprised Chris with a stay at Bangkoks’ oldest 5 star hotel – The Dusit Thani, it was fabulous and whilst not having the flash of the newer skyscrapers it had a class all of its own, we took dinner in the restaurant called Bengarong which specialises in Royal Thai cuisine and it was quite simply the finest Thai food I have tasted, not overly complicated but beautifully cooked with fresh spices. We then had a night in Bangkok which was relatively tame for us and got back about 2’o clock for a great nights sleep.
The following day we did some shopping and sightseeing before heading Bangkoks’ magnificent Hua Lamphuang station for the overnight sleeper to Chiang Mai (a mere 13 hours away!). I have to admit I love the romance of long distance rail travel and watching the comings and goings and bustle of a big station, we settled into our first class sleeper (not very expensive!) and had a few drinks while we watched the suburbs of Bangkok which is quite literally an assault on the senses with the amazing sight of people trying to scratch out a living as best they can in shanty towns next to the railway, it truly is a humbling experience! With Bangkok behind us we headed to the dining car for a great unbelievably cheap Thai meal although you do need to like chillis, my duck red curry was seriously hot! We then settled down to a few Thai whiskeys, made plenty of friends and had a great night!
Arriving at Chiang Mai station has a real frontier feel to it, its quite a way north so the stifling heat of Bangkok gives way to pleasant mid twenties temperatures and life is a bit less frantic, we headed to our hotel to leave our bags and then headed to the bike hire shop where I collect my motorbike for the next couple of days, the weather was lovely so we decided to do a bit of touring and headed on the most spectacular circular ride north into the mountains – the scenery and roads were spectacular in fact I longed to have my bike from Ireland! The day went all too quick and we headed back to our hotel then into the city for a look round the famous night bazaar, surprisingly this was followed by a few drinks before heading back to the hotel – to be continued next week!
On tour in Thailand - what a view!
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