Two nights ago, Christopher and I took the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. I heard it was a great "experience;" Christopher pointed out that "experiences" always suck when you're in the middle of it. Personally, I enjoyed the banter with our porter, "Nattalie," who was 6 feet tall and began life as Nathaniel. Christopher messed up his seat, prompting her to scream and slap him on the shoulder. Christopher's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. We went to sleep pretty early, on seats that converted into flat beds. The train was noisy and from time to time shook in a way that felt like it was designed to wake you up, but it was definitely better than sleeping on a bus. We got into Chiang Mai around noon, only two hours late, putting our total time on board at about 17 hours. Needless to say, it was a relief to come into town.
Yesterday after we checked into our hotel and had lunch, we decided to try a traditional Thai massage. Turns out it's more a cross between massage, acupressure, and Greco-Roman wrestling. They bend you, twist you, hit you, poke you, but I've gotta say, at the end you feel pretty limber. Refreshed (and slightly sore) we tried to spend the rest of the afternoon on a walking tour of Chiang Mai. We made it to one temple and a famous statue, but were already feeling lightheaded from the heat. We staggered back to our beautiful, air conditioned hotel room, and passed out. We awoke to the sound of crashing thunder and torrential rain, meaning the Sunday market was basically ruled out. So we just went back to sleep and woke up at about 5:30 this morning. Oops. Well, you can't make a 14 hour time adjustment in just a day, right? The good news is we're going to try to beat the heat, and are planning to visit the elephants today!
