Day 6 - July 2

We got up at 0745 and had breakfast at the hotel. Today we were going to visit the Grand Palace, so we put on long pants and proper shoes before leaving. After having taken a bus down to the palace, we were surrounded by people who wanted to be our guide inside the palace. However, we decided to manage without a guide, so we paid the entrance fee of 200 Bath each and were let inside.

Today was the hottest day so far, so we wanted to buy some cold water before exploring the palace. For some reason, the woman in charge refused to sell us water bottles from the refrigerator. We have no idea why, but we were only allowed to buy water bottles that had been standing in the sun for a while, which was pretty annoying.

Anyway, it was easy to see that the palace was Bangkok's number one tourist attraction, as the number of tourists was really overwhelming. At the other small temples we had visited so far, we had usually been all alone, but here it was difficult to walk around without getting in the way of someone taking a photo. The palace was very beautiful, no doubt about that, but the enormous crowds really spoiled the experience somewhat.

As a consequence, we didn't spend that much time inside the palace and were outside again by 1030. We then took a taxi to Top Ten Collection for a "second fitting" of my suit. It was then our intention to return to the hotel, but we had to settle for Khao San since (as usual) the taxi driver had no idea where our street was located. On walking back towards the hotel we came across an Asian restaurant that looked pretty nice, so we decided to have lunch there. I had Macaroni once again!

Around 1240 we were back at our hotel, just as it was starting to rain quite violently. This was our first rainfall in Bangkok, which was quite surprising as we had expected it to rain almost every day! Maybe we had been lucky, or the wet season isn't really that wet after all? Anyway, it really poured down for three hours, which we spent inside our room relaxing, watching TV and updating our diaries.

At 1530 the rain stopped, which suited us perfectly as we were getting quite bored with staying inside. On the map there appeared to be some green areas not so far north from the hotel, so we decided to walk up there. It was quite interesting walking through the residential areas of Bangkok. We even passed the large Standing Buddha again, which turned out to be located quite near our hotel.

We eventually reached the park area which turned out to have a "teakwood mansion" inside, apparently an attraction in itself. However, the mansion had closed for the day and the park appeared to be closing as well, so there was not much activity in the area, which suited us just fine! On coming out of the park at the other end, we were followed by an annoying tuk-tuk driver who just wouldn't leave us alone, but eventually we escaped.

We were walking towards another park nearby when we suddenly stumbled across something we hadn't seen before in Bangkok: a traffic light for pedestrians! However, after having waited for several minutes to cross the road, we discovered that this traffic light always was red, so we had to resort to the usual method of running quickly across the road when there was a break in traffic!

We walked past the parliament and the zoo (which was about to close) and eventually took a taxi back to our hotel (well, Khao San really!). May Tina had the great idea that we should visit a supermarket and buy some (more or less) Norwegian food (bread etc.) as we were both getting tired of eating Asian food for all meals. Fortunately, it was no problem finding a shop which sold bread, strawberry jam and various soft drinks.

The Thai bread wasn't particularly tasty and didn't really have much substance, but at least it gave us a break from the noodles. After dinner we used the Internet terminal in the reception for a while, before going to relax in the little park next to the river. It was very nice sitting there, although the Liverpoodlian was not around tonight. This would be our last night in Bangkok for a while, and although we found the city fascinating, it would wrong to say that we were sad about moving on.

Back at the hotel I decided to have another evening meal. I had some noodles and beef, which however turned out to be much too spicy for my taste. I had to drink at least a litre of water to stop my throat burning, and still it was pretty bad. We went to bed around 2330.

Day 7 - July 3

We got up at 0930, had breakfast at the hotel (although my stomach was still feeling a bit weird after yesterday's late meal). After having checked out we waited in the reception for a taxi, and watched as an American guy tried to explain to the woman in the reception that he wanted to charge a meal in the restaurant to the room. The hotel staff had a rather limited knowledge of English, so it was quite amusing to listen to, the woman having no idea of what the guy was going on about. In the end they apparently got it right, and he was about to pay with his credit card, when he suddenly got the bright idea that the woman should give him a cash advance on the card! She seemed to understand even less of this, so the discussion started again from scratch...

About then our taxi arrived and we were taken to the train station. After putting our baggage in the office of Richly Travel, we took another taxi down to the Snake Farm (Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute). Unfortunately, when we arrived around 1200, we found out that they were closed between 1200 and 1300. A really annoying guy tried to convince us to come with him to some crocodile farm instead, but it was quite expensive and we were more interested in the snakes, anyway.

He kept following us around, saying that the Lumphini Park, for which we were headed, was closed and under construction, but eventually we managed to shake him off. We went through a hospital area to get to the park, but on getting there it seemed that the entrance was on another side, so we just returned to the snake farm.

While waiting for the snake farm to open, we looked around the institute building and noticed an updated report from June 2000 on their bulletin board. It adviced people against taking Malaria tablets because they now were believed to be ineffective in Thailand and only served to give a false sense of security. There was also a map showing the risk of getting Malaria in various parts of Thailand, and just as Mr. Prakit had said, the area around Chiang Mai was considered relatively safe. Based on this information, we decided not to take any Malaria pills.

The park eventually opened (cost 70B) and we walked around looking at the various snakes in their enclosures. Snakes are really strange creatures! They had many different kinds of snakes in the farm. After sitting down and eating some cake, we went inside to look at the exhibitions there.

