WhereRtheWilliams?: Thai Travel 101

The night train to Chiang Mai (on December 30th) was in a second class sleeper carriage. It was quite communal because it wasn't sealed private cabins like first class that weve had in Vietnam and Egypt. People walk past your seats selling you food and drinks and the kids were able to sit together and play cards for ages. The beds are made by converting the seat into an upper and lower bunk. They give you a curtain to give you a bit of privacy. The train did the 3rd world Asian thing which is to stop in the middle of nowhere for extended periods of time for no apparent reason which made us arrive 3 hours later in Chiang Mai which is all very acceptable apparently.The dinner i picked- green chicken curry set meal deal which comes with red duck curry (160 THB) - was fantastic though!That afternoon we decided to go to Doi Suthep Temple which is way up in the hills. Note: There are over 300 temples in Chiang Mai. A Tuk Tuk Said be could drive us there. The method however is that he takes us to a waiting Sangthaew, which are mostly hilux utes with 2 bench seats along the sides.

The tuk tuk driver collects his 100 THB and we pay the ute driver for his trip which is around 16km of winding road. This made me carsick as you can only look out of the rear of the car. I was ready to vomit when he stopped and dropped us off. He gave us an hour there. The temple was well worth the visit and there were thousands of locals there as it was new years eve and they were there to offer alms for the new year. One thing we bought was icecream in a cup with condensed milk for 45c. There was a nice atmosphere in Chiang Mai 31st night, sure there were thousands of people, but it didn't feel too crowded. The thousands of floating lanterns in the sky was an awesome spectacle!

Yesterday, Jan 1st, the boys went with the Earnshaw family to do the Flight of the Gibbon ziplining so Shamara and I hired a motorbike and explored the outskirts of town. The famous hot springs at San Kampaeng, 35 Kms was one of our stops. It was much bigger and more neatly set out than I had expected. The springs went from 2 old 10m high geysers fed into trenches that ran through the compound overhung with shade trees and manicured lawns and gardens. Since it was a public holiday thousands of people were picnicking there in groups, soaking their feet and swimming on the thermal pools, and the atmosphere was great.

We were able to boil some quail eggs in the hottest part of the springs and ate them with soy sauce. :) we also had a very nice pawpaw salad with grilled chicken and pork. They spoke no English so we had to point at other peoples meal and hope for the best. Eg; We were given a bottle of coke that we hadn't asked for! We also had a very nice ice kachang (not sure what it's called here) for 60c - this is meant to cool you down as you sit with your feet in the warm water.

More fun and travels tomorrow!