Don't forget the train!

As a teacher in Asia, you are generally taking a plane to anywhere you want to go on week-ends thinking you do not have enough time for other modes of transportation. This is, of course, not true.  If you look at a map of Thailand, for example, you see that there is a beautiful city in the north called Chiang Mai. If you happen to be living in Bangkok, for example, you leave school on a Friday afternoon and catch an overnight train to Chiang Mai. The train is a lot of fun and you can buy a sleeper with a private room and bathroom or a room with bunk beds and have a great trip north, save the cost of hotel room for one night, spend a full Saturday and Sunday in the north and come back Sunday night and make a beeline right to school. Hopefully you are either the principal or have an understanding principal in that you might be a few minutes late to class Monday morning. 

The same thing can happen in Ho Chi Minh when you can take a train to almost anywhere in central Vietnam like Da Nang. If you are in Ho Chi Minh City you can also consider taking a bus to Phnom Penh for the week-end and even though it is only five hours away you can take the night bus and end up in Cambodia in the early morning. The only problem with the bus is that you could end up being woken up at the border to do paper work just as you are trying and probably beginning to fall asleep!


Airplanes are also great and quick and cheap but you do have alternatives that might end up being more fun and cheaper.