Trains and busses and motorbikes, oh my!
Hello again, at around the end of week 2 of my trip. I am now in Chiang Mai up in the north. So hmmmm, where did I leave off...
We ended up bumming around Ranong TRYING to figure out how to get the heck out of there (not an easy task). Finally decided on an 8 hour overnight VIP bus to Bangkok - which I was only able to barely nap on... But it was fine. Comfortable enough seats (were my back not on fire from the incredible blistering burn I had). Got into Bangkok around 4-5am into the super crazy packed Southern Bus Terminal. While getting our packs ready a girl comes up to us, noticing we're the only Westerners (she's from Sweden). We figure out we're going in the same direction and decide to share a taxi. Problem is the taxi line is insane and the guy heading it is trying to take advantage of us, telling us it'll be 500 baht.. when we refuse, he refuses to let us take another taxi and starts yelling at us. After 5 minutes of wandering around he finally relents and lets us take a metered taxi (was only 160baht all told). Had a very interesting taxi driver, seemed to like to touch Dan's freshly shaved face. He dropped off the Swedish girl first, then us at Lumphini Park. We wandered around for a bit... but it was so early most things were closed. We went down a couple of back alleys and found this really quiet and nice and cheap guest house that was open called Lee 3 or something along those lines.
We were planning on leaving early the next morning, but had all day to get things done. (which... basically ended up only being unlocking my phone so I could use Thai sim). We did have other plans, however. We'd looked on couchsurfing.com earlier to see if we could get together with some people to do something for Dan's birthday - and it turned out there was a big Bangkok meet that same night! So we went to the front of Lumphini Park at around 4pm, and slowly but surely people started showing up - quite a few Americans, but also many Thais and some other interesting nationalities! We had a picnic in the park, played some frisbee, talked with a lot of different people - it was actually a really fun experience, I enjoyed myself a lot. Then one girl said that her boyfriend was the DJ at some fancy club there and if we got there between 8-9:30 we could get free drinks... so about 10 of us set off on a mission to find club Narsissus... was really a fancy place, turns out it was some model guy Patrick's birthday party. Was really empty since we were there so early, but the music was super loud and really hard to talk over. Free beer and whiskey/sodas though. Talked with this nice girl Christine from Seattle who'd been in Africa for the past few months, was interesting to hear about. After a while we all kind of just decided it was time to get out of there..wasn't really our scene. So we walked home, through Soi Cowboy... which had so many crazy neon lights it was like a mini-thai las vegas (Prostitutes gallore!). Was quite the spectacle.
The next morning we went to the train station and got a ticket for Ayuthaya, the ancient capital. Was 15 baht each (less than 50 cents american) for an hour and a half train ride in 3rd class... 3rd class was quite the experience (much different than our 2nd class sleeper cars). Lots of interesting thai people crammed into benches in the heat... and people walking down the aisles selling food and drinks. Got off in Ayuthaya, took the...1-2 minute long ferry ride for 4 baht, and walked around trying to find a guest house. While we were walking a tuk-tuk tour guide flagged us down, and he was impressed and pleased with dan's thai, told us to come back if we wanted a tour. So once we had settled in at our guest house, we went to find him and he was still there! We went to a bunch of different Wats, some still standing with many worshippers praying with lotus flowers.. some ruins from when the Burmese attacked leaving hundreds of headless buddha statues. All very interesting to look at. Then our guide took us to this tall white temple to climb up and watch the sunset... behind the beautiful burning fields and trash, haha. Might not have been beautiful but it definitely was an experience. Our guide and his wife were so nice, took us around for 4-5 hours instead of the usual 2, for the same price. Even took us with them to the night market and we all got dinner, and they bought us lots of water - and laughed at my horrible Thai. At the end of the night they said they still wanted to show us more, so told us to come outside at 8am and they would take us more places, including breakfast, AND then take us to the train station in time for our train! So... the next morning we go outside and there they are, treat us to a nice breakfast.. then take us to the ancient palace of the old king, next to a modern looking wat. The ruins were really beautiful.. if a bit crowded. We also got to see a giant buddha in a lying down position...and just happened to be there on the day they were changing the orange cloths that draped him! (happens once every 3 months).
They took us to the train station, we buy tickets for the air condition 2nd class special express train (sounds way fancy right?). Killed time at this restaurany/guest house across the street - very interesting thai fellow owned it, also spoke some spanish. had all these crazy puzzles and tricks to show us! Kept track of how many people from each nationality could solve each one (we sucked horribly). Was a really fun way to pass the time.
