The overnight train had so much promise; comfortable beds, air conditioning, and a decent arrival time of 12:45. Unfortunately only two of these panned out as expected.
First off, the train station. It was a very interesting place, the main terminal was a hanger type place with some big named shops (read Dunkin Donuts). It also seemed as though this was a popular squat for many homeless, clinging to the safety of round the clock trains in well lit areas. I have seen many homeless people in my time, but none like this. Many of them were extremely emaciated, a site that felt a bit tragic to me, but all the norm to many of the busy train goers. Sad.
The train itself was clean and cool in the night hours, but we knew we were in for a treat when the train was delayed about 20 minutes right off the bat. We fell right asleep in our upper and lower bunks, but I was woken at the nice hour of 6:30 and was unable to fall back asleep since the sun was already warming up the cabin. Supposedly the train had stopped in the night for over an hour when there was a fire in the front car. Not to mention the fact that the train probably moved slower than I could run, and I am no Usain Bolt. Needless to say it would be a while until we reached our destination.
We passed the time during the day talking to some of the people around us, which included a friendly Thai interior designer who had studied at the Academy for Arts in San Francisco (a school my brother is thinking about), go figure. Ultimately we were a bit groggy due to the lack of sleep and nourishment due to the fact the ushers threw away my bag of goodies from 7-11 in the middle of the night, and had no foodstuffs on the train, ugh.
We finally got to Chiang Mai at about 3 PM and made way to what we thought was our hotel, only to find we had confused which hotel we booked and were at the wrong hotel. We ate some much needed Pad Thai as the hotel staff tried to accommodate us via our booking agent agoda.com. No luck, so we took another tuk-tuk to our actual hotel/guest house, which is quite a lovely place with a large courtyard, tons of freindly, english speaking staff, and very nice size room.
I laid down in bed for a nap at 5. I didn't open my eyes until the next morning. Oh well, I guess sometimes you just need some sleep.
Emma here:
I took the train ride as a chance to catch up on some much needed health rest. After getting absolutely slaughtered by Sam at gin rummy, and talking to an English guy named Rafe (spelling?) who was intent on getting a train party started with some Samsung (Thai whiskey), I retired to the upper bunk and fell to sleep.
The train ride uneventful, but did last longer than we had hoped. We saw some interesting parts of Thailand in the morning, passing through much more mountainous and jungle-like terrain. Big fields stretched out on either side of the track and water-buffalo dotted the countryside, lazing in the shade where it could be found.
We arrived in Chiang Mai in the mid-afternoon and after a hotel debacle and some much needed noodles (yum, pad-see-ew), we made it to the right hotel. Buri Gallery Guest House, priced at the whopping $27 a night includes a very nice air conditioned room, private bathroom, breakfast, and very friendly staff who have been helpful to us in planning out our next steps.
As Sam mentioned, he did, in fact, go to sleep around 5 pm. After puttering around, adding some pictures to this here blog, watching some Arrested Development, and reading some of our guidebook, I fell asleep too. And that was day six.
Lesson learned: Overnight trains do not count as a normal night's sleep. Not even if you can sleep anywhere (like me) or like a bear in hibernation (like Sam).
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