Liz and I had a whirlwind time in Bangkok between seeing sights, trying to stay cool and getting (mostly) on the right time-zone. It is 7:30am, a beautiful morning with that wonderful Southeast Asian light. The air is so thick that the light seems to come from every direction. We are in an air-conditioned train car at the moment, about 2.5 hours outside of Chiang Mai. We had upper bunks on a sleeper car facing each other, I didn’t get quite as much sleep as I wanted, but it was certainly more comfortable than an overnight bus and it was nice that we could enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning in the restaurant car. We are already about 5 days into this trip and so far it has been constant motion. Both Liz and I are looking forward to really enjoying this trip how we intended, getting a chance to slow down and enjoy our surroundings, talk to people, see and experience different things and enjoy each other’s company. Speaking of talking to people, it has been a lot of fun talking to people and feeling my Thai coming back so quickly. Having not really used it at all in the US I was pretty unsure of exactly how rusty it would be. I’ve been trying to explain/translate as we go along to Liz, but invariably there are conversations that it is easier and faster to just complete first and explain later. Liz has been working on learning as we go along and it is getting the basics quickly. People assume she is Thai and tend to start speaking to her first, there have been some pretty funny exchanges already when people realize that Liz doesn’t speak Thai and I do. With how quickly she is learning, I assume those moments will be much fewer and far between in the near future. The itinerary for the day is: -Find a place to stay tonight (we looked at a few options while in Bangkok, but didn’t reserve anything) -Get some food -Do some exploring of Chiang Mai -Look at our options of where to go from here -Maybe catch a bit of the Pacquiao fight (depending on the train’s timeliness) I assume our posts will slow down a bit as we stay in places longer and spend a little less time with screens in front of our faces and more time with people and sights. But, will still try and keep updates pretty frequent, keeping everyone updated and also keeping a record of our travels for us to read years down the road. Hope everyone is doing well back home.
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| BKK to Chiang Mai (Night Train) |
For Liz’s take and photos on her first train ride in SE Asia, see her post at Planes, Trains and Tuk Tuks