Sleeper train to Chiang Mai and 300 step Temple

We boarded an overnight sleeper train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and were surprised that it was actually pretty comfortable. We had a double seat to ourselves and it opened out into a private bunk bed with enough room for Nicola and I to share one bed. There was even a curtain to make it more private. The workers on the train are not paid a wage but they receive a commission from what they sell; so we had to fend off enthusiastic beer sellers all evening.

We arrived in Chiang Mai after a 12 hour journey and after a further 30 minute journey by car we reached our hotel, the Chiang Mai Gate Hotel. We were pleased with our room, it was large and spacious, was comfortable, clean and well decorated; a definite improvement on our Bangkok hotel. It was also a relief to change our clothes and shower after our overnight train journey.

The scenery in Northern Thailand was very different to Bangkok, it was more rural and looked a bit like something from a Vietnam war film. Chiang Mai seemed a lot more relaxed than Bangkok, although it was still a busy place.

We planned to visit the 300 step temple located on a mountain overlooking the city of Chiang Mai. Our guide Sek told us that Buddhists believe that they can not reach Nirvana without visiting this temple. Despite the heat, the 300 steps were worth climbing in order to reach the temple.

The temple and its compound were very grand, like Wat Po, everything seemed to glitter gold. There were detailed murals on he walls that were well preserved, and the numerous carvings were all golden Buddha statues.

We were lucky enough to be blessed by two separate monks, who wished us a safe journey. One of the monks, after blessing us, tied a piece of white string around my wrist and his assistant tied one around Nicola's wrist because monks are not allowed to directly touch females. Sek told us this was because monks have opted to follow a spiritual path and should refrain from temptation...women being one temptation.

See temple pictures below...

Bangkok - Canal cruise and Wat Po

The night before at the restaurant we had agreed to a canal cruise of Bangkok and so we rose  for breakfast at 8ish. It must be said that we did not miss much the previous morning, the free breakfast was free for a reason. The Thai food was okay, but the rest was not great, my coffee actually tasted (and smelled) of advocaat; very weird.

We had a nice walk from the hotel through Chinatown and down to the river. We jumped on board a little junk style boat and the driver wasted no time in opening the throttle and driving us along the river at what felt like a million knots an hour!



It was a great way to see Bangkok though, and the river traffic was full of fellow tourists on the canal tour. The river was heavily polluted and we did our best not to swallow any of the water as it splashed in our faces.

We saw some lovely sights along the river, and it soon became apparent how spiritual a place Bangkok is (was?) as we saw an innumerable amount of temples...

We passed by some local houses, and Sek (our guide) informed us that Bangkok was formed along the river with the local people living in floating houses, many of which that are still in place are over 100 years old. Some of the people in these houses make a living by selling fruit and drinks to the passers by in the boats and we were approached a by a number of traders in boats...

We also had a quick stop to feed some catfish (worth a photo we thought)...

Nicola actually took more catfish photos than I did!

Wat Po

Our next stop on the canal cruise (after feeding the catfish and walking through a Chinese market where they dried all the fish (Nicola did not enjoy that bit!) was Wat Po, an ancient temple that houses a MASSIVE reclining golden Buddha statue.

The heat was really affecting us today and we were actually darting between spots of shade (Nicola too if you'd believe that). The temple itself was beautiful, very grand and ornately decorated with gold EVERYWHERE. 

See below pictures from around the temple...

Bangkok - Chatuchak Market

We started our first full day in Bangkok with a nice lie in...missing the free breakfast in the process. We (Nicola) had read up on things to do in Bangkok and we decided as it was the weekend, to visit Chatuchak Market, the weekend market. We figured, the best way to discover the sights and sounds of a city is by visiting a local market...and we certainly saw some sights!

We took the underground metro (an underground station was conveniently located outside our hotel) and for 40Baht (just less than £1) we bought a single ticket that took us almost to the end of the line at Chatuchak Market. We were presented with a real hustle and bustle, with the pavements full of people and market stalls selling all sorts of crazy looking food and drink, not to mention weird dancing robot toys.

We were feeling hungry after missing our breakfast (as it was by now around 1pm) so decided to enter the market at the first entrance and we stumbled upon the art section of the market and a little Japanese restaurant (Kinkoru) which served delicious noodles and dumplings.

With full bellies we entered the melee in the market. After walking through the art section (there were lovely paintings and statues but none of that could fit in our rucksacks so we moved on before temptation struck) we came across the animal section (live animals)...which was quite an experience. We saw all sorts of animals; puppies, kittens, tortoises, and even a squirrel dressed as a cowboy!

We tried and tried to worm our way out of the rabbit warren that Chatuchuk market is, but only managed to stumble across an indoor market that was holding a rabbit beauty competition...bizarre! There were loads of Thais looking around, waiting for the competition to begin and we were lucky (if that' the word) to hear an American judge describing one of the entrants as thus - "good coat, nice build..." whilst manhandling the poor thing.

We finally managed to find our way out of the market and as we were leaving we saw a man pass on a motorbike taxi holding a live snake!

We were thoroughly market-ed out by this point, as the heat and humidity combined with the craziness of the market took its toll so we headed back to the hotel.