Got on our train, 4-5 hour bus ride... pretty scenery. I can officially say I've mastered the squat toilet... this train had a squat toilet.. and you can see the track racing by underneath through the hole that you peed into. I'd say my balance and aim were pretty dern good. We got off at Phitsanulok, only to get right on a bus to Sukothai - another ancient city full of ruins. Stayed in a suuuper out of the way guest house (had to walk through a field in the dark to find it), was really quaint... but horrible for sleep. Lumpy/hard bed, no screens - bad mosquito net. We were eaten alive. The next day we moved down the road to a much nicer one for only 50baht more. Sukothai is split into two parts - New and Old. Old is where all the ruins are, and we were staying in new, so we decided to rent a motorbike for the day and go to Old Sukothai... was a bit scary at first seeing as how I really haven't been on one before, and Dan had never driven with a passenger... but we made it through unscathed and it was quite enjoyable. Once we got to the "historical park" they call it, we rented bicycles (HORRIBLE quality, hahaaha) and rode around from ruined wat to ruined wat. Was very pretty and interesting to look at, riding bikes was enjoyable. It took us quite a few hours to ride around and see the ruins... and by the time we got back to our motorbike it had started to rain, but we wanted to head north and see some more ruins - it's a good thing we did. We came across the ruins of this one Wat, and noooo one else was there. It was a fascinating place. Gorgeous and ancient looking - truly just magical. We wandered around there for quite a while. Decided to check the guide book before departing - good thing we did, found out that just half a km west there was the biggest surviving buddha in the area - 11meters wide and 15 high (and while they charged us foreigners 100baht to get in...it was only 20 for thais. freakin lame). Was still a pretty cool thing to see... it's hand was covered in gold leaf.
We walked back to the ruins and saw an absolutely gorgeous sunset start. So we decided to sit atop some steps and watch the sun set behind the ruins, making the sky a beautiful orange. It really was absolutely amazing. We rode home along the river on the motorbike and I got to watch the sunset further as we passed the ruins... so great. Returned the motorbike and...sort of attempted to go to bed early, which didn't really happen. We had a 6am wake up today to catch the 7:15 bus from Sukothai up to Chiang Mai. 6 hour bus ride.. pretty uncomfortable seats, no bathroom - completely full bus at one point. Still was able to nap some, and passing through the mountains was quite beautiful. We are now staying at some guesthouse owned by an Irish lady in a suuuuper westernized part of town. We ate indian food for lunch (mmmm nan bread) and even got my day pack fixed (the strap had broken) for free by this thai leather worker (with his girlfriend from the netherlands). They were very nice.
Our mission in Chiang Mai is to try and find a good sturdy motorcyle to rent for the next two weeks or so, so we can do some motorcycle touring of our own... just need to figure out the logistics. I'm hoping to extend my stay a feeew days if possible, to experience Sonkran (the thai new year) here in Chiang Mai - it's April 13-15. Haven't made any decisions yet.
And yes, pictures WILL come... just not til I get home, 'cause I'm lazy. Hope you enjoyed my ramblings.
We ended up bumming around Ranong TRYING to figure out how to get the heck out of there (not an easy task). Finally decided on an 8 hour overnight VIP bus to Bangkok - which I was only able to barely nap on... But it was fine. Comfortable enough seats (were my back not on fire from the incredible blistering burn I had). Got into Bangkok around 4-5am into the super crazy packed Southern Bus Terminal. While getting our packs ready a girl comes up to us, noticing we're the only Westerners (she's from Sweden). We figure out we're going in the same direction and decide to share a taxi. Problem is the taxi line is insane and the guy heading it is trying to take advantage of us, telling us it'll be 500 baht.. when we refuse, he refuses to let us take another taxi and starts yelling at us. After 5 minutes of wandering around he finally relents and lets us take a metered taxi (was only 160baht all told). Had a very interesting taxi driver, seemed to like to touch Dan's freshly shaved face. He dropped off the Swedish girl first, then us at Lumphini Park. We wandered around for a bit... but it was so early most things were closed. We went down a couple of back alleys and found this really quiet and nice and cheap guest house that was open called Lee 3 or something along those lines.
We were planning on leaving early the next morning, but had all day to get things done. (which... basically ended up only being unlocking my phone so I could use Thai sim). We did have other plans, however. We'd looked on couchsurfing.com earlier to see if we could get together with some people to do something for Dan's birthday - and it turned out there was a big Bangkok meet that same night! So we went to the front of Lumphini Park at around 4pm, and slowly but surely people started showing up - quite a few Americans, but also many Thais and some other interesting nationalities! We had a picnic in the park, played some frisbee, talked with a lot of different people - it was actually a really fun experience, I enjoyed myself a lot. Then one girl said that her boyfriend was the DJ at some fancy club there and if we got there between 8-9:30 we could get free drinks... so about 10 of us set off on a mission to find club Narsissus... was really a fancy place, turns out it was some model guy Patrick's birthday party. Was really empty since we were there so early, but the music was super loud and really hard to talk over. Free beer and whiskey/sodas though. Talked with this nice girl Christine from Seattle who'd been in Africa for the past few months, was interesting to hear about. After a while we all kind of just decided it was time to get out of there..wasn't really our scene. So we walked home, through Soi Cowboy... which had so many crazy neon lights it was like a mini-thai las vegas (Prostitutes gallore!). Was quite the spectacle.
