Macao to Bangkok

I arrived in Zhuhai just after 8 in the morning, and while my bus was pulling in into the Gongbei station, Ling Ling send me a message asking whether I had already arrived. Perfect timing! I took a city bus to meet her near her home, where I could drop off my trolley (to pick up on return, before moving on to Nanning), after which we headed to the Macao border crossing.
There was a huge line of people on the big square in front of the border post, at least 500 people in two parallel queues. As far as I could tell, I was the only Westerner. The line was moving fast though, so it didn't take more than 30 minutes before we were inside the building. Once inside, the queue split across 20 or more passport checkpoints, and after an additional 15 minutes, we were out of China, and in the tunnel under the canal which separates Macao from the mainland. Entering Macao was quick and easy for me, not needing a visa, but it took Ling Ling a good few minutes of interrogation before she was allowed in.

I had been in Macao already twice, both times entering from Hong Kong by ferry, as a day trip. We had until the early evening before needing to go to to the airport to catch our flight to Bangkok, so we had a good opportunity to stroll around. We started off with a nice authentic Portuguese heritage lunch, after obtaining some Macao Patacas from an ATM. A meaty stew with potatoes was just what I needed. Really good stuff!
The old city of Macao is very charming, and we wandered through the narrow streets, climbing stairs, and bumping into a variety of local culture. From a wedding to a funeral, literally! A visit to the old cannon fort, with nice views over the old town, reminded me of my first trip, in 2006. We took a free shuttle bus to the Venetian Casino, which Ling Ling wanted to see, and is also conveniently close to the airport. I'm not much of a casino person, but was truly impressed with what they had built here. On the second floor, on top of the casino proper, was a huge shopping mall styled as a copy of Venice, Italy. Including a ceiling painted with photo-realistic clouds, canals with gondolas and singing gondoliers. Outrageous!
After a stroll through this fine example of Chinese copy & paste architecture and a quick gelato, another free shuttle bus brought us to the airport, where we boarded our Air Asia flight to Bangkok.

Maybe it's because after living in China for a year and half, I've gotten so used to always having lots of people and traffic around me, I found Bangkok surprisingly quiet on arrival. Not at all the bustling and noisy city full of tuk-tuks and people that I always heard about. For a moment I thought there must be a national holiday or something, until I realized it's just my Chinese frame of reference. Quite a nice surprise, I have to admit.
On this first visit to Bangkok, I had intentionally steered away from the infamous Khao San road and surrounding area, not wanting to spoil my first impression by thousands of tourists. It appeared to be a good choice. Bangkok greeted me with a charming mix of Asian chaos and Thai friendliness. Like I said, the city appeared much quieter than expected, and the tree-lined streets of the Silom district provided a gentle entrance into the more busy areas which I would encounter later on. One of the nice excursions was a ride on the river ferry, which proved a quick and efficient way to head back to Silom after spending almost the whole day wandering through narrow streets and crowded markets, visiting the odd temple here and there.



Because I was initially under the impression that Ling Ling would leave me here to join her friends, I had reserved a simple dorm bed for my first night in Bangkok (it being high-season, I was well-prepared). But, while in Macao, she disclosed more details about her intended itinerary, which meant going north to Chiang Mai by herself for a few days, and then returning to Bangkok on her birthday to meet with a group of five Chinese friends. Not that is was her idea to travel with so many people, but the Chinese tend to tack along more and more people onto their trip as the day of departure draws closer. She was not particularly pleased with the prospect of traveling in a big group, favouring traveling with a single partner, so she asked me if I would join her to Chiang Mai for a few days.
I had actually no intention to go north, but instead had planned to go south to the islands and beaches. However, this unexpected proposal was attractive enough to say yes. So, upon arrival at the TakeANap guesthouse, I changed my dorm bed reservation into a double room (luckily they had one available), and we spent the night together, and the following day sightseeing in Bangkok.
In the morning we went to the train station to buy a ticket for the night train to Chiang Mai (15 hours), which ended up being a fantastic trip. The second class compartments have only 4 beds (instead of 6 in China), and each bed has lovely pleated gold-coloured curtains around it which give a lot of privacy, which was well-used during the long night. The rhythmic sound of the wheels on the tracks and the muted voices and footsteps of other passengers made this romantic train ride even more exciting.