Thailand Flooding - Logistical Nightmare

Last time we spoke we were in the town of Kanchanaburi in the west country. The plan was to catch a train and head back to Bangkok before catching the 15 hour over night train up to Chiang Mai in the mountains of Northern Thailand.

Well we made it finally to Chiang Mai but not the way we planned......

It all started on check out of our Hostel in Kanchanaburi where we were explaining our plans to the owner, who promptly informed us that all the trains heading north from Bangkok had been suspended due to all the flooding in the middle of the country.

This left us with two options if we still wanted to get to Chiang Mai. Either a 10 hour bus journey on one of the worlds most dangerous roads or to catch a flight.

We opted for the flight and half an hour later we were booked on a flight courtesy of Mr Fernandes at Air Asia.

Flights booked we headed to Kanchanaburi station to catch our train to Bangkok. In the sweltering heat, carrying two very large bags, we looked like we had just stepped out of the shower. All of this to find out our train to Bangkok had been delayed four hours. Its nice to see its not only England that has an awful train service. Tickets booked we sat at the station and waited....well for 15 minutes before i made an executive decision that we weren't going to wait for four hours and instead would catch the first class coach to Bangkok.

Being brave we managed to speak decent enough Thai to be able to get a refund, get a taxi to the bus station and book our first class ticket on the coach. Which may we say at the same price as the train is significantly more comfortable and only two hours in length with a free bottle of water.

Arriving in Bangkok we had to negotiate our way round their massive bus terminal before catching two busses that would finally get us to our hostel for the night.

The following day we headed to Bangkok International Airport to catch our flight up here to Chiang Mai. We were both very impressed with Air Asia and believe that Stellios could learn a lot form Mr Fernandes on how to run a decent budget airline. The only thing that hurt was knowing that our money was probably now going to help QPR FC.

So finally, 1 Coach, 3 Taxis, 2 Busses, and a Flight later we have arrived to see what this beautiful part of the country has to offer. I think one thing is for certain, if its like the rest of Thailand, we arnt going to be disapointed.