A tip: sweat is dried by tuk-tuks

Note to future self: Second-class non a/c Thai sleeper trains, though they may be supremely economical, are not particularly conducive to sleep.

Around 6 AM, I poked my head around the side of my top bunk to see Husbear already up and reading.  Just about everyone else was up and moving around, too, so I got dressed and climbed the ladder down to join him.

We went ahead and ordered a Thai-style train breakfast; watery rice soup, tea, and reconstituted OJ.  It was fine.  Later, we talked with a girl who had the "western" style breakfast and said it was horrifically greasy eggs, so our breakfast obviously could have been worse...

As it turned out, we were lucky to have ordered the breakfast.  We stopped at towns where we disgorged passengers, and occasionally we stopped in the middle of the forest for no reason at all. 

Between all of these scheduled and non-scheduled stops, we were soon running pretty late.  Luckily for us, several of the longer in-town stopeovers featured folks hopping onto the train with us, selling food.  They had noodles, fried chicken, rice packets, fruits, drinks in little bags, strange sausages, and things in banana leaves.  By now, it was lunchtime and, well, GIRLIE LOW BLOOD SUGAR HUNGRY.  (The best term I've heard for the irritability I get when I'm low on food is "hangry".  Can't remember where I read it...)

We got some rice, some things in banana leaves, and a little newspaper cone of what turned out to be quite good pad thai.

The banana leaf wrapped tasty turned out to be nem, a sour fermented pork sausage.  It had a little spice, a great meaty flavor, and a satisfying pickle twang all at the same time.  I was definitely regretting ordering only one little ball.

We were seriously impressed with the wrap job on the pad thai.  You can see it there on Husbear's leg, all done up in newspaper, with a set of chopsticks and a green onion attached with a rubber band.  Unwrapping the newspaper and a sheet of plastic underneath, we arrived at a tasty little mound of sweet, savory, shrimpy noodles.  We pushed them all immediately into our faces.

Thank goodness for the strolling in-train food vendors!  Wouldn't that be great on trains and long-distance buses here?

We looked out the window and watched the countryside crawl by.  Almost three hours late, we arrive!  We picked up a map from some thinly-veiled touts at the "tourist office" inside the station (when we told them we already had a place to stay and a cooking class lined up, they snatched away the nice map they had already given us and replaced it with a crappy little notebook-paper version).  Then, we ran perhaps the most insistent gauntlet of tuk-tuk drivers we'd seen since our arrival in Bangkok. 

Tuk-tuks are so called because of the sputtering noise their little wind-up engine makes.  Their drivers are more persistent than taxi drivers, perhaps because they make less money.

We came to an agreement with a tuk-tuk driver to get us to our hotel.

He took us through a good little chunk of the city, pointing out where the Sundat market would be on the next day, where a few of the more impressive wats were to be found, and the moat that surrounds the old city.  (We could have found this one on our own, I think.)

With a flourish, he deposited us at our hotel and told us where he usually parked, in case we were wanting a tour of the city's wats?  We thanked him, but told him no for now.  We had an urgent date with a pool.

It was all we could do to check in to the hotel and pretend to be nonchalant enough not to jump on the first room we were shown.  It really pays to wait out the management a little when checking into a hotel in Thailand or Vietnam - the first room you're shown will probably be a dump, but you're under no obligation to take it.

We edged our way up the rickety spiral staircase to our room, rooted through our backpacks to find bathing suits, sarongs, sunscreen, and poolside reading material, and...

Bliss.

We stayed by the pool for several hours, jumping in and out, being chased into the bar by rain and emerging again.  After the sun went down, which happens surprisingly early in the tropics, we went to get a couples mani/pedi.  What?  Every once in a while, we both need pampering!  Especially after a train ride like that.

We hopped another tuktuk to Chiang Mai's famed night market, but halfway there Husbear realized he had forgetten his baby, his Canon 30d, at the salon.  So we grabbed the driver by his ear and turned him around... well, not quite literally, but there was some impassioned yelling and "turn around!  OH GOD TURN AROUND!" (I know I'm young for a heart attack, but I swear my right arm went numb.  Surprisingly, I managed to keep lunch down as well.  -L. Pants)

When we got back, one of the salon ladies was out in the street, holding out our bag.  All's well that... well, something or other.  Avoid cliches, that's my philosophy!

Anyway, we did make it to the night market with all of our belongings, though the tuk tuk driver tried to double the fare on us, and we worked our way through booths of silks and Buddhas, dodging the ladies in traditional dress making urgent frog noises at us.  We were really just hungry, so we found the food area and ordered a few things.

I guess I was feeling a bit dehydrated, as I wasn't all that hungry, but I sure did demolish that plate of Vietnamese-style spring rolls.  We also had another good som tam (green papaya salad), and Husbear did enjoy the northern-style beef noodles, but said he wouldn't rush back to order it again.

By the way, Husbear has shaved the beard he's worn for almost 9 years!  He is beardless!  I almost jumped into the wall when he came out of the bathroom yesterday.  Good lord.  I'll have to take pics, 'cause I don't think he's sure yet whether it's going to last or not.

Tomorrow, look for a possible Kooking Korner with Mr. Pants update!  I ain't promising nothing, as the man is busy.

Comments

[Albany Jane]

I'm glad I have your blog to read - all your travels are so interesting, but I'm not jealous of all the travel time you've been having lately! The Pad Thai looks amazing, and I'm also glad I'm not the only girl that becomes a hazard when she's low on food.

[Boots in the Oven]

Thank you! Yeah, the travel hours logged lately have been a little excessive.

I think we have a strong sisterhood (and brotherhood!) of people who get angry when they're low on food. My grandmother always carries around a packet of string cheese, just in case!