After crossing back into Thailand, we headed straight to the train station because our plan was to make it all the way to Chiang Mai in one go! We got to the station in Aranyaprathet very early, so we sat in a cafe for a couple of hours and waited around.
On this train we managed to get some padded seats and were by ourselves for most of the journey so it wasn't too unpleasant! During the journey I insisted on buying a mystery bamboo stick full of rice, which turned out really nice and sweet! While we were trying to eat it and old Thai couple sat near us laughed as we struggled to work out how!
We got to Bangkok with plenty of time before the overnight train to Chiang Mai, but there were no tickets left! There were also no tickets for the next day at first but as we were leaving 2 tickets for the next day were cancelled so we booked those straight away!
Because of the extra day we headed straight to Khao San to the same guesthouse as before and had an early night.
On a whim, we decided to visit Dusit Zoo, which turned out to be really fun! We managed to touch some elephants, see a shark exhibit with only 1 decent shark and a lot of dead fish in tanks and rode a pedalo round the lake with monitor lizards swimming around us!
In the evening we went to our train and struggled to get much sleep overnight. We had breakfast in bed, which was incredibly overpriced and absolutely disgusting! It made me very very sick, including a fever which had us worried!
We wondered around Chiang Mai for what felt like and eternity finding hotels either full or filthy. We eventually settled on a nice enough hotel in a decent location within the city walls.
The next day we stayed in bed with food poisoning, which was very unpleasant! The day after, we planned to explore the city but couldn't be bothered in the end. We bought train tickets to Bangkok, just in case everything was fully booked again and the best we could get was a carriage without air con! Next, me and Imogen shed some hair. Imogen's eyebrows and my beard! It was pretty weird being shaved by someone else! We finished the day at an Italian restaurant where a group of guys were having some kind of backgammon league.
We had booked something called Jungle Flight for the next day, which is just like Go Ape in England! It took us ages to get through the jungle and mountain roads to where it was based but the views on the way made it nicer! We kitted up in some embarrassing gear, including some kind of hair net and set off! Imogen hated the day and was scared of everything, but I definitely enjoyed it lots! The scariest part was a 40m free fall (they called it abseiling) while it was pouring down with rain! We finished with a nice free lunch and free t shirts! Not bad! When we got back to the hotel Imogen decided she needed a manicure and pedicure to cope with the day's trauma but soon regretted it because of the immense pain caused to her by them cutting really deep into her nails! They didn't even apply her nail varnish at all well!
We hadn't seen much of Chiang Mai itself by this point and were so far disappointed so we set out to find the nice bits. During out random walking we found 4 temples, one apparently with aggressive dogs according to a local man! We did find an amazing coffee shop that had recently opened and really reminded us of Workhouse. For lunch we went to a health food cafe (Imogen's idea) where I had a tea made from mushrooms that tasted exactly like cornish cider! I liked it but Imogen hated it. Imogen had carrot, apple and beetroot juice which tasted just like potatoes.
Our train back to Bangkok was next so we packed in the morning and checked out. We went to the amazing coffee shop twice during the day, we definitely wished we found it sooner! We decided not to make the same mistake twice with eating food on Thai trains so got a takeaway pizza ready for our journey! During the night Imogen had cockroaches on her bed and I had a light shining in my face so we both struggled to sleep!
On this train we managed to get some padded seats and were by ourselves for most of the journey so it wasn't too unpleasant! During the journey I insisted on buying a mystery bamboo stick full of rice, which turned out really nice and sweet! While we were trying to eat it and old Thai couple sat near us laughed as we struggled to work out how!
We got to Bangkok with plenty of time before the overnight train to Chiang Mai, but there were no tickets left! There were also no tickets for the next day at first but as we were leaving 2 tickets for the next day were cancelled so we booked those straight away!
Because of the extra day we headed straight to Khao San to the same guesthouse as before and had an early night.
On a whim, we decided to visit Dusit Zoo, which turned out to be really fun! We managed to touch some elephants, see a shark exhibit with only 1 decent shark and a lot of dead fish in tanks and rode a pedalo round the lake with monitor lizards swimming around us!
In the evening we went to our train and struggled to get much sleep overnight. We had breakfast in bed, which was incredibly overpriced and absolutely disgusting! It made me very very sick, including a fever which had us worried!
We wondered around Chiang Mai for what felt like and eternity finding hotels either full or filthy. We eventually settled on a nice enough hotel in a decent location within the city walls.
The next day we stayed in bed with food poisoning, which was very unpleasant! The day after, we planned to explore the city but couldn't be bothered in the end. We bought train tickets to Bangkok, just in case everything was fully booked again and the best we could get was a carriage without air con! Next, me and Imogen shed some hair. Imogen's eyebrows and my beard! It was pretty weird being shaved by someone else! We finished the day at an Italian restaurant where a group of guys were having some kind of backgammon league.
We had booked something called Jungle Flight for the next day, which is just like Go Ape in England! It took us ages to get through the jungle and mountain roads to where it was based but the views on the way made it nicer! We kitted up in some embarrassing gear, including some kind of hair net and set off! Imogen hated the day and was scared of everything, but I definitely enjoyed it lots! The scariest part was a 40m free fall (they called it abseiling) while it was pouring down with rain! We finished with a nice free lunch and free t shirts! Not bad! When we got back to the hotel Imogen decided she needed a manicure and pedicure to cope with the day's trauma but soon regretted it because of the immense pain caused to her by them cutting really deep into her nails! They didn't even apply her nail varnish at all well!
We hadn't seen much of Chiang Mai itself by this point and were so far disappointed so we set out to find the nice bits. During out random walking we found 4 temples, one apparently with aggressive dogs according to a local man! We did find an amazing coffee shop that had recently opened and really reminded us of Workhouse. For lunch we went to a health food cafe (Imogen's idea) where I had a tea made from mushrooms that tasted exactly like cornish cider! I liked it but Imogen hated it. Imogen had carrot, apple and beetroot juice which tasted just like potatoes.
Our train back to Bangkok was next so we packed in the morning and checked out. We went to the amazing coffee shop twice during the day, we definitely wished we found it sooner! We decided not to make the same mistake twice with eating food on Thai trains so got a takeaway pizza ready for our journey! During the night Imogen had cockroaches on her bed and I had a light shining in my face so we both struggled to sleep!
