Holiday with Mum - Chiang Mai to Bangkok by train

The next day we all leave the hotel and go to catch the 8.45am Chiang Mai to Bangkok express. Normally this journey would take about 12 hours, but because of the flooding the journey will take longer, as the train will have to make several detours and we will travel the last 50 miles by bus instead.

Chiang Mai railway station

While we are waiting on the platform the clock strikes 8am and then the Thai national anthem is broadcast from speakers and Thai people stand up to pay their respects to the King. It will be played again at 6pm. The Thais love their royal family and all over the country there and in every household there is a picture of the King. It is socially unacceptable and a criminal offence to make any defamatory remarks about the royal family. He is elderly and frail now and in hospital, with the press saying that he is upset about the flooding. He has a son and a daughter and it is normal for the crown to pass to the prince, but in fact the King has the power to decide who of the two the crown will pass to.

Typical portrait of King Bhumibol

Chiang Mai is at the northern end of the railway line and the line arrived here in about 1925. As the train rumbles gently through rural landscapes we can hear and feel the jclickety-clack of the joins between the rails and we see local people working in the fields at various stages of the rice harvest.

Rural view from the train

During the journey a woman goes up and down the aisle serving us with complementary drinks, snacks and meals and every so often we passengers have little naps - even the guard is asleep.

Guard napping



Towards evening we begin to see evidence of the flooding and this gets worse as we go further south until in the twilight we seem to be travelling across a vast lake. At times the train slows almost to walking pace.

Flooding

Although the train will eventually reach Bangkok, the tour guide has arranged for us to leave the train earlier and complete the journey by coach. This is because the last part of the journey will be incredibly slow on the train. We pull into a station at about 10pm and we are already 1 and half hours later than we should be and some of the group start to get grumpy. We have to get off here – but on this side of the train there is no platform. We man-handle the luggage and ourselves down from the train, across the track and out into a local market, where the locals look at us with mild interest.

We complete the last part of the journey into Bangkok by coach and as we come into the city we drive through a flood on the road and we can see abandoned cars and trucks by the side of the road and people camping out on bridges across the road.

We eventually arrive at our hotel in Bangkok in the wee small hours of the morning and we are all very glad the journey is over – it is 17 hours since we left Chiang Mai.