Zelma’s Trip

I woke up on the train as I always do on trains i.e. not knowing what time it is as I never seem to get a window and feeling like I’ve gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson.  The only difference today was that there was an added pleasure of a woman screaming, "Morning, orange juice", before screaming, I presume the same thing, in Thai.  I looked at my Ipod and it was 6:15AM.  After unsuccessfully trying to make myself look slightly less like I had been dragged through hedgeland backwards I headed for the dining car.

Whilst in the dining car I met a couple from Leeds who were traveling with their children.  Apparently they were on an organised family tour of the country with a company who specialise in tours for people with children.  Although not the biggest tour fan, I thought this was a great idea allowing both the parents and children to socialise with other families.  Both parents and children seemed to be getting a huge amount from their trip.  When speaking to the woman (yes, I forgot to ask proper things like their names, again) she said that all the young people she met who were traveling had either traveled as children or grown up in foreign climes.  I thought about this and, although a lot have, I also know people who never traveled when they were younger and have still done it (Luce!).  She spoke of not having been further than Wales until she was forty and the importance of children experiencing things.  The legacies that people can give to their children can be amazing.  I’ve always said that if I have children I will bring them up abroad.  Failing that they have to see different cultures.  Although almost apologetic for her lack of travel I really liked the woman.  She was obviously wise as when she asked how old I was and I said twenty eight she said, "Wow, I was going to guess more like nineteen – you wear it very well".  She also said I was very brave, which of course I am!

When we got to Chiang Mai I did the lazy thing of going with one of the reps at the station to her guesthouse.  It was actually really nice and had a small pool.  I decided to have a nap as I was feeling decidedly dodgy only to wake up at six in the evening.  I toyed with going to the stadium to see a Muay Thai bout but actually went back to sleep and only woke up the next morning.  The following morning I went for a wander around the town whilst the locals were getting up and setting their shops up.  I also managed to get completely lost.  I was feeling a bit faint to be fair and got very fed up.  Eventually I decided to get a tuk-tuk back to the guesthouse.  The only problam was that I didn’t actually know the name of it.  I explained to the tuk-tuk driver that it was owned by two sisters and that there was a swimming pool.  I never realised how many swimming pools there could be in one town!  After a tour of several hotels and guesthouses he stopped to talk to a friend at the roadside.  I presumed he was asking them about guesthouses with pools but actually he was probably just despairing about the stupid, somewhat irate English woman sat in the back of his tuk-tuk.  I got the key out which didn’t say the name of the guesthouse but did say "power save" and the room number.  They took this off of me and spent ages trying to find out where this "power save" guest house was which is actually relatively amusing but at the time I was not amused.  I then rediscovered a lonely braincell and realised that I had booked a minibus ticket to Pai through the guesthouse.  I got this out and lo and behold it had the guesthouse name on.  The tuk-tuk driver throught this was hysterical and I presumed that he thought it was funny that I had it on me all along.  I soon found out that, what he found so funny, was that I was actually staying at the first guesthouse he took me to when I protested that it wasn’t the right one.