Chiang Mai, Thailand

March 6, 2009

We took the overnight train (14 hours) to the northern city of Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand and is kind of like its cultural capital. Lots of tourists go there as it is much less busy than Bangkok, the climate is a little better and beer is cheaper.

The overnight train was interesting. We were travelling 2nd class which meant we had a seat facing each other and, about 9 pm, the seats were converted into an upper and lower bunk with a little curtain separating you from the aisle. Unless you are lying on your bunk, with the curtain closed, there is no privacy. The washrooms are a couple of steel lined rooms at the end of the car. You have your choice of whether to use the Western style one or the Thai one.

The Thai one is a steel hole in the floor through which you can watch the tracks go by. There is a convenient garden hose there to wash the room down and a sink the size of a beer mug for your hands. On the Western side, they have mounted a toilet seat over the hole. (I made a mental note to never walk the railway tracks in Thailand).

You can buy over priced beer and food on the train if you want but they don’t have a problem if you bring your own.

When they were building the railway line they must have had some problem matching up the rails because it was a bumpy ride. I was on the top bunk with no window and barely enough room to move from my head to my toes. Afterwards I felt a bit like a piece of shake and bake chicken. Lana was quite comfortable on the bottom bunk with a window, reading light and shelf.

Got into Chiang Mai around 9:45 am and was picked up by the guesthouse’s very modern van. When we booked this trip with a Bangkok agent we were told that our room was an en suite which turned out to be sort of true. There was a toilet and a sink but the showerhead was just mounted on the wall. Once you got used to taking the toilet paper out of the room before turning on the shower part it mostly worked.

The guesthouse turned out to be clean and, like most guesthouses here, it has a common area that is also a restaurant, it sells beer and you can book any tour in town. It is common for the staff’s children to play around the place and the pool table is used mostly by the staff. Still it is a good place to stay and we don’t have any complaints. It is a bit like staying with a friend of a friend.

We spent the rest of the next two days wandering around the old city, which is surrounded by an old moat and wall. The streets are narrow and the street vendors everywhere. We visited some of the big temple complexes and watched the monks go about their business.

One night we went to the night market in another part of the City but only a 15 minute walk away. It is an entertaining nightly collection of vendors selling everything from cheap silk to fake Rolexes to wooden carvings. The smaller the stall the more negotiable the price. If they are really desperate then they will start shouting lower the prices as you walk away. One Canadian dollar is worth about 28 Thai baht and the majority of prices were in the 100-200 baht range. If we were just visiting Thailand then we would probably have purchased some of the carving and things but no room on the backpacks. Beside they were probably made in China anyway.

Had dinner at a nearby place that was owned by a Thai woman with an Australian husband who gets pressed into service as a helper each night. We talked with him a bit and he told us how they had relocated to the Chiang Mai because they didn’t like Bangkok. Dinner by the way is about 100 baht ($4) each not counting drinks.

Most Thai’s, and most visitors, end up drinking Chang beer. A large bottle is usually 60-75 baht and most places keep them very cold. Not many Thais drink Singha beer or the other brand. They sell that to the tourists for higher prices.