It was not long before we were approached by an official looking guy who asked us if we understood Danish. "Yeah, sure, no problem", we replied, wondering why he was asking us that. Well, maybe they were going to give the show in many different languages, and wondered whether Danish was enough, or if they had to do all Scandinavian languages? Then English would be quite sufficient and they didn't need to speak in Danish for our sake! With the incomprehensible way most Thais were speaking English, we would have been surprised if their Danish was any good :-)

However, of course, they had no intention of giving the show in Danish. Instead, it turned out that the guy had received a letter in Danish and needed someone to translate it for him. We were happy to help him, and followed him into his office where he showed us the letter. It was from someone called Torben, who amongst other things, said he would come to Thailand in the autumn to get married. Anyway, the guy was very grateful to us for helping him out with the translation.

The snake show was pretty interesting, and the guy for whom we had translated the letter, turned out to be in charge of it. Amongst other things, they showed us how they milked snakes of their venom and how snakes in captivity were being fed (by holding their mouth open and forcing the food down their throat). In the end, May Tina got to hold a python, which she seemed to enjoy. She said afterwards that the skin of the snake was quite dry and not slippery as most people expect it would be.

After the show was over and we had seen all the exhibitions we crossed the motorway to the Pat Pong area. We walked around in some shopping centers just to pass time and eventually had a meal at McDonald's for simplicity. A taxi took us back to the station where we bought some food for the train journey, before going over to Richly Travel to retrieve our baggage.

Mr. Prakit's brother followed us to the train, making sure we got on the right one. It looked quite nice, with seats that would be turned into beds later in the evening. When we were sitting inside, we suddenly noticed that exactly at 1800 everybody inside the station stopped and remained still. This was because the National anthem of Thailand was being played over the loudspeakers, which apparently happens every day at 1800.

The train left on schedule at 1815 and it was not long before a guy from the train restaurant came round taking orders. Lonely Planet told us that food on the train was very expensive, which turned out to be complete nonsense as the prices weren't any higher than in a regular restaurant. In any case, we had already bought food at the station, so we didn't need any.

The train went through some slum areas on the way out of Bangkok, but soon it was too dark to see much outside. At approximately 2100 a guy came round turning the seats into beds. The arrangement was quite nice. I had the upper bed, though, which was a disadvantage. Even though everything was quite comfortable I was (as usual) unable to fall asleep for longer periods of time. I had a quite boring night, although fortunately I had brought a book along to read.

Day 8 - July 4

I got up around 0700 when a guy came round turning the beds into seats again. It was fun to look outside and see how the scenery had changed. We were going through some very green, lush and tropical jungle, sometimes stopping at small train stations with only a couple of houses around. On approaching Chiang Mai, the scenery became more open with several rice fields.

At the Chiang Mai train station we were met by a guy called Boon. He would be one of our guides on the hilltribe trek and he drove us to our hotel, the Winner Inn. Although we were only paying 600 Bath for each night, the hotel looked quite expensive and our room was nice.

After eating breakfast, taking a shower and catching up on some sleep, we were ready to go out. Today was extremely hot, much hotter than Bangkok had ever been, but the humidity was lower up here so it wasn't that uncomfortable. The hotel appeared to be in a residential area and since we couldn't find its location on the map we just walked in what we thought was the general direction of the city center.

Unfortunately there was a lot of traffic in Chiang Mai as well, but generally it was far easier to walk around than in Bangkok. (There appeared to be no taxis though, only tuk-tuks). After strolling around for a while we went to McDonalds to get something to drink and visit the bathroom.

More street sellers were now appearing and getting ready for the night market. Being quite hungry we eventually decided to eat at a Thai restaurant. For the first time in Thailand we got a fulfilling meal at such a restaurant, instead of the usual small portions. We had now lost our sense of direction and weren't really sure where the hotel was located, so we tried walking back exactly the same way as we had come, which seemed to do the trick.

After having relaxed in our nice air-conditioned room for a while, we went down to the reception for a final information meeting before our Hilltribe trek. Eventually Boon arrived, bringing with him another guide called Keng and two guys from Coventry, England called Steve and Phil who were also coming on the tour with us.

Boon handed us some backpacks in army colours and a list of things to bring on the trek. There weren't many questions, so the meeting didn't last long, and we were told to be ready by 0800 tomorrow morning. We went back to our rooms and immediately packed everything for the trek, just to be on the safe side.

We decided to spend the rest of the evening relaxing. We took a tuk-tuk up to the big shopping center Kad Suan Kaew in the northwest corner of Chiang Mai, which according to Lonely Planet should have a cinema. After a while we located the cinema on the top floor, but there weren't too many movies that were "must see" for us. In the end we went for "Gone in 60 seconds", which was my first choice of what was available. The tickets cost 70 Bath each, which is about 25% of the Norwegian price.

The movie itself turned out to be quite average, but there was interesting event before the movie started. The National Anthem of Thailand was played at the same time as nice pictures of the king was shown on the screen. Everybody were requested to stand up and show respect to the king, which everybody did.

After the movie I was very hungry and wanted to get something to eat before going back to the hotel. The only place open in the area was a place called Chester's grill which served chicken fastfood. I had a meal there before we took a tuk-tuk back to the Winner Inn. The tuk-tuk guy seemed to know Chiang Mai slightly better than us (surprise!) because he drove a different but much shorter route to the Winner Inn. The hotel was in fact quite close to the city center, it was only us who had been walking along a bad route.