We arrived at the train station in Ayutthaya around 10:30 pm on October 25th, plenty of time to catch our 11:30 train north to Chang Mai.  We purchased our tickets the day before and chose to spend a bit more to get a second class sleeper car figuring we would want the rest on a 12 hour ride.

The train didn’t arrive until 3 am, which evidently is a completely common occurance here.  We sat there in the ‘train station,’ which was really a few benches next to the track and a small building where you buy tickets, for 4 1/2 hours getting eaten alive by the mosquitos.  Total misery, but somehow we held it together ok and stayed reasonably positive.

Then it got worse.  We borded the train, found our sleeping car, and the adventure began.  To start with, I couldn’t fully lay down on my ‘bed’ because Asians are SO SMALL.  It was hot as hell, the other backpackers smelled so bad (not to be mean to the French, but for God’s sake use a little deoderant, yea?)  and no train in the world could have possibly been louder than this train.  The windows had to be wide open because it was so hot but that caused the nerve shattering noise from the tracks to just consume everything.  The trains themselves are so crappy they barely push 20 mph so the entire trip was frustratingly slow.

After we ’slept’ for a bit and the sun came up we got a bit of coffee in us and started feeling better.  But then the flood began.  We noticed water coming in to the car and discovered a pipe had burst near the toilet.  I went and found one of the workers in the diner car and told him what was happening (speaking in short sentences works best when communicating):

Me:  Sawadeeka (hello), water come in car, broke, help.

Him:  Wha?

Me: Flood, water, come look, help.

Him:  Wha?

Me: Flood, wet, water, need help.

Him:  Es Ok, you no problem, forget.

Me:  What?

Him:  Es Ok, you forget, sleep.

Me:  No no no, you must come see, bad bad bad, help

Him:  You forget now, sleep, Es Ok

This went on about 5 minutes before he finally did indeed come see.  He turned a knob somewhere and shut the water off and everything was cool.  The amazing thing was this was about the 3rd or 4th thing we were experiencing that completely blew our minds, while for them it seemed like a totally common occurance.

The rest of the train trip was pretty much just as brutal.  Hot, stinky, more hot, more stinky, and now we had no water in the car.  Then I (Kevin) got a bit sick from the last meal I had in Ayutthaya, so that certainly didn’t help.  Not to mention the toilet wasn’t much more than a hole in the floor, through which you could see the tracks below.  That’s right folks, the toilets on the trains just empty out on to the tracks.  I suppose we at least didn’t have to worry that the flood was coming from the toilet.

SIGH.

One thing I CAN’T complain about, though, was scenery.  Riding a train out of the Southern flats and in to the Northern mountains was simply stunning, and many of things we saw you would really miss on the highway.

We arrived in Chang Mai around 6 pm on the 26th, a mere six hours late after what ended up being about a 17 hour trip.  Our flight from SFO to Hong Kong was actually shorter if you can believe it.

Our first stop was the nearest bar,  and my God did that ice cold Chang Beer taste beautiful…

Lesson learned:

1, Take the Bus