The next morning we went to the train station and got a ticket for Ayuthaya, the ancient capital. Was 15 baht each (less than 50 cents american) for an hour and a half train ride in 3rd class... 3rd class was quite the experience (much different than our 2nd class sleeper cars). Lots of interesting thai people crammed into benches in the heat... and people walking down the aisles selling food and drinks. Got off in Ayuthaya, took the...1-2 minute long ferry ride for 4 baht, and walked around trying to find a guest house. While we were walking a tuk-tuk tour guide flagged us down, and he was impressed and pleased with dan's thai, told us to come back if we wanted a tour. So once we had settled in at our guest house, we went to find him and he was still there! We went to a bunch of different Wats, some still standing with many worshippers praying with lotus flowers.. some ruins from when the Burmese attacked leaving hundreds of headless buddha statues. All very interesting to look at. Then our guide took us to this tall white temple to climb up and watch the sunset... behind the beautiful burning fields and trash, haha. Might not have been beautiful but it definitely was an experience. Our guide and his wife were so nice, took us around for 4-5 hours instead of the usual 2, for the same price. Even took us with them to the night market and we all got dinner, and they bought us lots of water - and laughed at my horrible Thai. At the end of the night they said they still wanted to show us more, so told us to come outside at 8am and they would take us more places, including breakfast, AND then take us to the train station in time for our train! So... the next morning we go outside and there they are, treat us to a nice breakfast.. then take us to the ancient palace of the old king, next to a modern looking wat. The ruins were really beautiful.. if a bit crowded. We also got to see a giant buddha in a lying down position...and just happened to be there on the day they were changing the orange cloths that draped him! (happens once every 3 months).
They took us to the train station, we buy tickets for the air condition 2nd class special express train (sounds way fancy right?). Killed time at this restaurany/guest house across the street - very interesting thai fellow owned it, also spoke some spanish. had all these crazy puzzles and tricks to show us! Kept track of how many people from each nationality could solve each one (we sucked horribly). Was a really fun way to pass the time.
Got on our train, 4-5 hour bus ride... pretty scenery. I can officially say I've mastered the squat toilet... this train had a squat toilet.. and you can see the track racing by underneath through the hole that you peed into. I'd say my balance and aim were pretty dern good. We got off at Phitsanulok, only to get right on a bus to Sukothai - another ancient city full of ruins. Stayed in a suuuper out of the way guest house (had to walk through a field in the dark to find it), was really quaint... but horrible for sleep. Lumpy/hard bed, no screens - bad mosquito net. We were eaten alive. The next day we moved down the road to a much nicer one for only 50baht more. Sukothai is split into two parts - New and Old. Old is where all the ruins are, and we were staying in new, so we decided to rent a motorbike for the day and go to Old Sukothai... was a bit scary at first seeing as how I really haven't been on one before, and Dan had never driven with a passenger... but we made it through unscathed and it was quite enjoyable. Once we got to the "historical park" they call it, we rented bicycles (HORRIBLE quality, hahaaha) and rode around from ruined wat to ruined wat. Was very pretty and interesting to look at, riding bikes was enjoyable. It took us quite a few hours to ride around and see the ruins... and by the time we got back to our motorbike it had started to rain, but we wanted to head north and see some more ruins - it's a good thing we did. We came across the ruins of this one Wat, and noooo one else was there. It was a fascinating place. Gorgeous and ancient looking - truly just magical. We wandered around there for quite a while. Decided to check the guide book before departing - good thing we did, found out that just half a km west there was the biggest surviving buddha in the area - 11meters wide and 15 high (and while they charged us foreigners 100baht to get in...it was only 20 for thais. freakin lame). Was still a pretty cool thing to see... it's hand was covered in gold leaf.
We walked back to the ruins and saw an absolutely gorgeous sunset start. So we decided to sit atop some steps and watch the sun set behind the ruins, making the sky a beautiful orange. It really was absolutely amazing. We rode home along the river on the motorbike and I got to watch the sunset further as we passed the ruins... so great. Returned the motorbike and...sort of attempted to go to bed early, which didn't really happen. We had a 6am wake up today to catch the 7:15 bus from Sukothai up to Chiang Mai. 6 hour bus ride.. pretty uncomfortable seats, no bathroom - completely full bus at one point. Still was able to nap some, and passing through the mountains was quite beautiful. We are now staying at some guesthouse owned by an Irish lady in a suuuuper westernized part of town. We ate indian food for lunch (mmmm nan bread) and even got my day pack fixed (the strap had broken) for free by this thai leather worker (with his girlfriend from the netherlands). They were very nice.
Our mission in Chiang Mai is to try and find a good sturdy motorcyle to rent for the next two weeks or so, so we can do some motorcycle touring of our own... just need to figure out the logistics. I'm hoping to extend my stay a feeew days if possible, to experience Sonkran (the thai new year) here in Chiang Mai - it's April 13-15. Haven't made any decisions yet.
And yes, pictures WILL come... just not til I get home, 'cause I'm lazy. Hope you enjoyed my ramblings.