Day 35, Summer in Asia, train to Phitsanulok, Thailand
Some places you’re sad to leave — you could have happily doubled your time. I felt this way about both Chiang Mai and the hotel, At Ease, where we stayed for the week. It was such a fantastic experience on all fronts.
We took a red truck-tuk to the adorable Chiang Mai train station, the perfect setting for the final scene of a romcom.
On the train we sat in the best seats you can buy, complete with coffee service offering low chemical sugar. The ride was five and a half hours through rice fields, small villages, and dense jungles. Beautiful countryside. Even the smallest villages have wats, most of them adorned with some amount of gold.
Arriving at the modest station at Phitsanulok, it’s apparent this is not a tourist destination. No tuks or taxis are waiting, you have to go out and forage for one. We did that successfully, but he had no clue where our hotel was. We showed him on a map which seemed to baffle him. A man with many fancy rings, Mr. Helpful/Not Helpful jumped in to help. We agreed on a price of 150 baht which is high for this kind of service to a place a km away. They stopped at one spot for directions and we went a few blocks out of the way. Mr Opportunistic then said the fee had jumped to 500 baht. We were trying to get change at our front desk but that guy kept telling her to only give us 500s. She was intimidated by him and wouldn’t help us even though her drawer was open with all the change. I ran over to another store and got change. Meanwhile the owner of the hotel’s father came out and told Mr. Opportunistic that you can’t change an agreed upon price and he left. In the meantime, somehow 1000 baht went missing, we don’t know how. Could have been something innocent. All of these things happen. It’s a matter of letting them not bug you too much when they’re done.
Next, we got a tuk to take Madi to her Gap Medics internship. Everyone else was arriving at the airport, but she didn’t seem to mind that her parents were dropping her off in a truck.
We were going to grab another tuk home, but couldn’t find an available one. There aren’t many here and even fewer taxis. Since it was just the two of us, we decided to walk home. We like walking and got to see a few things along the way. Like a mini street market.
Once home we opted for take out, McDonalds delivery. They had minion-shaped potatoes that the girls had to have. The girls were beyond happy with their “potatoes minion” McDelivery.
While sitting in the lobby waiting for the McDelivery, Paul was mobbed by the owner’s tiny kids. They don’t see foreigners often so they were patting his bald head and petting his arms and looking at his tats. He was a novelty.