I am back in Chiang Mai! How exciting and what an exhausting journey to get here. This will be two posts, and both will be long.

After checking into the hotel at the Bangkok airport (called Suvarnabhumi, meaning “The Golden Land,” a name chosen by the king, pronounced “su-wan-na-poom”) about midnight and setting a wake-up call for 5:00 AM, I hoped I would have time to make a difficult trip by taxi to the main Bangkok rail station, Hua Lamphong, in the flood of traffic going into Bangkok in the morning. I woke at 4:30, showered and got ready for the 12-hour journey by train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. I went downstairs to cancel my 5:00 wake-up call, and asked if there were any of the restaurants open. It turns out that because the airport is busy all day and all night, the main restaurant starts their breakfast buffet at 3:00 AM! I was happy to hear that, because (1) I was very hungry, and (2) they have a really nice and large breakfast buffet. I had a nice, tasty and almost relaxing breakfast with that great Thai coffee.

I asked the concierge if car was the best means of getting to Hua Lamphong, and he highly recommended using the Airport Rail Link, and then connecting to the subway which terminates across the street from Hua Lamphong. I went underground back to the main part of the airport in which the Airport Rail Link connects, bought a ticket to Makkasan station (the terminus), and just barely made the express train. The ticket was 60 THB, or about $2. There were almost no other passengers at the early 6:00 time, and the train quickly, almost flew downtown (28 miles in 15 minutes). I got off, and the way to the subway was very clearly signed and included a broad, elevated, covered walkway across a very busy street and intersection to the subway entrance. The subway ticket was 29 THB or $1 for a very fast 12-mile trip. The subway, unlike the Airport Rail Link, was quite busy with many, many standees.

Hua Lamphong rail station in Bangkok is quite old, having been built in 1916 (officially known as Krungthep Station; Hua Lamphong is an unofficial, informal, local name). It is an elegant structure, but is worn and fairly dirty now serving over 130 trains per day. We boarded a fairly old diesel-powered train, and I found my reserved seat, thankfully a window seat, as my intention is to see the country. I settled in, talked a bit to two German tourists behind me, and we slowly made our way through an extensive construction corridor on the route leaving Bangkok.

Next, seeing almost never-ending rice paddies in central Thailand