So travelling doesn't always go to plan.... That was definitely the case this morning! We'd done all our research- not the best online system info for transport it seems! We'd originally found that the train tracks were closed for a 5hr section of the journey towards Chiang Mai, so we opted for buses until last night when I read how many accidents occur with the long haul buses! So we looked again at trains and a rail replacement bus, had this sorted for a 08:30 departure so set the alarm at 6 and got a solid 4/5 hours sleep. Woke up this morning on time headed down for my English/Thai mix breakfast and got a cab easily- however our 'friendly' taxi driver would not even say hi to us, me and Amy tried 3 times including in Thai, to no response... I also tried to ask how far the station was further into the journey and got barely a grunt in reply!... Wow...
We were late to the station as the traffic was so bad (apparently Friday morning is notoriously bad unbeknown to us) so we knew we'd missed the train. We headed to information to ask about next option where she looked at us unbelievingly and flicked the calendar forward to November for next departure!! It turns out in rainy season the train has fallen off the track too many times so is not running this month! The option she gave us was to wait 11hrs at the station until 7pm get on a train to a random station in the middle of nowhere taking 10hrs... Then the rail replacement bus was basically 'no bus you find yourself'! I was panicking at this point! I think she felt sorry for us pair of Muzungos and she kindly led us up to tourist information where we sat to explain our predicament. Although we were abit worried we would be mugged off, as we were only allowed to pay cash, the guy was very helpful and mentioned flying may be an option... He made some calls and it looked like bad news, he said 'ahh flight at 1 but very very expensive... 3950 baht each'.... We worked this out to be 75 quid! We snapped it up :) I could have hugged him at this point!
After that it was a comfortable breeze of a journey to the hotel when earlier I'd been thinking it would be a miracle if we made it to our pre booked room tonight! It's a good hotel, the Royal Panarai- a 3 star with free wifi, pool and brekkie for just over £5 a night. We have 4 nights here then we will search for a cheaper more standard guesthouse or hostel.
Just sorting out some laundry at the mo while watching toy story 3 in Thai and then we'll head off to explore the night markets and grab some cheap market food for tea, I'll be a bit more adventurous tonight!