On the Night Train..... with photos

It's been a tiring couple of days of travel from Phuket to Chiang Mai. We spent several days relaxing on the beach in Phuket but boredom set in and it was time to remove ourselves from the tourist trap of overpriced hotels and western food outlets.

Having settled for 2nd class travel on the way down, we thought we would upgrade to the VIP bus. The seats are bigger, there is more legroom and we got food. The snack food at the start of our trip was good, bottle of water, cartoon of juice, bread roll thing and big packet of peanuts. Alongside our crisp sandwiches (the loaf lasted us 4 meals ! - not on it's own.... money's not THAT tight !), we didn't expect to have any more food. 4 hours into our 12 hour trip we were awoken for a feed at a service stop. Ushered into a resteraunt and fed a selection of dishes with rice, sitting around with the locals. Very intresting and tasty.

The long trip was accompanied by books and iPods and neither Jude or I slept much. Arriving at 6:00am we found out how to get to the train station for our next stint to Chiang Mai. 2 hours in rush hour traffic on a public bus with back packs isn't the best thing when you've just got off a bus. We arrived at the train station shattered, and it was raining, very heavily. Booking our tickets for the overnight sleeper train that evening we formulated the best plan possible. Find a cheap hotel and get some sleep. 5 pounds got us a lovely chinese run wooden slatted room 100m from the train station.

We ignored the peeling paint, concrete floors, all in one shower/squat toilet and having disgarded the hotel pillows for our own travel pillows, we fell asleep within seconds of lying down. The hotel would have been fantastic in it's hayday.... about 80 or 90 years ago. Beggars can't be choosers though.

Checked out, fed and watered we caught our train for the overnight service to Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. 2nd class was all that was available but there was lots of room, we had books, and ipods and settled in for the long trip. We finally finished our bread (more crisp sandwiches - Seaweed flavour) and the last of our rations managed to stave off the hunger. While Jude slept most of the night, I just about got comfy in the Asian sized beds which where made for us at about 8:00pm. Cocooned behind silky curtains the berths where private but sleeping on the bumpy (not very rythmic) train was not easy. We arrive after nearly 14 hours onboard.

Another hostel, another city. Chiang Mai is the adventure capital of Thailand. Rock climbing, mountain biking, treking, 4 wheel drives. quads, motocross (off road motorbikes for those unsure), white water rafting, bungee jumping and cookery courses to name but a few options. This place I am definately coming back to in the future when we have more time and funds. We've only 2 days to explore and we hope to do a cookery course one of those days.

It's also raining in Chiang Mai but it is cooler, Laos is in a few days (via slow boat) so something else to look forward to.