Around 6pm we met the other members of our tour and met our tour guide (Sek) and headed to a nearby restaurant for food. I had a list of things I wanted to try in Thailand and one of those was a Red curry, and when I ordered the waitress asked "medium or spicy"...as I'd like to think I'm not an idiot, I opted for medium. It almost blew my head off!

Au revoir for now

Just to let you all know, we made it safe and sound to Thailand and this entry is a little overdue but that's mainly due to trouble connecting to internet out here.

Now back to the blog. We left Swansea Train Station on 20 September on our way to Paddington (we did manage to squeeze in a Joe's Ice Cream before we left!). It was a very emotional goodbye (for now) and we managed to have a photo with my dad and Scoby before the tears.

Before the tears...

After getting to Heathrow (after spotting Mark from Westlife on the Heathrow Express) we boarded a flight to Delhi. We told everybody who would listen that this flight was going to take 12 hours...we exaggerated, it only took 8 1/2 hours (oops).

We were only in Delhi for a few hours but managed to sneak in a few photos to pass the time...

The next flight from Delhi to Bangkok took only 4 1/2 hours...as above, we originally exaggerated as we told everyone it would take 10 hours. On the positive, we saved ourselves 9 hours travel time from our original estimates!

We landed in Bangkok airport on 21 September around 6pm local time and we were picked up by our representative of the tour company holding a little sign with our names on...made us feel like celebrities! 

We were pretty tired when we arrived at our hotel (Bangkok Centre Hotel) so we only ventured out for some food to the restaurant within the hotel compound...the curiously named "Wind Rose". We thought we would celebrate our safe arrival in Bangkok with a cocktail...but soon wished we hadn't as the "Mai Thai" and "Screwdriver" were pretty disgusting. The food was good though, simple fried noodles with chicken for us both. 

We then went back to our hotels for some well deserved rest...

We're off!

Today's the day!

After 30 + weeks of counting down we are finally setting off. Flying from Heathrow at 20:45 this evening... but managing to sneak in a Joe's Ice Cream before we head off from Swansea Train Station at 13:30. It's not really hit us that we are going but I'm sure as the train rolls into Paddington it will start to sink in.

We won't land in Bangkok until 18:00 ish tomorrow (that's Thai time, no idea what time that is in UK).

Once again, I've packed very light...less than 10 t-shirts/polo shirts/jumpers,  two trousers, three pairs of shorts and one pair of shoes...I'll be stocking up on counterfeit clothing in the Thai markets I think!!

We'll check in once we've landed in Bangkok and we'll start to upload some pictures for you all to see once we have had a few days to settle and get back from our hill tribe trek (can't imagine there being much of an internet connection in the jungle!).

Joel & Nicola xxx

Thailand Itinerary

I've managed to piece together our itinerary for Thailand (after copying the information from a lovely collage Nicola made) and a rough outline is as follows:

20 September 
Leave Swansea and fly from Heathrow around 20:45

21 September
Land in New Delhi for a brief stop off before continuing to Bangkok

22  - 23 September
Tour of Thailand starts with a few days in Bangkok. Sleeper train on night of 23 September

24 September
A day in Chiang Mai

25 - 28 September
A three day hill tribe trek through jungle (including a trip to an elephant sanctuary!) before returning to Chiang Mai to catch a sleeper train back to Bangkok

29 - 30 September
Two more days in Bangkok

1 October
A day in Khao San National Park

2 - 3 October
We are catching a ferry to the island of Koh Samui for a few days drinking cocktails on the beach...such a hard life

4 - 6 October
We are then heading to another island, Koh Tao, for two more days of living the dream on an idyllic Thai island

7 - 8 October
Back to Bangkok for our final two days in Thailand

9 October
Fly overnight from Bangkok to Sydney

10 October
Land in Sydney!

I know the above does not provide much detail, but I will fill this blog (as and when possible) with photographs of our trip which will hopefully shed more light into what we have got planned. Only five days to go now, getting pretty excited but it still has not really sunk in yet. I'm still just enjoying what feels like a holiday from work! 

A new beginning...

Well, in roughly eight days Nicola and I will be heading off on part one of our travelling odyssey/adventure/running away from responsibility trip. I thought this would be the perfect time to start a blog that will (hopefully) provide a glimpse into what we are getting up to on the other side of the world...for those people who are interested of course!

For those of you who do not yet know our itinerary, stop 1 is Thailand. 20 days of sun kissed beaches and elephant rides await...as well as haggling, having three piece suits custom made, squid eating (just me on that one) and hill tribe trekking.

The blog may go a little quiet whilst we are in Thailand (21 September to 9 October) due to the jumping around from place to place, and more likely, due to my own forgetfulness but do not fear I'm sure once Nicola and I get into the "blogging" routine you'll soon wish we had never started this thing as we'll be inundating you all with posts and pictures from our travels.

I'll include the full itinerary for Thailand in a separate blog post so keep your eyes peeled. There is no itinerary for Australia as of yet, we are kind of just turning up and seeing what happens...

Best wishes everyone

Joel and Nicola xxx