If you’ve seen handful of movies that take place on the train, namely Before Sunrise and The Darjeeling Limited or little sad tale of Graves of Fireflies, you might be able to relate to my affinity to train traveling.
Ever since I was a child in Japan, family vacation to country side of Japan on long train ride was something that always won me over car ride travel. Traveling on train has something that none of the other traveling method can offer: beautiful scenery that spread outside of wide windows and zooming through tunnels on mountain ridges and occasional awesome crossing over bridges.
The train traveling, above all, offers the most comfortable traveling experience. You will have much spacious room to stretch legs and big table to lay out board games to play with travel companions. Also, the variety of food and beverage services on train is something special.
After my 3 days in Chiang Mai, I have decided to take night train ride down to ancient city of Ayutthaya before making travel back to Bangkok to embark on my next travel chapter: Cambodia.
Ayutthaya is located 52 miles above Bangkok, and it’s about 1 hour to fly or 8 hours to drive from Chiang Mai. This is more less about the same travel distance between San Francisco, CA and Portland, OR or from Boston, MA to Pittsburgh, PA. So it’s definitely much convenient and big time saver to travel by air; but the slower land travel can offer good deal on seeing the country.
The night train service that links Chiang Mai and Bangkok makes a stop at Ayutthaya. It takes about total 10 hours of traveling.
It is significantly slower travel so not particularly recommended if you have very limited time in hand, but it worth every moment if you get lucky to meet with awesome travelers on the train because that will make the whole experience much interactive and exciting. Remember, traveling is about sharing 😉
This is exactly what happened on my way to Ayutthaya.
After bidding farewell to Mr. Big’s private taxi service and my friend who decided to take easy way down to Bangkok via AirAsia, I caught 6pm southbound train to Ayutthaya.
Chiang Mai is clearly the elephant kingdom. So many elephants!
It was a Valentine’s Day. Apparently, it is kind of big deal here in Thailand too. A police officer with newspaper and rose in his hands.
On the train, I have met two backpackers seemingly want to get some sort of beers to celebrate the end of the day on the road — I am really good at sensing these things, when you are on the road alone you start to feel that every encounter with other traveler is natural phenomenon that is nearly impossible to set aside without celebrating over bottles of beer. Good travelers stick together like magnets — so I offered to watch their stuffs (two 55-60 liter backpacks) while they pop out to the station kiosk to buy some beers.
After several bottles of Cheng and home made Thai curry from cooking class, three of us soon developed camaraderie of lonely travelers in Thailand. Hell, in the middle of nowhere in Thailand and drinking so much local beers! Life was literally perfect!
We talked about the places we traveled and stories of our lives; and we laughed hard whenever the food vendor insistently came over to our seats to sell more and more beers!
Time was moving very slowly inside the train and forming the eternal oasis for travelers. Happiness was in the air.
Around 11pm, train crew came around to set up portable beds on the seats so it was clearly time for everyone to go to sleep.
We set the alarm clocks to 4am — few minutes before the train arrives at Ayutthaya.
It was quiet night on the not so comfortable yet reasonable bed on the train. I put my earphones and played some music to put me to sleep.
Harold Budd & Brian Eno “Above Chiangmai” — this was the tune that synchronized with the night of journey on train.
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Good thing about the State Railway of Thailand aside from overly hospitable food vendor who keeps eyes on emptying beer bottles is that train crews actually come over to your sleeping cabin to wake you up before the train arrives at station.
I remember the face of train crew who woke me up – he was the one that checked my ticket when I got on the train – then I learned that was the true purpose of showing the ticket at the beginning.
We are not policed to show the passenger tickets to prove the proper fare payment, but it was more about confirming the destination so the kind train crew members can help the foreign-non-Thai-speaking-party-ridden-backpackers to break the deep deep sleep. Pretty party friendly train isn’t it?
Here’s another reason why Thailand is considerably beginner friendly backpacking travel destination.
All of us woke up by 4am (thanks to kind train crew) and prepared for arrival.
I have sorted my belongings before going to bed, so everything was consolidated and ready to go.
A tip for travelers: be responsible of time management and definitely consolidate your stuffs the night before departing hotel room, overnight train, and buses. Do another idiot check before leave (look under the bed, shelves, seats to make sure nothing is left behind).
Ayutthaya is known for its history as the ancient capital of Siamese Kingdom. It was founded by King U Thong in 1350. I have read some stories about this city including how the capital was moved here to escape from smallpox epidemic in the country.
Contrary to metropolitan Bangkok or mountainous Chiang Mai, Ayutthaya settles in quiet rural land and has many monasteries and ruins that are different from everything I have seen in Thailand thus far.
