Ban Phaniat

We both had a restless night and were wide awake before the 6am alarm call. We showered & packed & went down to breakfast at 7am.

After coffee & croissants, we settled our bill & arranged for a taxi to take us to Chiang Mai Railway Station. The 15 minute journey cost us just 79 Baht (£2), so feeling generous, I let her keep the 100 Baht note I gave her.

Jackie left me outside the station with the luggage whilst she went off to collect our rail tickets from a nearby hotel. She came back with a silly grin on her face so I knew we were definitely sitting together, we were.

We walked up the platform & boarded our Special Express to Bangkok. We trooped up & down the carriage, accidentally crashing our rucksacks on literally every passenger that had already boarded.

At 8.50am sharp, the train pulled out of Chiang Mai. It was only a quarter full, so we both moved to more favourable window seats & spread out. The majority of the passengers were Thai, who were very smiley & friendly. The train passed through initially jungle & mountainous scenery, which then flattened out to farm land and paddy fields.

Shortly after boarding, a hostess came round with a trolley & supplied us with coffee & a banana custard filled bun. An hour later she was back with 3 cartons each, which contained 1. stir-fry chicken in basil leaves, 2. Fried baby clams & 3. sticky rice. It was disgusting, Jackie said that she wouldn’t have fed it to her cat......if she had one. The whole lot went in the bin. We had a ‘consolatory’ Hong Thong & some Lays! Later on our hostess returned with more coffee & a packet of fig rolls each.

Throughout the journey we made several stops, where more people got on than got off & before long, we had been forced to return to our allocated seats. We both read our books, yes even Jackie! There is photographic evidence.

We arrived at Ayutthaya at 7.15pm, almost exactly the same time it took us to fly from Heathrow to Bangkok. Overall the train journey had been a very pleasant experience, not bad for just £22.50 each!

For 100 Baht we took a Tuk Tuk 🛺 to our new accommodation, Baan Kong Homestay on the island in Ayutthaya. We checked in & had to promise that we would pay later as we didn’t have enough cash to pay up front.

We dumped our bags, changed into shorts, it is considerably hotter in Ayutthaya, then headed out for a beer & a snack. We firstly got out 10,000 Baht from an ATM, then selected a restaurant called Burinda Restaurant. I had a Pad Thai, whilst Jackie had a Nasi Goreng. It was the best food we had had on this trip other than maybe my Massaman curry in Chiang Mai.

Feeling chilled, we returned to our Homestay, only to find we were locked out, until we managed to squeeze through a side gate, to break back in. We ended our night sat on our balcony listening to the soothing sounds of Nick Drake.

Song of the Day - The Day We Caught The Train by Ocean Colour Scene.Read more