Bangkok-Sukothai- Chiangmai (2012-13)
2200 kms, 8 days
Finding our way out of Bangkok on a Christmas-eve weekend, without a GPS was an ordeal we had not bargained for. The rental car attendant shrugged his shoulders and said the GPS we had booked and paid for, was unavailable and that we would be fine since the roads in Thailand are well-sign-posted. I am usually the navigator on family trips like this, and it fell upon me to navigate our way out of Bangkok – a task to which I proved hopelessly unequal. We drove over flyovers, underpasses, bridges and clover leaf roundabouts only to land up in Din Daeng district at least half a dozen times. We went round and round the same flyovers and underpasses. Whichever turn we took, Din Daeng haunted us. When we did manage to stop and ask passersby for directions to Chiangmai, they would look at us in disbelief. “This is Bangkok, not Chiangmai” one of them told us with a grin. The others either stared blankly because they could not comprehend us, or sniggered when they did. After all, Chiangmai is a good 700 km and why would anyone in their right minds ask for directions to Chiangmai here? Anyway, the sane lot went by trains and flights. Finally, we managed to break-free of Din Daeng and find our way out after two hours of cruising the districts of Bangkok!