From Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal, we carried on heading north. After three days on the River Kwai, Chiang Mai was next on the itinerary – reached by night train, an experience that's a story in its own right.
The overnight train to Chiang Mai
We booked our tickets through the official website of the State Railway of Thailand (railway.co.th) – if that's down again when you come to book, you can fall back on thailandtrain.org instead. We'd paid around €40 each back then, and the same service – the 18:40 departure we took ourselves – still costs roughly the same today, just under €40. Departure times vary, and you can travel in different classes: depending on the train, the journey takes anywhere from 10.5 hours to nearly 14, with second or third class offering seats only, and first or second class offering sleeper berths. You'll find all the details on the official site.
Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal is enormous and feels more like an airport than a railway station. There are a handful of small shops where you can stock up on food and drink for the long ride, plus a food court. You can also order food on board the train itself, though we didn't bother.
We travelled second class with sleeper berths. Boarding, you find two seats facing each other with a table in between, and plenty of room for luggage. For the first hour and a half or so, we simply enjoyed the view from the window. Then, between 8 and 9pm, came something we'd never experienced in any other country: the train staff – usually the conductor – worked their way through the carriage converting the seats into beds. Every passenger got a fresh sheet, a freshly cased pillow and a freshly cased blanket. The conductor had to convert dozens of seats into berths and make up all that bedding, and did it with real dedication and not a hint of grumbling. Plenty of countries could learn something from that. At a shade under 1.75m, I could stretch out comfortably; if you're closer to 2m, you'll need to fold yourself in a bit.
Around 10pm the lights went out in the carriage and quiet settled in – exactly the right moment to lie down and look forward to waking up in famous old Chiang Mai a few hours later. The next morning, train staff gently woke us around 6am, and the beds had to be converted back. The train has genuinely clean toilets and washing facilities, so you can splash some water on your face and brush your teeth. Always use bottled water for brushing your teeth, though – tap water is never safe to drink in Thailand, unless you fancy an intimate relationship with the porcelain throne.
Arriving at Chiang Mai station, things got a little chaotic outside as everyone searched for transport into town at the same time. We tagged along with a group staying near our accommodation, so the tuk-tuk driver could drop us off on the way. For the roughly 20-minute ride, he asked for 100 baht (around €2.60).
Settling into the heart of the old town
Our accommodation was Estia Chiangmai, which we'd booked through booking.com. As Genius members, the three nights including breakfast cost us €105.
Check availability at Estia Chiangmai →
A little pro tip from me: most hotels and guesthouses only let you check in from 2pm onwards. Since we knew we'd be arriving at the accommodation by 8am, we'd already booked our stay to start a day earlier, well ahead of time. That meant the room was already ready, we could drop our bags off straight away, and head straight to breakfast – properly fuelled for the day ahead.
Estia Chiangmai sits in an unbeatably convenient spot, right in the heart of the old town, surrounded by countless temples, and it's only a 10-minute walk to the world-famous Tha Phae Gate. There were restaurants and cafés all around, and if you've ever been to Thailand, you'll know the next 7-Eleven is never far away.
Temples, scooters and a view over Chiang Mai
For the three days, we hired a scooter again. I can wholeheartedly recommend mangobikesrent.com – great service, and the bikes are genuinely well looked after. We hired a Honda PCX 160i (automatic), which cost 450 THB (just under €12) a day at the time; current pricing shows just over €13 for the same model.
After visiting a few temples in the old town, we headed on to Wat Phra That Doi Kham, one of northern Thailand's most famous and sacred temples. It sits on a mountain, and the drive up through the switchbacks was genuinely beautiful. From the top, we had a view over the whole of Chiang Mai, with the airport laid out right at its feet.
In the evening, we visited One Nimman and the White Market.
The elephant morning that topped it all
The next morning brought the absolute highlight of our Chiang Mai visit: a One Day Elephant Care Tour. We were so taken with the tour, how it was run, and the whole experience, that we'd recommend a visit to the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary to anyone – I'm not paid for this mention, it's simply our honest opinion. We paid 2,600 THB per person for it, around €68 each.
Around 6:30am, a driver picked us up from our accommodation in a minivan, stopping at two more spots around Chiang Mai to collect further participants. We set off for the sanctuary around 7am – the drive took just under two hours, with a short stop at a petrol station for a toilet break and/or a spot of shopping.
Once we arrived, all of us – around 30 participants in total, arriving in several vans – were warmly welcomed with water and a small snack, then kitted out in colourful ponchos: protective clothing for visitors and, at the same time, a mark of respect for local culture. Before we got anywhere near the elephants, the guide gave us thorough instructions on how to behave, told us about the mahouts, and explained the difference between Asian and African elephants. After that, we got to help prepare the elephants' food.
Then it was on to the gentle giants themselves. We could feed the elephants the food we'd prepared, along with bananas, either into their trunks or, for the braver among us, straight into their mouths. None of the elephants were chained, and we were free to stroke them and have our photos taken together. A professional photographer was on hand throughout, documenting everything; the pictures were sent to us afterwards free of charge via an email link, and the quality was outstanding – a poster made from one of them still hangs in my home today.
