SE Asia Day 2: Derailed - the last train to Chiang Mai

Boy did we sleep well at the Riverfront Residence! Drew had about 13 hours of sleep. Guess we had some catching up to do. And it was a good thing, because little did we know, we were going to need it today.

After gorging ourselves at the hotel's breakfast buffet (American foods but also Chinese cabbage in oyster sauce, noodles with egg, and congee with chicken, which were all quite tasty I thought), we saw about staying an extra night. Here was our first denial: no rooms left for the night. This weekend is Chinese New Year, and Bangkok is getting ready to party! Oh well, let's just see about our primary purpose of the day and then worry about lodging.

So we made our way via hotel shuttle, then the fabulous train system again, to the Vietnamese Embassy to see abut getting a visa to enter Vietnam. The impending party was everywhere, as shown here at this shopping mall with a giant jumbotron screen playing ads above a stage set with Chinese New Year decorations.

 

So about this small matter of the visa... Vietnam is one of the last countries in the region to require prearranged visas before arrival. If you are arriving in the country by air, you simply apply for an approval letter to the embassy by email, they send you a letter back in a couple of days, and then when you land in Vietnam, you wait in line, pay some money, and you're in. If you are going overland however, you need to either send your passport away to San Francisco or D.C. weeks in advance, or arrange one once you are in Asia. Because our original plan was to fly standby to get to Bangkok, and then go overland through Cambodia, we needed the arrival-by-land type of visa, not the easy arrival-by-air one. BUT, because we were not 100% sure we were going to get anywhere close to Vietnam with our standby status, I didn't want to get the visa the hard way by mailing it to San Fran. The best plan, according to my research, was to get it in Bangkok or in Phnom Phen, which were supposed to take 2 days, or my favorite option, get it in the small port/beach town of Sihoukville, Cambodia, which is same-day service. The only catch to this plan was the upcoming Vietnamese holiday of Tet. It is like our Christmas, New Years and birthdays all rolled into one. All the Vietnamese party for at least 3-4 days, and some businesses, (such as embassies?) close for "up to a week". Tet was supposed to start tomorrow, so I wanted to get the visas squared away while we saw a few sights around Bangkok.

 

The best laid plans, however, do not always come together. The cranky gentleman at the Vietnamese embassy informed us that we could put in for a visa today, but the earliest we would have it back was the 18th of February!!! They were closing for Tet for 10 days. That was clearly not going to work. So we found a nearby overpriced coffee shop with wifi and planned our next move. With Chinese New Year starting tomorrow, the chances of finding an affordable place to stay for the night was slim. Whip out the trusty "Southeast Asia on a Shoestring" Lonely Planet guidebook, and take a pick. South to the beautiful beaches on the gulf of Thailand or the Indian Ocean, parts of which Drew has already seen, or how about north to the more mountainous terrain around Chiang Mai. Guide book says "Chiang Mai is a cultural darling and a cool place to kick back and relax for a few days." Also newly introduced is an industry of soft adventure tourism. Hiking, trekking, zip lines, and mountain biking! There was an overnight train with sleeper cars for 1650 baht ($55) for both of us. Lodging problem solved. Visa problem delayed. New adventure planned.

 

Time to make our way to the train station to purchase tickets.

We walked by the American Embassy,

 

We walked through a big city park, Lumphini Park. I wonder what is coming out of that pipe.

 

Where the is a statue of King Rama VI

 

 

And offerings at the base of the statue.

Then it was on to the subway, where hand rails are not made for 6'4" Americans,

 

And special accommodations are made for pregnant women and monks!

 

I breathed a lot easier after we made it to the train station and purchased our tickets. Then we could relax and look around a bit.

 

 

They take care of their monks here. Note the sign and the monk.

 

 

But not the cats. There were 3 or 4 stray cats begging for food. They were so tiny and malnourished! I was super lonesome for our babies back home.

 

We had one more thing to do before the train departed, and that was to get Lucy a phone. International Skpe calls were not working, and Our Verizon phones don't work here. We needed an unlocked GSM phone. A street vendor was happy to sell me a used old phone and international SIM card for $18.

 

After the nice guy changed the language to English and helped me add prepaid credit, the first call I made was to the Vietnamese Consulate in Sihoukville to see when they would reopen after the Tet holiday. To my utter surprise, they said they were not closing at all and visas could be obtained in one day. Well doggone it! If we had known that, we wouldn't have bought the train tickets to the northern part of Thailand. We would have just mosied over to Ankgor Wat and then on to Sihoukville. But, it is what it is, and we were excited about the overnight train to Chiang Mai.

 

All aboard!

 

The seats and bunks were nice enough. The set up is two seats facing each other that fold down into a bed with a drop down bunk above. There are curtains to put up at night and the cabin is air conditioned. The other travelers were fun to talk to and let me drink some of their duty free liquor eith them while Drew snoozed.

 

 

The bathrooms were another story entirely. They were not nice or dfun or comfortable. they were scarey, disguisting, and odiferous. This was the bathroom in the first class cabin, where I snuck to as often as I could.

 

The bathroom our cabin (2nd class) is way grosser, if you can believe it. Well, here are some pics and a 45 second video.

 

 

 

Yup, the hole just goes right to the tracks. It reeked of urine in there. Our friend Rhonda would have held it for the entire 14.5 hour trip.

