Home » Thailand » Southeast Asia 2000 - Travel Diary, Part 3: From Bangkok to Chiang Mai

Highlights of the two last days in Bangkok were visits to the beautiful (but crowded) Grand Palace and to a snake farm where May Tina got to hold a python. Then we took the night train to Chiang Mai, which was slightly less hectic than Bangkok, although it still had lots of traffic by Norwegian standards. We spent one day walking around Chiang Mai and getting ready for some jungle trekking.

Southeast Asia 2000 - Travel Diary, Part 3: From Bangkok to Chiang Mai

Jan Arild Teland
2006-05-08 18:22:33

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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 ...