Bangkok, day 5 and a bit

Day 5 is my last day in Bangkok. All set to go North to Chiang Mai. No gym in the morning, drop the rucksack to the “left baggage” point at main railway station, go to Chinatown for anotehr great meal and to enjoy the sounds and sights of Little China and then in the evening at 19:35 board the train! All planned! The only thing that I did was leave the luggage at get on the 19:35 train to Chiang Mai.

I decided to go to the gym because I was not sure whether the day after I would have had enough energy to exercise and when I reached the station was far too hot to walk around in Chinatown so I have been hanging around looking at faces and have a few drinks, something to eat and a Thai massage. All good, all great.

The Thai massage was superb, for 200 baht (plus I tipped the lady 100) was worth 10 times that much. One hour of bone and muscles breaking but when I was out, it felt as if I could climb the Everest!

The rest of the time was spent looking at people hanging around waiting long hours for their trains. The main station of Bangkok is really small, but it has all facilities even if, by the European standard the ISO 9001 would not be obtained for none of their services, especially the toilet and the showers...

Roaches all over the station run to hide under the passenger luggage left all over the place. Mothers lying down on blankets with their kids hatched at their breasts. Friends massaging each others, reminding me a bit how far from each other, us Westerners are, comparing to them. Big smiles all over, beautiful kids running around and a few Big Noses being pissed off for a reason or the other.
Lunch was very generous and very cheap (140) I had a Mooncake that reminded me of the days in China and some nice Green Tea Milkshake (131).

In the evening, at last, the show was over and I boarded the train. A few European people on board but the majority was clearly local. A few old men with young girls, some young couples and me, always alone and with all my thoughts, that since I am here are not as negative as they were.

The trains used are not so bad, let's say that in Britain in the late 90's I have seen worse! However the train journey is an experience. The train stops all over Bangkok before getting on the way to Chiang Mai. Dinner is served around 8:30 and the guy in charge of making our beds up arrives with his mask and all the necessary garment to make a perfect bed in 2 minutes!

The lights stay on all night and at 22:15 even the restaurant closes and you must go to bed as there is no area where you can stand. The toilets are the quintessence of latrines. The smell is revolting and they are as bas as they look in the pictures you can see on my album on Facebook.

Good that the sinks are outside the latrines as it would be impossible to use them for the bad smell.

The trains are pretty unstable. The shaking and the rocking are constant all night and use of breaks is really unbearable. Try sleeping on a roller coaster and you will get the hint on how it feels. Funny enough, any sort of thoughts goes through your mind while travelling especially because you get warned by everyone about being careful that your sleep is haunted by thieves. 3 people I spoke to had some sort of nightmares about their wallets or money being snatched.

The most beautiful part of the journey is when around 5:30 the daylight is back and you can see this beautiful and uncontaminated nature. Banana plantations, coconut palm trees and the rice plantations. Fantastic! I was amazed by the beauty of a plantation close to the station of Pak Pan. The mist covering the mountain and at a distance a huge monastery shining of gold with a few pagodas around. All over the rice field some wooden cabanas raising above the rice plants, probably used by the workers as resting place for a break from the water.

Mountains, small villages, plants, huge trees, some isolated cabana and nothing else but nature and simplicity. At the passage of train people smile as if this was an event. It reminded me a bit of when I was a kid and my father used to take us to the airport to see the planes taking off and landing. We were amazed and I always wanted to step on one. Who knows if those people feel the same about the train travelling on the trucks cutting their beautiful countryside.

Mist... Mist all over... So beautiful

Yesterday was an expensive day.

Gym 100
lunch 140
massage 200 + 100 tip
drinks 20
Mooncake and ice tea 140
toilet 20
coke 17
fruit salad and ice cream and beer 200 (biggest rip off so far)
dinner 150
beers with some Dutch guys 400

Total 1487 Equivalent to 30 euro