#11: Arrival in Chiang Mai

01/26/2020

Beep, beep, beeeeeep: 4:30 am.. on a Sunday! Let's go, the hotel is not sad this time. The bus ride to Chiang Mai is ahead of us.

We get ready quickly, check out, and at a little after 5:00 am we are sitting in a taxi towards the bus station. After a few minutes and €3 less in my pocket, we reach the destination on the left side. It's a bit more crowded than the day before, but we already know where to go and once again we are on time in the bus.

The bus ride goes smoothly without any incidents and we are served both breakfast and lunch. As is customary in Asia, some passengers wear face masks. However, a passenger conveniently sitting right behind us has ensured that we are almost the only passengers without masks through his 10-hour long coughing, sneezing, and spitting. We probably look quite pitiful fairly quickly, so a friendly Thai woman gives us two of her spare masks. Later, we take the first opportunity to move to other seats. After a stop for a lunch break, we reach our destination at the designated train station almost on time, a little after 4:00 pm after a 10-hour ride.

From the bus station in Chiang Mai, we walk on foot for about 40 minutes to the hostel. The city is much smaller than the metropolis Bangkok, with about 130,000 inhabitants, which is noticeable in the better air quality. The city is rather quaint with smaller houses and lots of greenery.

The hostel also makes a good impression. It may be a bit old, but it has a certain charm, a nice balcony, and it's clean. After visiting the night market, which is within sight from the balcony, we have dinner with the food we bought there and fall into bed.