Saturday, 26 July 2014
Tiger Kingdom - The Good And The Bad
Waking up in Chiang Mai
June 21st
Sleeper trains are my new favourite mode of transport and in Thailand it will only cost you around £15 for the privilege of a 15 hour journey. The train arrived at 9.55, we were awake by 8, having hardly slept all night due to the ice cold temperatures of the air-con and the noisy train but fell asleep again for the nex two hours, missing the wake up call and only realising we needed to be out of the train within 5 minutes. Ive never gotten up so fast in my life, and by the time we were off the train after being shouted at by more than one guard for being late we were in beautiful Chiang Mai.
As with everywhere else in Thailand the person who was suppoed to be our transfer never turned up, so we someohow managed to hitch a free lift with a tuk-tuk. It looked a bit like this:
Sleeper trains are my new favourite mode of transport and in Thailand it will only cost you around £15 for the privilege of a 15 hour journey. The train arrived at 9.55, we were awake by 8, having hardly slept all night due to the ice cold temperatures of the air-con and the noisy train but fell asleep again for the nex two hours, missing the wake up call and only realising we needed to be out of the train within 5 minutes. Ive never gotten up so fast in my life, and by the time we were off the train after being shouted at by more than one guard for being late we were in beautiful Chiang Mai.
As with everywhere else in Thailand the person who was suppoed to be our transfer never turned up, so we someohow managed to hitch a free lift with a tuk-tuk. It looked a bit like this:
Saturday, 19 July 2014
BANGKOK AND NOISY SLEEPER TRAINS
20th June
We slept in until check out, which meant the day started at 12pm. Which became the case for the rest of the trip apart from when we had an organised trip where we had to get up super early. It's hard to describe what it's like walking through the streets of Bangkok, because you can go to two diffrent parts of the city and it feels as though you're in a completely different place entirely. Sukhumvit, where we were staying was home to the famous nana plaza, the red light distric and we would soon find out why.
The heat and humidity hits you as soon as you walk outside, so does the sour smell constantly present on the streets of the city and the noise from the endless queue of traffic. I'm not complaining though, this is the sort of thing I love, lots of things all going on at once, busy fast environments. Headed away from our hostel with little more than a camera and some money we decided to wonder. I had a map of Bangkok, I just didn't bother using it. We stumbled, somehow upon the Nana district and it became clear immediately. Every bar we walked past followed the same pattern, a white westeren looking guy with one or two pretty young thai girls sat around them. The bars were pretty much full, this was in the middle of the day and the same sight could be seen for the entire strip.
We fed our western hearts with a starbucks, we'd been walking for ages and just wanted the coldest drink possible [a Mango and Passion Fruit Frappucino]and we were treated to some free samples, I have no idea if it was a promo day or the staff were feeling nice, we had these little Frappucinos and two lots of cakes and pastries.
Deciding we'd done too much exploring and it was too hot we headed to pick up our bags and make our way to the main station in Bangkok. We decided to brave the metro, which is probably the best way to travel, its fast, cheap and the one to the Train station literally stopped right outside it! The little tokens they use are in the photo below. London, take note...
That night we would experience our first Thai sleeper train complete with smelly hole in the floor toilets, a crazy guy from Iceland and
We took the 19.35 train to Chiang Mai, which was a special express train meaning its a little bit better than the other sleeper train options. You'll get a little cabin room with four beds, two upper and two lower. The upside of this is if you're travelling in a group of four you can stay together but we were split up. The beds are also already made, meaning you can just go straight into them rather than waiting for them to be made up. If you plan on travelling around Thailand, you have to take a sleeper train, actually I really enjoyed them. Probably the only one out of my group that did, but if spending 15 hours on a train isn't for you take a plane, it's about £5 dearer if you can get a good deal on a flight and will take an hour for the same journey.
If i had the choice now I'd just take the Express train. It is cheaper and the beds are just as comfy. The beds face out into a corridor and it's a lot more social, we met a lot more people travelling on the way back compared to the zero we did on the way there.
Next: Waking up in a jungle in Chiang Mai...
Laura :)
We slept in until check out, which meant the day started at 12pm. Which became the case for the rest of the trip apart from when we had an organised trip where we had to get up super early. It's hard to describe what it's like walking through the streets of Bangkok, because you can go to two diffrent parts of the city and it feels as though you're in a completely different place entirely. Sukhumvit, where we were staying was home to the famous nana plaza, the red light distric and we would soon find out why.
The heat and humidity hits you as soon as you walk outside, so does the sour smell constantly present on the streets of the city and the noise from the endless queue of traffic. I'm not complaining though, this is the sort of thing I love, lots of things all going on at once, busy fast environments. Headed away from our hostel with little more than a camera and some money we decided to wonder. I had a map of Bangkok, I just didn't bother using it. We stumbled, somehow upon the Nana district and it became clear immediately. Every bar we walked past followed the same pattern, a white westeren looking guy with one or two pretty young thai girls sat around them. The bars were pretty much full, this was in the middle of the day and the same sight could be seen for the entire strip.
We fed our western hearts with a starbucks, we'd been walking for ages and just wanted the coldest drink possible [a Mango and Passion Fruit Frappucino]and we were treated to some free samples, I have no idea if it was a promo day or the staff were feeling nice, we had these little Frappucinos and two lots of cakes and pastries.
Deciding we'd done too much exploring and it was too hot we headed to pick up our bags and make our way to the main station in Bangkok. We decided to brave the metro, which is probably the best way to travel, its fast, cheap and the one to the Train station literally stopped right outside it! The little tokens they use are in the photo below. London, take note...
