Thai Railways certainly have the mighty Indian railways beat! We travelled last night from Ayutthura to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand by overnight sleeper - catching our train about 9.30pm last night and arriving (about a hour late) here by 10.45am today. We were well looked after, the platform guy came up to the European travellers a few minutes before the train arrived to check our carriages and get us to to the right part of the platform and Tessa's rapid ascent was ensured by a cry of 'Madam, Madam!' and a polite shove of the backside to mount the steep steps with pack on back.
We were met by the guard inside the carriage, shown to our seats and our bunks made up immediately - followed rapidly by the very smiley lady waiting for our beer order (a large bottle of Singha beer was ordered, we are celebrating the final completion of my Indian hospital
anti-biotics).
Not a bad nights sleep all in all, Thai railways only get in four bunks whereas India gets in six or even nine -it makes a big difference, imagine the layout in 'Some Like it Hot' but without Marilyn and you have it.
Getting up for the inevitable pee in the night I entered the corridor to see a French kid tumble from the top bunk - I think he was hardly aware of what had happened and his father was on the spot immediately. But apart from that it was an uneventful trip.
We woke quite early to find that we had fnally left the plains behind and were climbing through forested hills and we were cold! - the ac was rather too effective. But soon the coffee man came and then the breakfast man. All of this and the tickets were only about 15 pounds each for our14 hours on the train.
Arriving we were supposed to be met by a driver from the hotel, well after 40 minutes of waiting for a young English couple to sign up for trips and to do some food shopping at the station (what is it with young people?) we set off in our tuk tuk - but of course it is Songkran with a real frenzy here and our open sided tuk tuk was a perfect target at all junctions - we arrived at the hotel duly soaked and a bit grumpy after our long journey!
Chiang Mai is a moated place and its moats were full of people and those not in the water were dipping buckets or even hoses attached to pumps to get even more water out to soak themselves and passers by - quite impossible to stay dry.
Just back now from a lovely meal in a posh restaurant to celebrate Tessa's birthday!
Brian
ps this blog owes its origin to the fact that having blogged about our trip in Bengal on the North East Frontier Railway taking the Darjeeling Mail to Kolkata we totally forget to use the title 'Night Runners of Bengal' - finding an old copy of the book in Bangkok reminded us and short of returning to Bengal to do it again you have to accept this attempt.
We were met by the guard inside the carriage, shown to our seats and our bunks made up immediately - followed rapidly by the very smiley lady waiting for our beer order (a large bottle of Singha beer was ordered, we are celebrating the final completion of my Indian hospital
anti-biotics).
Not a bad nights sleep all in all, Thai railways only get in four bunks whereas India gets in six or even nine -it makes a big difference, imagine the layout in 'Some Like it Hot' but without Marilyn and you have it.
Getting up for the inevitable pee in the night I entered the corridor to see a French kid tumble from the top bunk - I think he was hardly aware of what had happened and his father was on the spot immediately. But apart from that it was an uneventful trip.
We woke quite early to find that we had fnally left the plains behind and were climbing through forested hills and we were cold! - the ac was rather too effective. But soon the coffee man came and then the breakfast man. All of this and the tickets were only about 15 pounds each for our14 hours on the train.
Arriving we were supposed to be met by a driver from the hotel, well after 40 minutes of waiting for a young English couple to sign up for trips and to do some food shopping at the station (what is it with young people?) we set off in our tuk tuk - but of course it is Songkran with a real frenzy here and our open sided tuk tuk was a perfect target at all junctions - we arrived at the hotel duly soaked and a bit grumpy after our long journey!
Chiang Mai is a moated place and its moats were full of people and those not in the water were dipping buckets or even hoses attached to pumps to get even more water out to soak themselves and passers by - quite impossible to stay dry.
Just back now from a lovely meal in a posh restaurant to celebrate Tessa's birthday!
Brian
ps this blog owes its origin to the fact that having blogged about our trip in Bengal on the North East Frontier Railway taking the Darjeeling Mail to Kolkata we totally forget to use the title 'Night Runners of Bengal' - finding an old copy of the book in Bangkok reminded us and short of returning to Bengal to do it again you have to accept this attempt.
1 comment:
Yes, Happy Birthday Tessa. We all wish we were there to drink your health with you. Hope you have had a really interesting day and something special for your birthday. Carol x
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