Would you do it again?

[Lancashirelad]

Also, keen to know what the ticket inspector scam was all about I find that if you know about the scams you are less likely to get caught?

My ticket had the wrong date. (done deliberately I assume)

So they let me on (rather than sending me back to the ticket office to change it), grabbed me the moment the train left the station.

Escorted me off, at the next station, then made me pay 500bht to change the ticket.

Guessing it was done with the compliance of the BK ticket office.

Check the date on the ticket they hand you.

Up to you to check the ticket is correct, humans do sometimes make mistakes. "So they let me on". You mean someone checked the ticket at the platform entrance or train door? I doubt it.

I did it about a year and a half ago (just before the coup) and found it a most enjoyable experience. My buddy and I took second class sleepers (he had the upper, I the lower) with a nice Japanese couple opposite. A very sociable party atmosphere prevailed. I would do it again. Only thing I would not order the food on the train again. I found it barely edible. There is a food court right in the station at Chang Mai with some good breakfast on offer. I flew back but that was for scheduling reasons. Definitely give it a try for, as someone said, it can be a nice little adventure.

I guess things must have gone downhill since I last took the trip 17 years ago. Me and my wife took the first class sleeper from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, it said no smoking but the guard didn't mind, they brought excellent food, soups with the little candle burner, really good chicken and rice, beer the lot and not that much more expensive than an ordinary Thai food stall.

It is a painful journey out of Bangkok as it is so slow, but when you pull the blinds as the sun comes up and you are practically in jungle (it was my first trip up North and that was what it looked like at the time bananas all around) in the morning, that is a great way to arrive. Thankfully we got off at Lamphun so didn't see the grot of Chiang Mai station. It was actually even nicer to go out on the rear veranda of the train for a smoke in the evening and watch the world go by, at a pretty slow pace I might add. Well worth it if you haven't tried it yet.

The guard may not have minded you smoking in the small cabin, but I'm damned sure the non smokers who were next in that cabin most certainly did.

Edited December 7, 2015 by Lancashirelad

[Lancashirelad]

I thought it was hell.

People talking all night, slower than the coach, and I was scammed by the ticket collector.

Not something I will ever repeat.

Have you tried an overnight bus trip from Bangkok to CM? Like being in a prison camp. Once and once only.

Many, many more people have been killed on overnight buses in Thailand than overnight trains. Up to you.

Before the coup, Thai trains were derailing monthly, mostly along the Chiang Mai route. Since the coup, there are no more reports of this. I find it difficult to believe that suddenly the horrendous record of Thai trains had been inexplicably corrected right then and there once there was a govt. changeover. Of course, even with a monthly derailment, and they were usually happening with no fatalities, the odds are you'll be able to make the trip unscathed. I used to enjoy the trip by train to Chiang Mai, but the principal of giving my money to Thai rail who just let derailment after derailment happen for several years prevents me. Its not that expensive to take Air Asia and you'll get that much more time in Chiang Mai, may well do the same thing myself soon.

Nothing what-so-ever to do with the coup. The wooden sleepers south of CM had rotted out. Line was closed for a few months and was all relayed with concrete sleepers and welded joints for many kms going south. Line is now smooth & quiet & relatively fast. Lots of old wooden sleeps stacked by the lineside.

I stupidly thought that a First Class overnight journey would be a perfect way of arriving in Chiang Mai after a long, European flight some ten years ago. I even paid to have the compartment to myself. The rolling stock was so old and in disrepair that I regretted the decision immediately but was resigned to it. Like others have commented, the journey took forever and was stop-start for 14 hours, mainly because of being constantly routed onto branch lines on a single track railway system. The food was inedible. Never, never, never again!!!

Would respectfully suggest those "branch lines" were actually passing loops, just like you have on single track roads, where the train waits for another going in the opposite direction to pass. Probably quite a good idea given the alternative!

[Lancashirelad]

Regarding the on board alcohol ban. It is indeed a great shame that SRT used a sledge hammer to crack a nut - one of their own nuts at that. Millions of respectable sensible travellers both Thai & foreign punished due to the actions of one of THEIR EMPLOYEES.

[sometimewoodworker]

Thank you for all your comments

Are you able to take your own food and beer on the train?

Also, keen to know what the ticket inspector scam was all about I find that if you know about the scams you are less likely to get caught?

Your own food no problem. If you're in a first class with a partner food and beer. In second class you may need to hide the beer.

SRT no longer sells any alcoholic drinks, because of the member of staff you may have read about.

My wife and I usually use the sleeper, we are on the northeast route. The track has been upgraded so the trip is now about an hour shorter. If we have a lot of baggage we use first class, otherwise second. Sometimes there is a delay but since we have a bed it's not a problem. Get a breakdown on a coach it's not good and even then sleeping on one isn't so good.