That night we would experience our first Thai sleeper train complete with smelly hole in the floor toilets, a crazy guy from Iceland and
If i had the choice now I'd just take the Express train. It is cheaper and the beds are just as comfy. The beds face out into a corridor and it's a lot more social, we met a lot more people travelling on the way back compared to the zero we did on the way there.
Next: Waking up in a jungle in Chiang Mai...
Laura :)
Friday, 18 July 2014
FLYING AND BANGKOK
18th June
A Month ago I got on the plane and headed to Bangkok for a month of travelling, eating, getting lost and chucked in a river by an elephant.
So wednesday 18th July started at 6am with a 4 hour car journey to Heathrow. We arrived, got lost and finally got through into the airport. I ran straight for the perfume counters and saturated my clothes in perfume, I wasn't going to be able to have perfume for a month and I really love perfume. Before we knew it we were on the plane and heading to Bangkok. The journey started well with the most amazing spicy chicken, it was better than most things I'd ever eaten, so that was saying something and ended with myself getting stuck in the airplane toilet just before the plane landed because a woman had fainted outside the door, I think she got away okay but I did start to panic that id be in the toilet for landing. Ha!
19th June
We landed in Bangkok the next morning, fresh faced and no idea what we were doing. I'd booked a hostel but had no idea where it was or how we would get there. First stop was to find some flights for our trip down south half way through.
Tip: if you book tickets at the airport in Bangkok, when you arrive there are a lot of people who will give you information if you ask for it, BUT they'll lead you to the "travel agents". They will add commission onto anything you book, so for flights go to the top level of the airport and you'll see the Bangkok Airways and Thai Airways which is the best place to book. For hotels and trips, book a hotel in advance and you'll be able to organise trips through the hotel or other travel agents away from the airport.
Once we had the tickets and I had one more thing in my bag I had to not loose we headed for the taxis, we did try the skytrain and the metro but realised we didn't have a clue where the train station was so it was hopeless. 300Baht later and we were buying our tickets for the next day to Chiang Mai. We didnt know how quickly the train would book up so we bought them a day ahead, however you could probably turn up on the day and get a train, we took the special express, which is the nicest one and that had booked up by the next day. However the express trains are just as nice and if travelling in a group they're a bit more social and exciting.
Next step: get a taxi to the hostel, for our first night we stayed in Sukhumvit, away from Khao San Road and we had no idea where it was, neither, as we later found out did our taxi driver. We paid another 300Baht, which technically you should always get the taxis to use a meter, a pre agreed price will always be a lot more expensive. Turned out we go value for money as we drove around for about an hour and a half collectively trying to find our hostel. After Finally getting there it was a pleasant suprise. Just getting used to the head it was nice to head to a room with air con.
This was the view from my little pod bed
The messy pod bed:
The 'lobby', I loved this cool little hostel!
Movie room:
The night was filled with movies (I fell asleep minutes into the first one and didn't see any), a late night trip to the 7/11 and snoring naked asians.
See you tomorrow!
LAURA :)
A Month ago I got on the plane and headed to Bangkok for a month of travelling, eating, getting lost and chucked in a river by an elephant.
So wednesday 18th July started at 6am with a 4 hour car journey to Heathrow. We arrived, got lost and finally got through into the airport. I ran straight for the perfume counters and saturated my clothes in perfume, I wasn't going to be able to have perfume for a month and I really love perfume. Before we knew it we were on the plane and heading to Bangkok. The journey started well with the most amazing spicy chicken, it was better than most things I'd ever eaten, so that was saying something and ended with myself getting stuck in the airplane toilet just before the plane landed because a woman had fainted outside the door, I think she got away okay but I did start to panic that id be in the toilet for landing. Ha!
19th June
We landed in Bangkok the next morning, fresh faced and no idea what we were doing. I'd booked a hostel but had no idea where it was or how we would get there. First stop was to find some flights for our trip down south half way through.
Tip: if you book tickets at the airport in Bangkok, when you arrive there are a lot of people who will give you information if you ask for it, BUT they'll lead you to the "travel agents". They will add commission onto anything you book, so for flights go to the top level of the airport and you'll see the Bangkok Airways and Thai Airways which is the best place to book. For hotels and trips, book a hotel in advance and you'll be able to organise trips through the hotel or other travel agents away from the airport.
Once we had the tickets and I had one more thing in my bag I had to not loose we headed for the taxis, we did try the skytrain and the metro but realised we didn't have a clue where the train station was so it was hopeless. 300Baht later and we were buying our tickets for the next day to Chiang Mai. We didnt know how quickly the train would book up so we bought them a day ahead, however you could probably turn up on the day and get a train, we took the special express, which is the nicest one and that had booked up by the next day. However the express trains are just as nice and if travelling in a group they're a bit more social and exciting.
Next step: get a taxi to the hostel, for our first night we stayed in Sukhumvit, away from Khao San Road and we had no idea where it was, neither, as we later found out did our taxi driver. We paid another 300Baht, which technically you should always get the taxis to use a meter, a pre agreed price will always be a lot more expensive. Turned out we go value for money as we drove around for about an hour and a half collectively trying to find our hostel. After Finally getting there it was a pleasant suprise. Just getting used to the head it was nice to head to a room with air con.
The night was filled with movies (I fell asleep minutes into the first one and didn't see any), a late night trip to the 7/11 and snoring naked asians.
See you tomorrow!
LAURA :)
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