The food, of course, was hugely overpriced. We brought snacks (nuts, fresh pastries, yogurt, dried seaweed chips, and some type of fruit neither of us recognized and labeled only in Thai) but I did buy a $2 orange juice and a $1.25 coffee the size of an espresso. Beer was 150 B, or $6 USD! I thought Thailand was cheap. Not so far!

The sleeping part of the sleeper car turned out to be not so much. I don't think I have slept one wink all night, which is why this post is so long and detailed. I am sitting here composing as the sun comes up and Drew and the formerly crying baby next to us sleep soundly. It is just toooooo loud here by the door that won't close in the seat over the wheel. Oh well, last night's snooze at the nice hotel will have to hold me because the coming day is revealing bamboo forests, slashed and burned rice patties (I think), tiny towns and wats, and mountains.

 

 

Chiang Mai here we come!

 

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SE Asia Day 1: arrive Bangkok

 

The 3.5 hour flight from Taipei over to Bangkok seemed like the short jaunt from SLC to Vegas compared to last night's flight. We arrived ready to hit the ground running.

We made it as far as the baggage claim area before we must have looked so completely lost and out of place that a large American came Up and asked us if we needed any help finding anything. We explained where we were trying to go and he. Suggested hopping the train into the city, so away we went. ( he was really nice the information he gave us made me feel a hundred times more confident. thanks American dude!)

We hopped the fabulous easy, modern, fast train into Bangkok for about $1.50 USD each.

After successfully maneuvering through two train transfers, we made a transfer to a city bus. The attendants were looking at us with a bit of worry. We were the only westerns on the bus, but we knew what we were doing, right?

Apparently, the successful train transfers had made us a little overconfident. We over shot our bus stop by 8 stops! We finally found someone that knew where our hotel was and pointed us back to the stop we had passed 20 minutes earlier!

 

We dragged our weary tired bodies and barking feet to the Riverfront Residence hotel at 921 Rama III Rd, recommended by Drew's friend Jun.

 

 

What a great find! We upgraded to a river view room on the 24th floor for a total of about $60USD.

 

We did not have too long to enjoy the room before Drew's stomache needed to find some spicy a Thai noodles at the hotel restaurant. Then a quick dip in the pool and now we are off to bed to try to get on Thai time.

 

 

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SE Asia Day 0: getting there

I had a biggish post all set to publish while hanging at our layover city, but I am having major trouble posting pictures. So here is the short version.

We left SLC with only a 20 pound backpack each.

Not much for a month-long tour though SE Asia.

We hopped on a SWA flight to Seattle, where we had 8 hours to kill until our international flight to Taipei.
Instead of lounging in the airport like slobs, we got a fab deal on a from at the Hilton within walking distance of Seatac, where we started the vacation off right.

I dip int he hot tub and then we were whisked away by recently relocated Seattleite friend Stephanie

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A nap and a shower before heading back to the airport for a 1:00 a.m. Departure.

I had been up so late the previous nights that I had virtually no trouble sleeping most of the duration of the flight. For the last hour and a half I was watching the inflight movie "Lincoln", and just as the vote to pass the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was being counted, we started our descent into Taipei. There are a lot of announcements during decent and landing, and I nearly missed the vote, the surrender of the confederacy, and the tragic end to the movie. The credits were rolling as we taxied to the gate. Whew. 

We arrived Taipei at 5:30 a.m. And now we have 5 hours to kill.

The airport is not bad. They have a "relaxing green room"

And of course, being Asia, no shortage of cute cartoon figures. Hello Kitty is BIG.

The cafe takes USD and the lattes are half decent and only 3.50 each.

 Once we get to Bangkok, We have a hotel reservation there for one night, and then we are unsure of our next move. The general plan is to get transportation to Cambodia and spend a few days touring the temples of Angkor Wat. We need to arrange a Vietnamese visa and then head to Ho Chi Min City and the Mekong Delta.  Then we thought we'd make our way north through Vietnam. I guess I should get off the iPad and start reading my guidebook to figure out our next move!

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Test

Testing our Internet connection in Taipei.

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There has been a bit of snow

Around Christmastime we got dumped on.  So much snow!

the sidewalk in front of our street

Deep snow makes snowshoeing fun!

The snow really was thigh deep.

We didn't get very far after the point on the trail where we had to break trail.

My truck was slip sliding around, but Mi Tia was rock solid.

That was a rare January Saturday together.  The next day, some girlfriends had a going away snowshoe for friend Stephanie.

Mary shows that there is a lot of snow.

The uber deep powder was too fluffy to resist doing a backwards swan dive into.

Me, mid-dive!!

Me, immediately post dive.  My head was buried in the snow bank.

Just popping up for air.  I don't ever want to be in an avalanche!  It was so fluffy and deep and I was head down and on my back with snow shoes on, I couldn't really move. Erika had to help me out of the snow bank.

The next snow activity was termed "runking" by Sally. This is where you get to the top of a steep fresh slope and run down it with snowshoes on.

Here is a very short video of Sally "runking"

Erika runking.

We topped off the day with lunch at Porcupine Pub.  Good day - but sad to see Stephanie go.

The snow is fun to play in, but we are ready for a warm adventure.  Stay tuned.