Bangkok to Chiang Mai
After looking at sleeper trains online and being more or less confused about what sites to use and if there was availability it was easier to go to Bangkok Rail Station and ask there. There wasn’t any availability for sleeper trains on Friday or Saturday so we had to look into other options. There was the possibility of a nine hour bus but that would be without beds so we looked at flights.
Flights from Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok to Chiang Mai airport were €90 with Nok Air so we decided that it was worth it for the cost.
Spent the afternoon walking around the area of the hostel and found a flower market on one side of the river and a fish market on the other side. The market was mostly live fish in buckets on both sides of an aisle—that scooters drive down meaning you have to get out of the way quickly and not end up in a bucket of eels.
We were stopped again by a man in the intersection as the day before he asked us about where we were going and was telling us places to see. Getting the same feeling that we were going to have to end up paying for something we started trying to to walk away and he said that we could get a Tuk Tuk with a yellow flag for 40baht each that would bring us to three spots he suggested. Conveniently enough as we walked away from him saying that we would make our own way a Tuk Tuk with a yellow flag and the sameness offer pulled up next to us. The men at the intersection pull the tourists in for the tuk tuks which would be alright if we weren’t worried that the price would suddenly change or that we were going to be scammed all together.
Our flight was at 8:10 and was delayed a bit but ended up only being an hour flight. We got a Grab van from the airport to Glur hostel where we had booked for three nights. When had a private 6 bed dorm room which seemed fine at first. The room wasn’t the cleanest at first look but figured we would be able to deal with it. I had fallen asleep for an hour or so and woke up to find out that two of the beds had bed bugs. Panic searching hostels tgat have availability for 5 people at 1am to find Mona Chiang Mai Boutique Hotel had a room for us. We were refunded from Glur with no questions asked and got a taxi to the new hostel.
Opened the doors of the hostel to an empty reception room. Strange, but it was late. Waited probably five minutes and decided to call. Ciara was on the phone with someone from the hostel who was directing her on how to find the key to our room. Odd? Yes. Realizing that there was a camera in the corner so he could see us looking for the key in reception? Very strange. After the bed bugs all we wanted was a clean bed to sleep on. Right away Anthony saw a lil lizard crawling around his bed and there were ants all over the floor. It was after two in the morning so we had just deal with the ants and hope that we didn’t wake up cuddling a lizard.
