Northward Bound...

The past two days have been busy and chill, all at the same time. We did a lot, and yet did almost nothing.

We made arrangements to have lunch yesterday with Woody and Tippy again since it was our last day in Bangkok. We met up at the Jim Thompson House, which has a lovely little restaurant next to a fish pond. Ironically enough, one of the most popular tourist sites in Bangkok is a house owned by an American. He came here after the war, fell in love with Thailand and its people and decided to make Thailand his home; he pretty much revitalized and silk industry in Thailand and became a national hero of sorts. He disappeared without a trace in the 60s and the theories of his disappearance still abound. He was also an architect so had built/designed a very traditional style house here that really is a stunning example of Thai architecture. Of course we took the tour after lunch.

We piddled away the afternoon until we caught our train at 7:30. It was a, ready?, 14-hour train ride (which turned into 15 1/2) to get to Chiang Mai, the town in northern Thailand where we are now. We figured we would take the night train as, if you have to waste 15 hours on a train, you might as well do it over sleeping hours. At bedtime, a guy comes around and puts down your bed and makes it up with sheets, a blanket, a pillow and everything. After our train experiences in India, it was a total luxury in comparison! We were actually able to sleep somewhat decently, aside from the fact that it was fre-fre-fre-freeeezing cold. Like, bone-chattering cold. Also, a travel tip for anyone considering a future trip to Thailand: never, ever walk on a railroad track here. Turns out that the train bathrooms are of an "open-air" style, meaning that there is no flush system in place... and that you get a free air dry in the process, if you catch my drift. Interesting.

We found our hostel easily and got settled in. The place we're staying has a very low-key, cool, backpacker-y kind of vibe to it. You walk into an open-air lounge area and everyone hangs out here, talking, swapping travel tips, eating and drinking, reading... We hung out for a bit, figuring out what to do while here and started talking to Dani, a British girl who is passing through. We decided to take a walk around to check the town out but the moment I got back to my room to get my stuff, I decided I HAD to crash, I just couldn't keep my eyes open. So Sarah and Dani went and I stayed behind and read and napped in the cool, fresh, non-humid air on the patio... delightful.

Tonight Sarah wasn't feeling well so Dani and I went out to the night market... huuuge, and SO cheap, and so many cool things. I have a feeling an awful lot of Christmas presents will be coming from that market....