Holiday with Mum - Bangkok to Penang

The next part of the holiday is an overnight train journey from Bangkok to Butterworth, in Malaysia and then a coach journey to Penang. This train line going west out of Bangkok has been closed for 4 weeks because of the floods, so we expect to have to take a coach for the first part of the journey; however we find out that the line has opened this morning, so we will be on the first train out of Bangkok.

Bangkok railway station

When we get to the station our train is waiting for us and 3 men are going up and down the platform cleaning it with brushes and a hose.

Cleaning the train

On the train we have plenty of space, sitting in two wide arm chairs facing each other. As we leave Bangkok we go past shanty houses built right up against the line.

Shanty house by the railway line

Once in the suburbs to the west of Bangkok the flooding is on both sides of the track. Houses, shops, businesses and roads are flooded and people are carrying on their daily lives wading knee-deep in water. A man and woman walk through the water carrying a small child on the man’s shoulders and several improvised boats made from polystyrene are transporting goods.

Flooded communities

As we go through small stations people are camping out under tarpaulins on the dry platforms. At one point the water comes right over the track and the train leaves a wake as we go. These are the sights out of the carriage door:

Water outside the train door

As the train line turns south we leave the flooding behind us and continue through farm land of rice fields and other crops.

When it gets dark dinner is served at our tables. We get soup, a main course and fruit. It’s a bit of a logistical nightmare for the catering manager, as we have all ordered slightly different combinations.

Sorting out the dinner order

About 9pm a man comes down the carriage and converts our chairs into a bed and pulls down a bunk. He puts clean sheets, pillow cases and blankets on the beds and attaches a curtain to each one for privacy.

Making the beds

There is a certain amount of hilarity as people sort themselves out for bed and decide who is going on the top bunk, but before long we are all settled down and the train continues to chug through the night, rocking us to sleep.

Time for bed

We are woken before first light for the beds to be put away and breakfast is served as we reach Hat Yai, the last station in Thailand. Here the train is split up and only two carriages continue on the line to Butterworth. In the morning light  we can see that it is raining outside; not a heavy monsoon-type rain, but a grey drizzle from a heavy sky, making the landscape look more like England that Thailand.

When we get to the Malaysian border everone and all the luggage has to get off the train and go through emmigration from Thailand and immigration to Malaysia and then we get back onto the train again and settle bck down for another 3 hours to Butterworth, where the line ends. We are met by a coach and driven across the 8 mile bridge that connects Penng island with the mainland. We get to our hotel 24 hours after leaving Bangkok.

Holiday with Mum – Bangkok

We wake up in the morning to get our first view of Bangkok in the daylight. The view from our 22^nd floor hotel window is of a chaotic city-scape on many levels. Down at street level we can see a small market, ramshackle houses and a railway line. Above this an elevated highway with cars whizzing along is crossed by the airport express railway. It is like looking out on a full-sized working scalextric model.

Bangkok city-scape view from our bedroom window

Our hotel , is ultra modern and the beautiful pool is on the 10^th floor and long enough to plough up and down, if you have the energy.

Swimming pool

We set off with the group on the morning of our first day in Bangkok to do some sightseeing. Our first stop is at the oldest temple in Bangkok – Wat Pho.

Mum at Wat Pho

One building in the temple houses a 45m long reclining Buddha. He is made from plaster- covered brick and inlaid with gold leaf. The building is not vastly bigger than the statue, making it difficult to take in the whole image at one time. The soles of his feet are beautifully inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

Reclining Buddha

Soles of the Buddha’s feet

The building is also a centre of public learning because the wall and pillars are covered with inscriptions, diagrams and pictures of history, literature and astrology.

Wall painting

The temple has  many many pegodas, which are decorated with coloured ceramics. This is different from the golden pegodas we saw in Chiang Mai. The largest pegodas house the ashes of former kings.

Pegodas

Buddha images

Next we go to visit the Grand Palace and another temple, Wat Phra Kaeo, within the grounds of the palace. This is the King’s own temple and is the holiest Buddhist site in Thailand. There is a strict dress code at this site, with knees and shoulders covered. One lady in our group is wearing a sleeveless dress and she has a shawl to cover her shoulders. This is not good enough and she is taken to one side at the entrance and loaned a blouse with sleeves to wear over her dress. At we arrive a group of guards dressed in white march past.

Palace guards

We go into the temple and we are greeted by a feast of visual delights. Everywhere you look there are beautiful buildings encrusted with mosaics of mirrors and coloured tiles, statues and golden Buddha images. The marble floors add an additional shine to the whole place and the eaves of the buildings are hung with small bells which jingle gently in the breeze. The whole effect is of a brightly lit stage set of a fairy tale. After a short while I get temple and beauty overload and cannot continue to appreciate each subsequent delight, ‘Oh yeah, another beautiful thing - very nice mmm.’

Wat Phra Kaeo

Spot the demons!

After the temple we visit the Grand Palace. This was built in 1785 to found Bangkok as the new capital of Thailand and mark the end of the Burmese occupation. It is no long the home of the royal family and is now only used for ceremonial and official occasions.

Grand Palace

Me at the Grand palace

After lunch we go to see a cultural show highlighting some traditional aspects of Thai life. We see some dancing, a representation of Tai boxing, a wedding ceremony etc.

