Cycling The Road Less Travelled

We road our bikes through the bustling streets of Bangkok to get to the train station. Now there’s an adrenaline filled experience for ya’. Forget everything you know about cycling/driving and just go.

We loaded our bikes unto the cargo car in the front of the train, then went to our seats in the sleeper cabin at the very end of the train and got settled in for the 20 hour train ride to Chiang Mai. Luckily, we had the laptop and several books to keep us from getting bored on the long ride. About twenty minutes later, I was bored (thereby confirming Spiros’ claim that I have the attention span of a two year old) and the train still hadn’t left. I decided to go see if there was place on the train to get drinks or food if we got hungry. As I started walking through the cabins, the whistle blew and the train began to move. “Good, we’re off to Chiang Mai”, I thought. After my uneventful tour, I turned back. When I got to the end of the train, Spiros wasn’t there and neither were our bags. In fact, the whole sleeper car wasn’t there…“What the? Huh? Crap!” The train had left but the last car was left behind. I’m on my way to Chiang Mai with no money, no credit cards, no id, no clothes and no Spiros. I suddenly envisioned myself rolling the bikes through the streets of Chiang Mai begging people for money. I spotted a train attendant and tried to explain “Uhhhh….Excuse me, you left behind a part of the train…husband missing!!”.

Meanwhile, in the last railroad car…
Spiros was facing backwards, reading a book, when he heard someone say “Hey, I think the train is leaving without us…”. Spiros casually pops his head into the aisle, looks towards the front of the train and, sure enough, there is a big gap where the rest of the train used to be. He then imagines me running up and down the train screaming… “Uhhhh….Excuse me….you left behind a part of the train…husband missing!!”. He, of course, then chuckles to himself and continues reading his book. Hmmmph!

The train eventually went back to the station and picked up the last car with Spiros in it, still calmly reading his book and chuckling to himself. Double Hmmmph! The train was scheduled to arrive in Chiang Mai at 5:20 a.m.; it arrived at 10:20 am. We were going to start cycling that day but decided to go for banana pancakes and coffee instead. Why rush?