Walking There

I had a brief stay in Lampang, an hour or so south of the northern capital of Chiang Mai. The hostel, though very nicely built, was near the main train station and consequently a few kilometres away from the centre of town. The one advantage of the hostel's location -  being near the train station - was lost on me because I took the bus in and out of Lampang.

When I first arrived I tried to get a share taxi from the bus station. Usually a share taxi will try to overcharge you for three reasons. Namely: your destination is away from where everyone else is going, you have an overtly foreign face like mine or the other two reasons combined. In my case it was the first two reasons combined.

So I chose to walk to the hostel instead. This was not the smartest idea because whilst the hostel was near the train station, the bus station was not near the train station and so the hostel was not near the bus station.

I had already sweated through my t-shirt before leaving the official grounds of the bus station. So by the time I arrived at the air-conditioned hipster cafe at the front hostel, where I had no reservation, I looked like I had just survived a drowning. On the way there I received look after look of surprised shopkeepers who would scrunch up their face to make a what-the-hell-are-you-doing-walking-on-a-day-like-this face when I looked in their general direction.