Sooooo, we took the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. It was the cheapest option and also relatively pain free. We started off a little stressed because we forgot to take peak hour traffic into account, and despite leaving for the train station an hour before we had to be there, arrived within minutes of the train departing.
The train had seats that converted to bunks later in the trip so everyone could sleep the ride away- unless you're on the top bunk- which we were. In that case, the best you can hope for is a couple of hours sleep here and there as every time the train jerks, it feels as though you'll rocket out of the super narrow bunk!
We arrived in Chiang Mai in good time and caught a red taxi ( a kind of cross breed pick up with a roof at the back and bench seats down the sides in order to pack in the maximum number of passengers) to our hotel.
Our hotel was pretty cheap, $6 each a night, and we were prepared for a very basic room. Unfortunately, the hotel hadn't seen that we'd requested twin beds, so for the first 2 nights Anne and I shared a regular double bed, in a tiny box of a room, painted a nauseating shade of blue with jelly fish on the walls. Luckily for us, we were able to move to a room with twin beds on the third night- freedom!!!
The area we're in had a power outage on our first night, so the fan went off during the night and we woke up sweaty to no water. They'd had problem with the plumbing ( the owner said something about a bomb?) and had a plumber in to fix it, so a.l was good.... Until the second morning, when we had no water again- this time they forgot to turn it on??
Anyway, everything's fine now, and we're happy having our own beds and have resigned ourselves to sharing our room with the ants that love us^^.
On our first day, we had a few hours to kill before check-in, so we went exploring and had organic coffee and an amazingly delicious blondie at ...... Tea house ( I can't remember the name) then wandered through a few of the Wats (temples) nearby. My favourite was one by the tea shop. It was like an I-Spy for animals. We spotted a lot of dogs, cats and even some hens leading their chicks around!
This morning we are enjoying delicious brekky at Blue Diamond Cafe. Chiang Mai has many amazing places to eat, and is very vegetarian friendly! We've been enjoying checking out different places and have been surprised to come across things like lemon meringue pie!
Blue Diamond Cafe has a healthy eating focus and offers a lot of organic fresh veg and fruit dishes and organic coffee and even bake their own bread! I had homemade muesli with fruit and yoghurt for brekky for $2.50!
We have all day today and tomorrow to devote to exploring restaurants and cafes around town, the we are heading to Luang Prabang, Laos, on Friday.
Chiang Mai is a really great city. It has a relaxed atmosphere and there's plenty to do, no matter what style of traveler you are. I love it here!
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