North to Chiang Mai

Early start , with backpacks only, we took local transport to the main station to get our train to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. Remembering to stand up at 08.00 when the National Anthem was played and everything stops, we boarded the train and found our airline style seats in the ‘luxury’ of the 2nd class air condition carriage. The next 12 hours were amazing. The country around Bangkok is incredibly flat and arable but anywhere there is a tall hill there is a golden Buddha , up high and tall enough to be seen for miles around. The variety of buildings – shanty to luxurious - seems to bear no relation to the wealth of the inhabitants since even the shantys have satellites and good quality cars and new motor bikes. Everywhere are the little stalls selling food and everything is clean. At Bangkok station the stall holders wash their dishes in the middle of the train tracks using the hose pipes there to wash the trains!! (see pic)
No tale we tell can avoid food and this is no exception. 2 hours into the journey and the first ‘service’ arrived, cold or hot drinks and a light sticky bun with jello inside. No conversation/no requests. 2 hours later more food – primitive airline container with delicious spicy chicken and rice – eat don’t ask was our motto having established it was at least chicken. The final offering was a feather light muffin style cake tasting of vanilla bean and custard(?). No money changed hands – it was all included. Ryanair take note. The landscape slowly changed through the 12 hour journey and the final couple of hours were through tropical light forest high hill regions. The amount of land burning throughout the journey was a shock and it was easy to see why the air quality is so poor and visibility can be severely affected.
However, finally we arrived at a station with no signs in English (it was Chiang Mai) and got conned into getting into a tut tut (having told us all taxis were tut tuts which was not true!) . Off we went to the wrong hotel and as we refused to get out the driver had to go into the hotel and use their computer to find our hotel. Eventually we arrived – at The Prince Khum Phaya Resort & Spa known to us as Shangri La. We ended up feeling sorry for the driver because the property is so new. The pool is the length of the accommodation area but shaped under bridges, around waterfalls etc etc and we have to step down from our patio to get in. (see pics). As I sit here on the patio in my swimsuit the sun is dipping behind the lana style roofs opposite with a temperature around 30C. Sorry folks!