Chiang Mai - Bangkok (709km)

We took the overnight train from Chiang Mai back to Bangkok. We found Chiang Mai train station to be possibly the nicest train station that we have seen in SE Asia, as it was quite modern, clean and comfortable.

Our train departed at 6pm and once again we booked a first class sleeper compartment so we would have the compartment to ourselves. As we left Chiang Mai we watched the scenery slowly change from the city then to villages with small farm plots, then to rural rice paddies. By 7pm it was dark and we couldn't really see anything which was disappointing as it appeared that we were travelling right through the thick of the mountain range with lots of wild looking forest which would have been cool to see.

For some reason we got delayed for about an hour at Khun Tan which is a small mountain town about 1.5 hours out of Chiang Mai. Possibly we were delayed due to a storm which hit us while we were at the station but we will never know. While the train was stationery we decided to give the train shower a go. The shower is essentially just a removable shower head in the toilet cubicle, but as it was early in the journey the cubicle was still clean and the shower water was nice and hot and it was good to have a shower after walking around Chiang Mai in the heat all day.

Once again we had dinner in the restaurant car and then after a reasonable nights sleep we were up again to watch the scenery change as we came closer to Bangkok. We ended up being about 1.5 hours late getting in to Bangkok, arriving at 8.30am.

We took a taxi straight to the Park Plaza Hotel in Sukhumvit, which Genna had arranged for us at a discounted rate through her friend Paul who is the General Manager.
We felt a little out of place showing up to such a fancy hotel with our big bags and looking somewhat dishevelled after a night on the train, but Paul was super friendly and took great care of us. We only had to wait 40 minutes for our room to be ready for an early check in, and in the meantime Paul shouted us a fantastic buffet breakfast (which was awesome as we were both starving).

We were thrilled to check in to our beautiful suite room, although I did wonder how we would manage going from such a nice hotel back to the bargain budget rooms that we usually stay in.
(Photos: our room at the Park Plaza Soi 18).

After a lunchtime nap we took the Skytrain again to the Siam Paragon Mall and saw the new X-Men movie in 4D which was different.

Next day we had an adventure making our way to the Taling Chan floating markets in Bangkok. We started by taking the Skytrain to Siam station, then we found the bus stop and waited for the bus 79 to take us to Taling Chan. However after waiting about 20 minutes the 79 just never came. We tried to ask a bus driver about the 79 bus without success. In the end our trip involved taking a bus from Siam to a major bus station, transferring to a small local bus, then jumping on a random local red songthaew bus which eventually got us to Taling Chan after about 1.5 hours.

The trip was worth it in the end and although Taling Chan is smaller than some other floating markets around Bangkok, it is more authentic and much less touristy. We decided it would be safer to take a taxi back to the hotel however.

We then spent the afternoon relaxing and soaking up the luxury of our hotel room while packing our bags to get ready for our 2am flight to Istanbul via Abu Dhabi.

(Photos: bus trip through China Town; Taling Chan floating market).

It is unfortunate that our final impression of Thailand was coming close to a fist fight with our taxi driver who decided that he would turn off the meter halfway through the journey and then try to charge us an exorbitant amount for the fare when we arrived at the airport! Fortunately we had already pulled our luggage out of the car so we just refused to pay him more than the standard fare.

After avoiding a scam and potential fist fight we checked in and waited for our 2am flight to Istanbul via Abu Dhabi.

(Photo: Skytrain track).