Today I am catching a bus to Bangkok where I am taking the over night train to Chiang Mai in the north where I can do some hill tribe treks and hopefully some other outdoors activities! I am planning on taking a cookery course up there too, as they have the most (and reportidly best) available.
I've started putting dates to the rest of my travels here in South East Asia too now, since getting my ticket for the grand prix in Malaysia
for the 23rd March.
I'll leave Chiang Mai around the 7th March by air for Borneo where I will spend a couple of weeks before heading to Kuala Lumper for the grand prix on the 21st. After the grand prix I will go to the southern beaches of Thailand to relax like crazy until I go back to Bangkok on the 31st March to fly to Australia on the 1st April. Thats if I can arrange my Sydney flight for that day anyway, which I will be trying to sort later this morning by calling the Qantas office in Bangkok.
So, updates of travels some time tomorrow or Wednesday from Chang Mai. I've reserved a room there at a recommended guest house as I've heard from several people that it is busy up there.
Laters
Sloggs :-)
Arrived in Chiang Mai:The minibus from Kanchanaburi was fast but cramped, the seats are clearly designed for Thai people!
I wished the driver had left his sunglasses on for the whole trip, as near the end he took them off meaning I could now see him nodding off in his rear view mirror! Thankfully we soon hit Bangkok where it was much slower and he woke up a bit.
I got a tuktuk to the station and settled into a upper floor restaurant over looking the main station area and had some nice prawn spring rolls and a pineapple smoothie (these are so nice, gonna cost me much more to have these back home I'm sure!).
The train was not very busy and no one was sat opposite me which meant I could put my feet up until they converted it into a bed. There was an older French couple sat on the other side of the train from me and we chatted briefly about traveling and then about the rugby. I always enjoy chatting to Frenchies about the rugby, usually a good concersation!
As we left the Bangkok station I was surprised to see lots of food outlets lining the rails out on both side, which lots of people sat there right next to the track eating their dinner... strange place for that!
Shortly outside of the station the train stopped briefly while they closed the huge main road we were going to cross, and we were off!
The menu on the train was quite good, although not cheap, and I had a green curry which was way hotter than any other I've had, which detracted from fully enjoying it really. I ordered a breakfast too, for 7:30am but that was disappointing once it showed up...
Surprisingly I managed to sleep most of the way, interrupted occasionally when a loud bang of the carraiges happened. Its a noisy and bumpy experience, but at least it was comfy!
Since arriving and being picked up by my guesthouse, I've been checking out flights etc and it looks like I'll have to get the overnight train back to Bangkok to fly from there to the Sabah region of Borneo. No flights go from here direct as I first thought...
I've booked a 3 day / 2 night trek with the guesthouse for Thursday, hopefully they'll have the minimum number of people to leave. I'll do a cookery course the day after I get back, and then get moving back to Bangkok. This afternoon I will walk and see the big temple here in the city and tomorrow I plan on visiting the zoo just outside town which covers a huge 32 acres of land!
I might have to buy a raincoat too, for the trek, plus I'll need one handy for Oz and New Zealand!
Ciao for now! :)
