August 1, 2017. 12-hour train ride through Thailand

LOCATION:  Bangkok, Thailand

WEATHER:  Hot outside, I'm sure, but we were cool in A/C train

 

We stayed last night in a hotel next to the railway station.  At about 4:00 AM, we were jolted awake by announcements of trains arriving and departing.  The station was a beehive of activitiy.

 

The train station is quite nice.  

 

 The supervisor gave the crew a pep talk before the train left....

 

Some peasants were enjoying a meal, waiting for their train....  

Our train is a 2nd class one.  It is air-conditioned.  Yay!  We had originnally planned to take the first class overnight one, but the timing did not work.  Ours....

At least  it was not a 3rd class local one with no A/C and terribly slow....  

The trip from Chiang Mai to Bangkok was about 12 hours.  We went through a lot of jungle....  

A young lady served us coffee and snacks...

Later, she came around and served us lunch.  Quite a surprise.  All for less than $30/ticket

The toilet was just a big hole in the floor.  Not too luxurious!

After about halfway through the trip, we started seeing flooded fields.  We later read that there have been devasting floods in this area.  Houses that are on stilts are barely above the water line.

We passed a lot of poor-looking huts.  

We arrived in the Bangkok station at about 7:45 PM, and found the subway to our hotel.   This is a map of our S.E. Asia trip  

    DINNER:  Korean kimchi tacos and a craft beer.  Since it is the beginning of the month, I will recap July and tell you our August plans.....  

A look back - July 2017

 

We started the month finishing up a housesitting assignment in Walla Walla, Washington.  We spent the 4th of July weekend in Hell's Canyon, on the border of Idaho and Washington.  

 

The RV park gave us permission to leave our Airstream in their parking lot.  We left it there, somewhat uneasily, and drove to Boise, Idaho where we caught a flight to Seattle, then to Seoul, and then to Bangkok, our destination.  We had a housesitting assignment there for a young professional woman and her very large Maine Coon cat, Bronson. Bronson is 14 and diabetic.  In her orientation with us, she told us that this NEVER has happened, but gave us instructions for dealing with diabetic shock.  Sure enough, the day after she left, Bronson manifested all the signs.  We took him to a pet hospital and had lots of interesting experiences dealing with everyone from the front doorman, to the taxi drivers, to the hospital staff regarding our situation.  We got to know the light rail system of Bangkok and did a lot of exploration.  After our assignment, we flew from chaotic Bangkok to sophisticated, rule-abiding Singapore for our next assignment.  There we took care of Sita, a rescue cat that lives both indoors and outdoors.  She decided to run away one evening after dinner.  She was gone 30 hours and I was in a terrible state.   Thank goodness she returned.  The homeowners would have been devastated had she not....me, too.  We did a lot of sightseeing in Singapore during the week we were there.  From Singapore we flew to northern Thailand, to Chiang Mai, home of about 650 temples.  We saw our fair share, and spent two days traveling around the city and the surrounding mountains with a fun taxi driver.  We then did our own tour of far northern Thailand to Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle.   This part of Thailand is still very rustic.  July ended back in Chiang Mai.  

 

Up next in August, 2017...

 

From Chiang Mai, we traveled by train to Bangkok, a 12+ hour train ride.  Then, a LONG flight back to Boise via Shanghai and Los Angeles.  We have a one-week housesit in Boise where we hope to meet up with some friends and cousins.  After the assignment, we will drive up to Lewiston, Idaho to pick up the Airstream, then drive XXX miles to Prince Rupert, British Columbia.  We may have to go the long way, via Banff and Jasper, Alberta, to avoid the forest fires in B.C.  We will meet up with our friends Tony and Jenny from Nova Scotia in Prince Rupert, then take a ferry to Haida Gwaii for a few days.  This has been on both couples' bucket lists.  From there, we may tag along with Tony and Jenny camping in other parts of British Columbia.  After that, we have no firm plans other than needing to be in our new tiny house by early October to welcome our first house guests, Tony and Jenny.