We took a cab to the Bangkok train station, waited for about an hour, then boarded the sleeper train to Chiang Mai. The train left Bangkok at 7:30 last night and arrived here in Chiang Mai at 10:00 AM exactly. Along the way we had beds, blankets, breakfast, etc. And they kept trying to sell us beers! The compartment next to us was full of German bros drinking Chang and listening to Sublime late into the night.
As soon as we stepped into the Chiang Mai train station, we were approached by many people trying to lead us to hotels and guesthouses of all sorts. We passed by many like we usually do, until a young girl came up to us and asked very nicely if we'd like a ride to the Libra guesthouse. Since this was literally the first guesthouse listed in our travel book, we decided to go for it (after conforming that the ride was free, and we weren't agreeing to get a room, just to be driven to the guesthouse and have a look). We got into the back of the girls pickup and were promptly driven right to the guesthouse and shown a room. It was just what we were looking for, in a nice quiet alley off the main road, affordable and full of young people, and with internet and a restaurant on site. Later we mused about just how easy some things are for tourists - these pickup trucks were literally lining the road just outside the train station! Taking a cab and getting to the guesthouse on our own would have been more expensive and possibly a hassle trying to find the guesthouse. It's nuts. Sometimes it pays to just go with the flow and see how it turns out. Or I guess, it pays to discretely listen to the offers everyone is trying to give you, even as you are walking on by!
Today we spent walking around Chiang Mai seeing the sights and seeing the wats. Wat means temple, and they are everywhere. Today we saw the Wat Chiang Man and the Wat Duang Di.
Wat Chiang Man is the oldest temple in Chiang Mai, built in 1296! The walls were intricately painted with bright scenes detailing the story of the Buddha's life, it was great! Wat Duang Di is newer and means "the good luck monastery" and had four buildings. We saw a crowd of monks outside this one, eating ice cream before getting into the back of one of the pick-up trucks, called a 'songthaew,' the same type that took us to the guesthouse. Briefly on the subject of monks, in Bangkok we saw a monk walking down the street texting, which still wins for the funniest thing we've seen a monk doing. Monks need to text just like the rest of us! Okay anyway, here are the pictures from our day.
Chiang Mai is very walkable and mellow compared to Bangkok...and tomorrow we're taking the bus a short distance to Pai, a small town that is supposed to have more pedestrians than cars, a great local live music scene, and a yoga studio called 'Mam's.' And pretty soon, we're going to try to see some elephants. Until then, cheers from Chiang Mai!
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