BANGKOK (Days 1 & 2)
DAY 1
After a long flight, I landed in Bangkok around midnight. The year here was 2548. My friend, Gerald, was waiting for me. We caught a taxi into town and I slept until around 11 the next morning.
The roof of the Sathorn Saint View hotel offered some nice views.
We bought day passes for the tourist boat and just leisurely cruised up and down the Chao Phraya River.
In the evening, we did a bit of shopping so I could get some supplies. Any and everything is available for a price! We met one guy who had just bought an illegal copy of a bachelor's degree for $40 so he could teach English.
DAY 2
We took the sky train to the Suan Pakkad museum and palace. A tour guide led us around the various buildings.There was all kinds of pottery, jewelry, musical instruments, weapons, coins, statues, masks, and gold and teak rooms. We had to take off our shoes in some of the rooms.
On the way back, we stopped at the massive traffic circle of Victoria Monument. The traffic was crazy!
We grabbed our bags from the hotel and boarded a 7 pm night train up to Chiang Mai (chiang = town, mai = new), the largest city in northern Thailand. At around 8:30 pm, a man came through the sleeper cars and converted the seats into bunk beds. There were no compartments, just long rows of beds. He also provided sheets, pillows and a blanket. I climbed into a top bunk, drew the curtain shut and did my best to sleep among the gas fumes, overhead lights and snoring.
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