We had a pretty chill day today... Waking up late in anticipation of riding the overnight train to Bangkok tonight. Other than sneaking out for breakfast, we didn't even make it out of the room until 1:00pm, when we stored our bags and set out for lunch.
Beth had booked a spa for 2:00pm, and I told the girls I was going out for a walk, so they naturally opted to go get pedicures rather than ruining their precious feet with a walk :-).
I went over to Wat Chedi Lang which was actually very close to our first hotel. The grounds are huge. Just inside the entrance was a very large temple.
There were all kinds of ways to part with your money worship there, with various kiosks all up and down the sides of the inner temple. This is more of the "money side" of Buddhism that reminds me of Siya in Angkor describing the empty million dollar temples there.
Behind the more modern temple was a huge, impressive monument that has survived several earthquakes largely intact. I'd seen the place lit up from our hotel balcony a kilometer away over the last couple of nights - it towers over the rest of the inner city. It was quite impressive for a building of that size built 600 years ago.
Behind the structure were a number of other smaller temples in a serene setting.
We had a nice afternoon swim, though I get a bit claustrophobic in the pool with the girls - whenever I'm in the pool the girls are on me like little octopi and I can barely breate. My only option is to alternate picking them up by their armpits and throwing them away from, which they love, so the cycle starts all over... I guess they've become my upper body workout.
At 5:00, we took the hotel car to Chang Mai rail station and made our way to our car.
The setup was a little different than the Vietnam overnight train, at least it was in our 2nd class section (I always trust the train advice from the Man in Seat 61 and he was right, 2nd class was just fine!). Each double berth is on one side of the train. Later they would convert them to the overnight sleeping configuration. In Vietnam, we had 4 seats in one little cabin, though the "seats" were the lower beds and the upper beds were permanently fixed, looming above your head. The Thai train was more open and offered bigger viewing areas out the windows.
I set up my little office to get some blogging done....
...Abby and Beth played some cards...
....and Robin began a, I'm sure to be short lived, written blog that she said will be useful in case we ever lose our blog. Not sure on the logic of that one, but she was occupied for a good 10 minutes!
After dinner was served, the woman who was responsible for converting the beds came by and switched it all up. Robin was in heaven in her little fort...
...while the other two ladies continued to play some cards.
We chose the overnight train more for the experience than the cost savings or convenience of getting right to downtown Bangkok. The beds were pretty comfortable and before we knew it, everyone had crashed and were sleeping to the gentle rock of the Southbound train.
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