Dancing

At the end of the show the performers invite members of the audience to join them on the stage for a final dance. Guess who is one of the first people up there?

Me and some of the dancers

The next day the arranged excursion is to the River Kwai world war 2 site, cemetery and museum. Mum and I agree that this is not really our cup of tea and we would also rather see more of Bangkok itself while we are here. We take a taxi to the river and arrange an hour’s long tail boat ride to the Thonburi side of the city. Many of the usual boats are not running because the river and the water in the canals is so high.

Long tail boat

Many of the small houses built alongside the canal are under water and we watch people wading around knee deep in water as they hang out washing to dry.

Houses by the canal - some drier than others

Several small boats go from house to house selling supplies and some are selling souvenirs to tourists in the boats. This lady paddled out to us and tempted us with a folding hat that also doubles up as a fan.

Lady selling souvenirs

On the way back a flotilla of small rubber boats whizz by containing members of the Royal Thai Navy.

Thai navy

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.

Holiday with Mum - Chiang Mai

When I was first planning my trip, I suggested to Mum that at some point we could meet up. She chose a holiday through Thailand, Malaysia, finishing in Singapore. Mum has travelled extensively, but had never managed to get to that part of the world, even though she had tried several times. On one occasion there were fires in Malaysia and the smog in Kuala Lumpur caused the cancellation of the holiday. Another time she was due to do a cruise and the ship sank before the holiday began and again she had to stay at home.  For several weeks we were unsure whether this holiday would go ahead because of the floods covering much of the land north of Bangkok and threatening to flood Bangkok itself and we thought this holiday might also be doomed. We watched the news, kept an eye on the Foreign Office website and kept in touch with the travel company. The Foreign Office was advising against all but essential travel to Bangkok and one holiday was cancelled. Then as the floods began to recede, the group departing the week before our holiday departed, with some changes to their itinerary. On the day before Mum’s departure the Foreign Office changed its advice and the trip was confirmed.

The group left from Heathrow on Tuesday 15 November and was due to arrive at the hotel starting point in Chiang Mai on the evening of Wednesday 16^th. I moved from my guest house to the posh hotel and checked in to take advantage of the hotel facilities during the afternoon. I washed my clothes in the bath and had a swim in the hotel pool and a relax on a sunbed.

Hotel pool

Mum and the other 24 members of the group arrived by coach at the hotel right on time and we had a big hug.

Mum  is with me as I write this and wants to say, ‘After 24 hours travelling I finally met up with Helen, looking very glamorous – not a bit like a scruffy backpacker. It was lovely to see her.’

Mum had brought out some messages and small gifts from the family which was lovely and a few extra clothes and jewellery so that I had some suitable things for the holiday. It was really nice to have some different clothes to wear and I realised that some of my travelling clothes had become quite grey from hand washing.

Mum and me at the hotel entrance

The next morning we go sightseeing in the tour bus with the group. We visit Wat Doi Suthep, the most famous Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai area, which is built on a mountain overlooking the city. The stupa is coated in gold leaf and gleams brightly in the sunshine.

Wat Doi Suthep

We walk around the main temple area mingling with other tourists, temple visitors and monks. Here are some other pictures from the temple:

Mum with view over Ching Mai

Workman applying gold leaf

At one point there is a stand of small post boxes, for people to put in donations for different things connected with the temple. We like this one:

Donate for oldster

Temple steps

Chiang Mai is famous for its arts and crafts and in the afternoon we are taken to various craft factories and showrooms. We see jewellery, silk, silverware, and for me the most interesting was the paper umbrella and fan factory. The umbrellas are made from bamboo and were made originally for the monks. Local women sit on raised platforms and painstakingly shape pieces of bamboo using a sharp blade to make the small pieces needed to make the skeleton and mechanism for the umbrellas.

Making umbrellas

The paper for the cover is also made from bamboo and covered in glue made from tapioca to make it waterproof.

Gluing the paper cover

Artists paint traditional designs on the umbrellas and fans and will also paint a design onto your own item. I choose  a small blue elephant for my camera case.

Painting my camera case

The next day the group goes off early in the tour bus to visit an elephant camp, but Mum and I decide to take it easy and have the day to ourselves to do some local sightseeing. We get up late and after breakfast take a tuk tuk into the old town.

We visit another temple and inside young boy monks are having a meal, watched by an old monk who sits motionless at the end of the hall between statues of monks.

Boy monks

Old monk presiding over the meal

Wat Phra Singh temple

We sit and rest in the shade in the grounds of the temple and then we notice an old car parked near us. It is maintained in pristine condition and Mum says it looks very like the first car her father had when she was about 12 years old – a Vauxhall. She recognises the silver metal band on the side of the bonnet. We go over to have a closer look and it is a Vauxhall!

Mum and vauxhall

She remembers her dad going to the garage and driving it home. There were no driving lessons and tests in those days. After the family got the car they would drive 64 miles from Newcastle-under-Lyme on a Saturday night, after the family jewellers shop closed, and stay in their caravan in Prestatyn in north wales and then drive home again on Sunday night. The family sold the car and caravan when war broke out in 1939 because her two older brothers went into the merchant navy and the army and the family couldn’t go away for weekends any more.