Travelers Beware Book Series, Volume 1

In June I was so excited to have a month of holidays from work. This being my first year as a teacher abroad the prospect of a Southeast Asia adventure had me itching to flee Beijing and head for the beach.

My husband and I lived on the Mexican Caribbean during the first years of our relationship and we felt that after a year in dusty, dry Beijing, Thailand beaches were our only option for relaxation and another glimpse at the far away paradise we had left behind.



jill-8-3-06 tagged map by user - Tagzania

In addition to being sun lovers and adventurers we are also quite cheap, especially when any large purchase is involved. We checked everywhere for discount airfares and the lowest price we could find was for 6,500RMB ($814.00US) for us and our baby daughter, from Beijing to Bangkok and back. This amount is a huge portion of my monthly salary and so we decided that a land journey would save some of those hard earned yuan (RMB) and would be the recipe for adventure. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into?

The first leg of the trip was a train ride from Beijing to Southern China's Kunming (the gateway to Tibet). Seeing as China is the world's third largest country a train ride from one end to of the territory to the other takes some time - 41 hours to be precise. But, please, let me explain a little about our train ride as it was actually quite rider friendly. On Chinese trains there are generally three classes: soft sleeper, hard sleeper and seat. We were too late to buy soft sleepers and so we were sold hard sleeper beds. These beds are arranged in compartments. There are about ten compartments per train car and each compartment houses six beds, three pairs stacked to the ceiling. If you are unfortunate enough to get the middle or upper bunk you are unable to sit up in bed. There are two fold down stools in the passageway where you can park yourself upright if you can snag one away from the other middles or uppers who are seeking some relief. Well, we were members of the middle bunk family on this lengthy journey and having a one-and-a-half year old daughter to sleep with could have made the situation quite unbearable. I, luckily have a crafty and resourceful husband who proceeded to lace ten meters of seatbelt strap (he uses it in performances) between the guard rails of our two middle bunk beds. Once he made the base we removed the duvet cover from one of the quilts provided and tied the corners up to create a perfect baby nest, safely supporting baby during the night and creating a bridge for her to visit between mama and papa during the day. Once we had our baby nest, we were set for a comfortable ride to Kunming. We watched patiently as the landscape changed from the arid Beijing into rolling, green hills, carved out with rice paddies with textures and colors not seen in photos and movies. The leveled hills have always fascinated me since I first saw photos of China and it was wonderful to travel through that part of the world. The hills gently gave way all types of forests and mountains, rivers and lakes. The scenery from the train was awesome and while my baby and husband napped I found myself staring into China.

The scenery wasn't that only bonus onboard. The Chinese love their tea and so it was that we had boiling hot water on tap for bottles and sterilizing, the hot water a staple in every train car. We were also very lucky because our train car supervisor was our daughter Denya's favorite friend on the journey and kept sweeping Denya away to be cuddled and entertained. We cruised into Kunming feeling victorious about our cross-country decision.

Our pride was soon to be tested as we were informed that no train travels from Kunming to Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, our planned route. We did, however find a bus from Kunming to Vientiane, the Capital of Laos, which is also on the way to Bangkok. We took it. After paying the tickets I asked the lady how long our journey would be, thinking 20-25 hours, seeing as Laos is very small. She replied, "Thirty-six hours." Okay, I thought, "no problem."

The bus was new and it was a sleeper bus so the whole cabin contained three rows of two levels of single beds and then two five person beds at the back of the bus. Pancho, my husband, and I boarded and again I was faced with the thought of 36 hours riding with my baby girl on top of me. When we pulled out of the station Pancho told the attendant that we would be moving to the unoccupied five person bed on the top at the back. The attendant agreed and after we made the move I actually felt butterflies I was so excited that we had this luxury king sized bed all to ourselves. It was wonderful until we got to Laos.

This bus ride ended up being something out of the Travelers' Beware Book Series. Trouble began at the border. How a Country that is so poor can charge so much for a Visa is inexplicable. We paid over $100US just to travel across Laos on a bus. This sum may not be exorbitant for someone earning a "Western" income, but for us it seemed high (keeping in mind again that we are cheap travelers). The Laos border crossing was, however, very interesting, complete with chickens, black and white Polaroid Visa photos and some very small Lao men in super tight brown uniforms.

All five tourists on the bus, whom were also now all of the passengers on the bus made it through the border crossing and we headed into the unknown of this mountainous, lush little Country. Did I say mountainous? Yes, the back of the bus was comfortable until we found ourselves at the mercy of Lao infrastructure. Curvy, bumpy, roller coaster type roads carried us for the rest of our journey. I now know that the back of the bus is the part that jumps and bumps and shakes the most. So much, that at one point Denya was thrown about a foot and half off of our luxury bed. Luckily she landed with squeals of delight, loving her free carnival ride, but mama wasn't quite so entertained by her taking flight. At night, we were thrown and bounced off the windows, walls and I swear sometimes even the ceiling. The last day before arriving in Vientiane Denya and Mama weren't feeling so well but the plastic bag was within reach when baby's stomach finally gave up holding it all in. When we arrived and we stepped off the bus we knew nothing could get us to knowingly subject ourselves to that torture again.

We found our way to the Thai border and onto the next train to Bangkok.

This was the quaintest leg of the journey, an eleven hour jaunt from north-east Thailand to Bangkok, the Thai capital. Bench seats, no doors on the cars, a Londoner back from Buddha camp and raised squat toilets made for an interesting journey. We were so refreshed not to be on the bus anymore that I remember leaning out the door and just letting the wind whip my hair back and laughing at the freedom of the creaky, old train. The terrain was no longer the mountain forests and jungles of Laos. We had traded in wood shacks and cloudy skies for a flat, plains passage through the heart of Thailand's rice paddies. There were huge, open bodies of water that stretched as far as the eye could see and the people working near the tracks were so authentic, in their wide, round straw hats with their burned black skin. It felt like a dream. For some time I forgot about how gross I was after four days without washing.

As we rolled into Bangkok I was suddenly hit with the urge to use the toilet. I'll spare the details, but imagine yourself on an uneven track, with your train car bouncing and you need to balance on a raised squat toilet, without any handles. It was one of the most original physical challenges I have ever faced.

Once we arrived in Bangkok we found a guest house very quickly and the shower was one of those electric heaters, a low pressure shower that you would usually curse. I sat with Denya under the water for about 45 minutes thinking how lucky we were to have access to running water.

So our cost-saving land journey was a success. We made it to our destination. It was a little cheaper than flying. We spent about 2000RMB ($250US) on travel, 800RMB ($100US) on Visas and another 300RMB ($38US) on food and drinks. We ended up saving a whopping 150RMB or $19US. We knew we had to reconsider our return route, but first it was time to enjoy Thailand.

Check out more about our Thai travels in my next blog, coming very soon.