The long bus journey from Luang Prabang to the border was long and chilly, as we were up in the north Laos mountains, but we had some fleecy blankets and luckily I had no toilet problems. Arrived at the border at 7am and got another tuk tuk up to the river border crossing. We teamed up with a scouser dude and a dutch girl, and after officially leaving Laos, crossed the river in a boat and entered Thailand. The visa application process was much simpler than the Laos and Cambodian ones so within 5 minutes we were on another tuk tuk heading towards the border town of Chiang Khong. We still needed to get our bus tickets onto Chiang Mai, so our driver dropped us outside a shop which sold bus tickets. We bought our tickets, but still had an hour to kill before it arrived, so went in search of a restuarant for breakfast. However, as this was a very local town, with few westerners, there weren't really any restaurants as such, just a couple of cafes serving rice soup (tradtional thai brekkie) and noodles etc. We had a meal there, and then stocked up on 7 Eleven snacks for the journey to Chiang Mai which we assumed would take about 4-5 hours.
Eight hours later we finally arrived in Chiang Mai. By this stage we had been travelling nearly 24 hours straight and were knackered. We got a tuk tuk into town to find a hostel, but soon after, Andrew cut his foot on a piece of metal on the street. He freaked out as a lot of blood came out of his toe, but once we shoved a plaster on it, it stopped. Luckily our hostel was just round the corner, so we went to check in and had some much needed showers.
After finding a tasty curry house nearby, we headed back to the hostel for some drinks to socialise. Most people at the hostel were going out for drinks in a nearby bar district, so we tagged along. Had some good chats and watched a local thai Ska band, but once it got to 1am we suddenly realised how exhausted we were and called it a night to get some much needed sleep.
The next day we explored the town and went to the Saturday market where I found a beautiful embroidered bag to replace my crappy H&M one which had broken the day before. I'd seen loads of bags like it in Laos but hadn't been able to justify buying any as they were too big, so I was actually quite glad when the zip broke off my other bag! We also booked our train tickets onto Bangkok as we had a tight schedule to keep to get down to Malaysia for Christmas. Then in the evening we met up with our friends Chantelle and Leo who we originally met in China, but now happened to be staying at the same hostel as us. We went to eat at some great street food stalls back near the Saturday market, and had a feast for about 3 pounds!
The following day we hired some bikes to go and see Chiang Mai university as apparently it showed free films on Sundays and also had a swimming pool. It took about an hour to cycle there on the crazy busy main roads, and it was a pretty campus to cycle round. But quite soon we realised that we weren't going to find either the film or the pool. We asked some students for directions, but ended up very lost, and had to ask for directions again at a local shop. By this stage it was late afternoon and we had to cycle back to town before it got dark. In the evening however, we met up with Chantelle and Leo again and went to see the huge local Sunday Wallking Market. It went on forever, with hundreds of stalls selling all manner of pretty things. The best bit was the fantastic street food again though, which were based in the grounds of each of the temples that lined the route of the market. Everything was only about 20 - 30 bhat each (about 50-70p) so we sampled all kinds of treats - chicken satay, pad thai, smoothies, pancakes with meringue in them, and more.
The day after this we had to get our sleeper train to Bangkok. It was exciting to be back on trains again, as after our epic journey from Laos we'd had enough of buses! We had two spacious seats for the daytime journey, which would then convert into one bunk, with the other bunk pulled down from above. Although we were only traveling second class, we ended up having table service food and drinks for the whole journey! We had some beers and snacks to start with, served by one of the many waiting staff who were milling about everywhere, and then selected a 3 course meal from a menu, which was served later in the evening. It only cost 150B (3 pounds), but was really tasty and filling. Our beds were really nice and comfy too with individual lights, blankets and curtains. It was certainly one of the best train journey experiences we've had so far.
We arrived in Bangkok the following morning around 7am and got the metro to our hostel area in Silom Road. It was a bit of a walk down the main road to our actual hostel, but on the way we passed tons of different street food stalls selling tasty looking breakfast treats. We vowed to come back later for our own breakfast. We arrived at our hostel, which had a curious smell of condensed milk, but very friendly staff. Our room was very comfortable so after showers we went out find some breakfast which we ate in a nearby park surrounded by curious pigeons, and a large water monitor lizard.
After this we hopped on a skytrain and then the river 'tourist boat' to go to Wat Pho which apparently housed Thailands largest reclining Bhudda (46 meters long!). It was certainly huge and very impressive. The temple complex was very calm serene and relaxing, and had lots of shady courtyards to escape from the baking sun. In the afternoon we went to investigate getting Andrew a bespoke suit made. We had the name of a tailor recommended by our hostel which was on the other side of town, so we headed over there. Once we arrived, the price seemed right so Andrew picked his fabrics, chose the style of suit and had his measurements taken. This was at 3pm. We were amazed when they said that they could have the suit ready and made in time for 11am the following morning. Apparently they had tailors that did both night and day shifts. So that evening we went back at 6.30pm, which time the toile of the suit was already finished ready for the fitting. It was basically perfect, but Andrew requested slightly thinner trousers and a slight change to the cut of the jacket hem. They said all of these changes would be made for the following morning (11am) when they could bring the finished suit directly to our hostel, as we had to catch our train to Malaysia the following afteroon. Whilst the fitting was going on we were given complimentary beers and water, and then they even gave us a lift to a bar area on the other side of town where we were meeting our friends that evening. Needless to say, they arrived early the next morning with the finished suit, and it fitted perfectly with all the requested changes having been made. They said to recommend them to our friends, so visit Thai Square Tailors in Bangkok if you fancy a tailored suit!
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