On the road to Chiang Mai

I really wanted to get a haircut in Bangkok, so yesterday Veronika and I went to a posher side of town to have our hair done at a salon.
The stylists in the salon did not speak English very well, so I just said "Victoria Beckham" and that was enough for them to understand long in the front and short in the back. I've had a haircut similar to that in the past and I was quite content with it. The cut was just what I asked for, but I should have gesticulated in some manner that I didn't want it too short in the back because that's also what I got. Luckily, my hair grows really fast, so in about 2 weeks it'll be just the way I want it.

We wandered around the area a little bit, poking our noses into some shopping malls.

That evening Veronika and I went to the Hua Lumpong train station so I could get on my over night train to Chiang Mai.
The train was supposed to arrive at 9:45am the next morning in Chiang Mai, but it did not exactly happen as planned. Around 6am the train attendants woke everyone up (although it seemed as if they only raised the attention of the foreigners) and told us that our train had been in an accident and we were going to switch to a bus at the next station. I think if our train had been in an accident we would have felt it which no one did, so we were all very confused, but compliant. Conveniently, there were four tour buses waiting for us at the next station. I was trying to think about how this could be a scam of some kind because Veronika told me as soon as I arrived in Bangkok that there are quite a few Thais are out to scam foreigners in one way or another.

The bus I got on stopped about 45 minutes into the trip because it wasn't working very well. Long story short, I didn't arrive in Chiang Mai until noon today.

Smallest room ever.

I'm staying in a guesthouse just outside of the touristy area, so if I want to go anywhere I have to cross a footpath bridge...which is a really nice walk.

This afternoon I headed to Warorot market just over the bridge to grab something to eat because I was starving. I saw a woman eating this sort of egg/noodle concoction and decided I would have a go...it was delicious! It actually looks and tastes just like Pad Thai.
I then walked around and did a bit of shopping near the old town. There were several used book stores along the way and it made me so excited! Books! Good ones! Vietnam has a crap selection of books because everything is censored by the government. I picked up a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird because I have heard so many people say it's their favorite book and I have yet to read it.

After returning to my guesthouse I had a facial at the spa next door!

This evening I walked back to Warorot to grab some dinner. As you can see I had a bowl of noodles and to drink I had "Roselle Juice". You can also see that it's extra red and that is probably because red food coloring was added to it, as well as a ton of sugar. Veronika explained to me that once she ordered a green tea and was expecting a natural green tea looking liquid, but instead her tea was bright, bright green because whoever made it added food coloring. She learned that Thais like to see the color of whatever their ingesting, so if it's green tea it MUST be obviously green, and if it's "roselle juice" it must be glaringly red.

I think I'm going to stick to water from now on.