12 hours 15 hours, what's the difference? Anyway the romance lies in having a whole day of a/c and smoking death defying cigarettes between one carriage and the next with nothing to keep you onboard apart from a chain. Now that's living! Well? assuming you don't fall off.

Pretty interesting sights on the way out of Bangkok. It seems all the country's hard up people congregate on the tracks to dry washing and take shelter from the sun. For some reason there were loads of caged birds along the side. Some kind of early warning system mining style perhaps? Of course I wouldn't presume to know but the impending doom that comes with the mass of water from the north will be felt far before the birds start singing. Or so it seems as you get out of Bangkok.
The gentle lapping of water against the railway track was novel but the homes, crops and personal belongings under the water was just plain devastating. These poor people...

Meanwhile Thai time saw an extra 3 hours added to our journey... 15 hours for the price of 12 and Lis wasn't a princess about it once Matt and Allie! Although we did have plenty of water and much entertainment was to be had from the only man in the world who seems to not love Bill! Must have been jealous of those steely blue eyes.

Eventually arriving in Chiang Mai saw Lis proud as punch for negotiating an extra 10 baht of the price of a midnight taxi than any other farang. 'I don't care that it's midnight and the guesthouse is 3kms away...I ain't paying 50!'. I assure you there's not much glory in it but she would have walked.

Time for sleep and a plan of action to move into a better abode.