Chiang Mai Travel Forum

As a 2 metre tall farang i find long bus journeys torture. is there a train and how long does it take and cost.also as i am arriving without visa just a 2 week stamp at airport. is there a border crossing to some nice place where i can renew visa as i plan to spend a month in thailand.

You may find information about travelling by train in Thailand on these websites:

www.seat61.com/Thailand.htm
www.railway.co.th/english


happy travels
Jaap

There are overnight trains, 2. class non aircon upperberth is comfotable (€10-16?).
Close borderpost Chiang Khong to Laos (boat to Luang Prabang, visa avaiable at the border), Mae Sai to Myanmar (only places nearby, short visa avaiable at the border).Border crossing without visa only to Malasia (sleeper to Had Yai was in january B670, €12)

Yeah, there is train service to Chiang Mai. For the overnight sleeper try to get your ticket a couple days ahead of time to reserve a bunk. The sleeper train will get into Chiang Mai early in the morning and you have the whole day ahead of you.

There is a Golden Triangle Tour that you can sign up for. This tour makes a stop in Chiang Rai so tourists can hop over the border and get stamped out and back in with some new dates in your passport. I did two of these tours at different times and we had to wait for some stragglers to finish processing back in.

For tours in Bangkok and Chiang Mai just find the nearest travel agency and they will have a menu selection of tours to choose from. In Chiang Mai the Golden Triangle tour is popular, there is a stop at some villages along the way. Most of the tours leave in 9 person passenger vans. You can even make arrangements to spend the night in Chiang Rai and go back the following day on another van.

Good luck.

For the train, the lower berth is probably slightly better than the upper one for you, as I remember that the upper one was slightly smaller.

You can cross the border into Burma at Mae Sai in Chiang Rai province. If you prefer to travel around by tour, there will be plenty that you can choose from in Chiang Mai or in Chiang Rai. Alternatively, you can do it on your own by taking a bus to Chiang Rai town, and then switch to the local bus to the border. Your best bet for a visa run is to Burma since you will be heading north. There is a cost for a one-day visa. But I can't remember if it is $5 or $10. You'll need a more expensive visa into Laos. And if you are coming down south, many countries don't require a visa into Malaysia.

Yes, there is the overnight train, which is much more pleasant. Unless they changed the law, the standard tourist visa stamp is 30 days. However, if you are in Chiang Mai and need to extend, all the tour companies offer a "visa run" to the Myanmar border.