After feeding, we headed to a nearby river to splash about with the elephants – humans and animals soaking each other and enjoying the cool break from the heat. A mud pit followed, which both species clearly loved in equal measure. After the mud bath, we humans got to shower before being treated to a buffet lunch ahead of the journey back.
In the evening, we visited the Night Bazaar, stocked up on souvenirs and satisfied our hunger. A beautiful, emotional day came to a close.
The last day – and one disappointment
On our final day in Chiang Mai, we took it easy: a few more temples, plus Chiang Mai Zoo. I'll say nothing further about the zoo, other than that it was dreadful – I hope it's improved considerably since. Otherwise: give it a wide berth.
After returning the scooter, we took a taxi to Chiang Mai Airport.
Two short flights and our stay in Khon Kaen
From Chiang Mai, we flew on to my girlfriend's family in Khon Kaen, where we spent a few days with her relatives. This domestic flight starts from around €35 with carry-on luggage only; with 20kg of checked baggage, we paid 2,100 THB each, which works out to about €55 per person.
On the second-to-last day of my time in Thailand, we flew to Bangkok together – me, because I had to fly home the following day, and my girlfriend, so she could see me off at the airport. For me, we paid €45 with carry-on and checked baggage; for my girlfriend, who was only travelling with a small overnight bag, it came to just €27. It can be even cheaper still – with Thai Vietjet Air, this flight sometimes goes for an incredible €13.
One last evening above the rooftops of Bangkok
We stayed at the airport-adjacent Skyline Resort, also booked via booking.com – €25 for the one night. Under 10 minutes from the airport by taxi, you could even watch planes taking off and landing from there.
Check availability at Skyline Resort →
Bags dropped off, we headed into the city. Being so close to the airport, we first took a Grab to the Lat Krabang Airport Rail Link station – Uber no longer operates in Thailand, Grab has taken over the market entirely. The short ride to Lat Krabang station cost around 150 THB (just under €4). From there, the Airport Rail Link took us into town for around 40 THB (just over €1) each as far as Phaya Thai station. We changed onto the BTS Skytrain there and rode for 17 to 47 Thai baht (roughly €0.45 to €1.25) per person to Chong Nonsi station.
This station connects directly to the MahaNakhon Tower and its glass observation deck, 314m up. Until 2018, the MahaNakhon Tower was Thailand's tallest building. Adult tickets start at 1,000 THB (around €26) for the day ticket before 4:30pm, and 1,200 THB (just over €31) for the sunset ticket afterwards, as the sun goes down – seeing Bangkok during that golden hour is something else. And if you're brave enough and don't mind heights, you can step out onto the glass floor and look more than 300m straight down – that's included in the entry price. Buy your tickets through the official King Power Mahanakhon website; you'll pay considerably more through GetYourGuide, and I'm deliberately passing up any commission here by pointing you to the direct site instead.
What This Leg Cost
| Item | for | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Overnight train Bangkok–Chiang Mai, 2nd class sleeper | 1 person | €40.00 |
| Tuk-tuk station–accommodation, Chiang Mai, 100 THB | 2 people | around €2.60 |
| Accommodation Chiang Mai, Estia Chiangmai, 3 nights incl. breakfast (Genius discount) | 2 people | €105.00 |
| Scooter hire, Mango Bikes Rent, Honda PCX 160i, 450 THB/day, 3 days | 1 scooter | around €36.00 |
| Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, One Day Elephant Care Tour, 2,600 THB p.p. | 2 people | around €136.00 |
| Domestic flight Chiang Mai–Khon Kaen with 20kg checked bag, 2,100 THB p.p. | 2 people | around €110.00 |
| Flight Khon Kaen–Bangkok, with carry-on and checked bag | 1 person | €45.00 |
| Flight Khon Kaen–Bangkok, carry-on only | 1 person | €27.00 |
| Accommodation Bangkok, Skyline Resort, 1 night | 2 people | €25.00 |
| Grab to Lat Krabang station, 150 THB | 1 ride | around €4.00 |
| Airport Rail Link Lat Krabang–Phaya Thai, 40 THB p.p. | 2 people | around €2.00 |
| BTS Skytrain Phaya Thai–Chong Nonsi, 17–47 THB p.p. | 2 people | around €0.90–2.50 |
| MahaNakhon SkyWalk, sunset ticket, 1,200 THB p.p. | 2 people | around €62.00 |
All told, that comes to around €596. All amounts are given in euros; you pay in Thai baht on the ground, so the total shifts a little with the exchange rate. The same point stands here too: book an all-in package instead, and you end up paying for convenience, not for the experience itself.
All Booking Links at a Glance
- Overnight train Bangkok–Chiang Mai: State Railway of Thailand, or as a fallback thailandtrain.org
- Accommodation Chiang Mai: Estia Chiangmai
- Scooter hire: Mango Bikes Rent
- Elephant tour: Elephant Jungle Sanctuary
- Accommodation Bangkok (airport-adjacent): Skyline Resort
- MahaNakhon SkyWalk tickets: King Power Mahanakhon
Part 3 carries on with an unplanned change to my journey home.
And if reading this left you thinking "I'd love a trip like this, just without doing all the digging myself": that's exactly what I do. The first chat's on me.