Ayutthaya has many temple ruins. It is often referred to as “Venice of the East”. Take a look at this view by the lake in historical park.
As city, Ayutthaya is very much established as tourist destination and you will see many souvenir shops and elephant ride tour all around in the city center. Since our day started very early in the morning, we had a head start on tour around historical park.
Tuk-tuk is preferred method of transportation in the city. However, be adamant about fare negotiation as higher “tourist” fare is very much the standard everywhere. Taking the ride for >100 baht is reasonable to navigate this small city.
The early morning tuk-tuk cruise took us around the historical park and various temples before dawn. The most memorable stop was Wat Chaiwattanaram. Seeing the ancient remnant of Siam Kingdom under the speckles of star light was an overwhelming experience.
No one else but three of us lone travelers were standing in the middle of open space; ancient stone building was looking down on us like a giant without word.
We looked up and saw the sky starting to brighten up and flock of bats fluttering back to their silent den on one of the temple spires.
Later on, after returning to San Francisco, I explained this mystical experience to my Thai housemate and he taught me the word ขลัง (K̄hlạng) which means magical, mystical, mystified, sacred, not to be taken lightly, to be treated with respect — it is indeed the perfect word to describe my encounter with Wat Chaiwattanaram on that morning. The weight of history and time that passed had left me awestruck under the power of natural phenomenon, that is break of dawn.
Everything about Ayutthaya and its beautiful temple sites are full of ขลัง.
Ayutthaya is very interesting place to visit and also train accessible from Bangkok (only about 2 hours ride and price is 20 baht!).
So I HIGHLY recommend this as a day trip option from BKK.
Mackenzie and Natalia, two backpackers that I’ve met on the train.
One definite truth about traveling is regardless of how much time you have in your hands, you are constantly exposed to the chance of meeting one of the coolest people that you would otherwise never meet in your comfort zones.
Next chapter will cover the beginning of one-week long journey in Cambodia. Stay tuned!
A young dancer in traditional dress waiting for her cue to perform.
Street vendor making coconut pancake with quail eggs. Oh, man. This stuff was incredibly yummy!
Typical sight of souvenir shops in Thailand. Many Buddhas!
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is temple with very conspicuous golden architectures. Here’s the first sight of the temple from the gate.
There is a pathway built around the temple structure and golden Buddhas stand by it.
Emerald Buddha.
People’s prayers are written on the bells and hang high in the sky.
Beautiful Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.
Mr. Big and me in front of Chiang Mai train station. Yeah!
Matthieu and Armandine getting coconut pancakes.
Cow and her child in the middle of remote village in Chiang Mai.
Domestic scene in the village.
Ross standing in front of old house in the rural side of Chiang Mai.
His day starts from here. Every day.
About 1hr ride on pickup truck, we stopped at remote village in Chiang Mai and ate pad-thai for lunch. This is my friend Shuki (on right) buying a can of coca-cola from the lady that works at the food stop.
After lunch, our tour guide Maxi took us through moderate jungle hike into Hmong tribe in the shade of hilly landscapes. My Hmong friend passionately explained to me his love for Japanese motorbike!
Meet our tour guide Maxi. 
This is how most of the hiking trail looked like. Doesn’t look too hard of a hike, eh?
This breathtaking view was waiting at the exit of bamboo forest.
We can kind of see Hmong tribe in the distance. That is the direction we’re heading to.
Taking a short break.
We walk passed cabbage field maintained by Hmong tribe people.
Maxi and some baskets of cabbage in the middle of field. We are really getting close to the Hmong hill tribe lodge.
This is a view from the highest hill at our lodge area in twilight hour.
Next morning. A break of dawn at Hmong hill tribe.
This dog was extremely friendly and loved our company. He even followed us on the hike to the jungle (well, he eventually got hungry and turned back home)! His human lives in the Hmong tribe.
The lodge was maintained by Hmong families. They are making some sort of seating platform with the wood pieces.
This guy. Screeched away the morning like Skrillex.
Day 2: another great weather.
Hmong mother and her baby.
Morning hours in hill tribe lodge was so slow and relaxed.
This is the small garden in our hill tribe lodge (opposite view from above)
All packed and ready to go.
Harvest season was on! Cabbage. Cabbage. Cabbage!
Hmong ladies harvesting cabbages.
Maxi crafting water cup out of bamboo.
Lunch break at local restaurant. This is fully functional old school Pioneer karaoke machine.
A boy and elephants.
Helmets for bamboo rafting.
…and FINALLY! We found Khao Soi! 