Posts

Featured Post

Murder (trying to sleep) on the Chiang Mai Express

We arrive at the station at 5:45pm and after a quick look at the departure board make our way to platform 9 to board “Train Number 1”, we’re in car number 12 so it’s only two carriages down rather than what looks like a walk of 500 metres. We already had our tickets, we applied online for them before we left the UK and got them sent to the hotel so we didn’t have to queue and we were guaranteed. We board the carriage and find our seats, Trish is in seat 24 lower and I’m in 25 upper, which will later be turned in to our beds for the night. It’s getting near to 6:10 and the train still feels very empty, all the passengers seem to be heading down the other end of the platform, great a nice quiet train to ourselves. A few more stragglers turn up, followed by some noisy Spaniards who never shut up for the whole journey, and then we’re off. We roll out the station gently, while an attendant comes around selling orange juice, which we buy, not for the juice, so we can use the cartons for
Post a Comment
Read more

Hat's the way to do it

Image
It’s now Sunday and what better way to spend it by walking around Bangkok’s weekend market, once again we decide to avoid the traffic for the cheaper and cooler option, the subway, but first we need to go the hospital just around the corner from the hotel to get Trish’s mosquito bites looked at. We go in and explain the situation to the receptionist and ten minutes later we are seen, Trish gets hooked up to a blood pressure monitor and immediately they look concerned until explains she says it’s usually like that, after a while it drops a bit and the doctor seems less concerned and tells Trish that the bites are not infected and prescribes some creams, the visit cost £40, worth it to get the all clear when your just about to start your travels.  The journey is quite far to the market so elbowing your way onto the train and getting a seat seems to be the only option. Once we arrive at Chatuchak station there’s a sign for the market so you can’t really get lost or you can just follow
Post a Comment
Read more

Like it or Lump it

Image
Day 3 we decided to get away from the madness that is Bangkok and its crazy traffic, as we’ve seen quite a few temples, well a lot of temples, we decided to go to Lumphini park on the other side of town.   So instead of breathing in the very poor air we decided to use the underground, which was air conditioned and had the extra security of a metal detector that you had to walk through to enter, which went off when everyone went through, and only the odd person got checked, so a token gesture deterrent. Speaking of tokens that’s exactly what you get from the ticket machine, which was easy to use once we changed the language to English, which really means American English and paid 19 baht each for a plastic disc that you scan at the barrier and later insert as you exit, the journey takes about 30 minutes so it was grab a seat if you can, and count down the stops.   Finally we arrive and head outside to Lumphini park, an oasis in the middle of Bangkok’s finance district surrounded
Post a Comment
Read more

Plane Crazy

Image
It's day 2 and we're up early packed and ready to go, we have our breakfast and make our way past the army of workers pouring in from Venice railway station. Fifteen minutes later we manage to catch the 8.20 bus to the airport to try and avoid the traffic, but there is none, everyone goes by train or boat. We arrive at the airport and make our way to the Ailitala check in desk and wait behind the half wits who hold everyone up looking for passports and tickets in their bags, it's not like it's a surprise, how do they think they are going to check by telepathy? Four half wits later we approach the desk and tell the woman we haven't any boarding passes, “no problem” she says, surely it can’t be as easy as this, yes it is, a first with the Italians. We head through security relieved and wait in the lounge for a couple of hours, I wrote day 1 blog there not much to do there expect charge your phone there at the free charging points, then spend thirty minutes wat
Post a Comment
Read more