My last day in Bangkok for now and the journey to Chiang Mai

Since Samira had already traveled on to Vietnam on my last day in Bangkok, we unfortunately couldn't do anything together anymore. Instead, I met up with Fynn and we just walked through the streets of Bangkok. Since I hadn't seen 'Wat Arun' yet, we took the ferry to the other side of the river for just 3.50 baht (around 9 cents). My expectations weren't very high, as someone else had told me that the inside would look pretty much the same as the outside. But I found it wonderful. In general, these temples are so impressive with lots of details and sometimes I wonder how long it took to create such things and how much they are worth. We took the ferry back and walked around the streets again. That's how you discover the most and also get to places where there are hardly any tourists. On Khao San Road, I had a delicious fresh pomegranate juice and then we both went back to our hostels. Fortunately, I was able to take a shower again there, even though I had already checked out in the morning, and then I joined many others who were in the lobby. We met again with Fynn at 6 p.m. to go to the train station. We tried to catch a taxi, which was a bit difficult at that time. And then it started raining. And I mean rain - really heavy rain. Fortunately, I had brought rain covers for both of my backpacks. By the time we reached the train station and got our tickets on the opposite side of the street, we were completely soaked, despite wearing a rain jacket.

Fortunately, we positioned ourselves well and got the best seat. Julia, another solo traveler from Germany, sat behind us. We talked for a while and then I tried to sleep, which surprisingly worked well. Instead of the originally planned eight hours, it took us twelve. There was incredibly heavy traffic and we got stuck in several traffic jams, probably because it was a long weekend here. After this weekend, all the monks retreat to their temples for 30 days to fast and remain silent. Too bad for me, as it seems that a visit to the monastery to meditate together with the monks is not possible.