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Its time to take the train.....
I've always considered the train to be the classiest form of travel. To get to Chiang Mai we had probably three choices. Bus, plane and train. This was an easy choice for me. The plane is obviously the fastest and most expensive and I never really want to go on a bus again so down to the train station we went. Our tickets cost about 15 euro between us, the train left at half eight in the morning and was due in at half eight at night. I honestly expected the route to be oriental express type stuff, with people hanging out the side of the carriage and on the rough and all very movie like. It wasn't like that at all. It was more like the bus from Brazil. My seat was broken and the floor was sticky. Still though, trains are classy, even when they arent classy. Maybe I should say this train was Klassy, some people will get that, others won't!!!
For a good part of the start of the journey we were still pretty much in Bangkok, lots of slum looking houses made from the same fine materials as down by the river. All along the route this was the same with most towns having a few larger houses and apartment blocks and all of them having a decent temple. Half way along we passed through a town which we had been told was overrun with monkeys. The start of the train platform is a large gold monkey statue, as is the end of the platform. On the streets you can see monkeys everywhere. Dave and Anna stayed here, or at least stopped over and they said the monkeys run the town, they steal food and handbags and jump in your hair and everything.
For the most part the land was flat and non-descript. It was like an asian version of Holland, very flat. Paddy fields everywhere with a few swamps and some trees and things. Lots of birds that look like storks or something like that. As I mentioned temples in every town, and in two places a three storey high gold Buddha statue. One of these was up on a hill, and the photo I luckily got may not show just how large it was. It was easily a few miles away and was definately two or three storeys high. After about eight hours the terrain started to climb. It must have been somewhere around here that Kerry and Rick's train stalled and rolled back down the hill... thankfully our luck only extends to well timed natural disasters in places we have been or going to but not in yet. The sun went down and we rolled into Chiang Mai about two hours later, jumped in a taxi and off to the hostel. The taxi of course was actually a pickup truck with a rough and no tailgate, a couple of benches along the side and holes in the walls for looking out. It did the job, and took us straight to the hostel. We had a lovely meal cooked up for us and we booked our cooking course for the next day and then off to bed.
Trains remain the classiest way to travel, but there are different classes of class!!!!!
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