Milk Train Carnival Ride

November 17, 2025

Tha Chomphu to Lampang

Dear little friends,

Our guesthouse room out in the sticks was fine. It was cheap (400 baht, $12), it was clean, it had ac, hot water, and a fridge, we all good. It also had the signature rock hard bed of a guesthouse mainly catering to Thais. You sit on it and wonder if it’s plywood with a mattress pad. So, no, I didn’t sleep that well, various parts of me would go numb and turning over seemed to take a lot of effort. In the early morning I heard some weird bird and looked to see that it 5:48 am, time to get moving.

Way back in the summer I had plotted different riding routes and scenarios in this part of Thailand. Having realistic self-knowledge of one’s fitness helps one make wise decisions, and after looking at going from X to Y there were three choices, ride a ridiculously hilly, probably unpaved road for a zillion miles, ride on an extremely busy highway all day long, or take the little milk train serving this area.

And let me remind all our gentle readers, near and far, that we are not buff or particularly dedicated cyclists. We love riding other sorts of transport, especially milk trains! Bruce had been up to this area 51 years ago and had fond memories of the tiny station near the Khun Tan Tunnel and a hike they took up on the mountain. I’ve been looking forward to this train ride for months!

But we also know that some train station masters can be very unenthusiastic about putting bicycles on trains so there is always some mild apprehension that we will be refused boarding or some other sort of grumpy hassle. This apprehension is known as “Katha Train Hassle” after we endured a Kafka-esque inquisition in Myanmar in 2008 by some military dude just to buy a train ticket. But in the end we got our ticket, got our train ride, and it was memorable indeed, involving a mice-filled train from a pitch-dark medieval train station. Burma, man. So, 17 years later at 5:48 am, we weren’t going to mess around, we leaped out of bed and got ourselves fed and organized to get to the Tha Chomphu station well before train time to take on any potential dragons.

Hard bed or no, I felt much better than when I dragged my sorry ass up to this guesthouse last night. The air was cool, the road was quiet, we only had about 3 miles to the station, which our guesthouse guy assured us would take our bikes aboard, no problem. Two dogs approached us on the road and barked and said they didn’t like the cut of our jibs. I told them off and they reconsidered their position and let us pass. I have no idea why Thai dogs listen to me, I guess they recognize my librarian voice.

The station was adorable. Honestly, there are probably four trains a day through here and yet each tiny station is staffed by several people, flowers tended, flags flown, radios break into chatter, there are two nearly grown puppies wagging their tails sweetly. This particular station has no road access on the station side of the tracks so we had to negotiate some ancient boards and gaps across three different sets of rails, which meant unloading the bikes and carrying the panniers across.

We've never seen a train station that didn't have access except for walking over the tracks.

A much longer passenger train going the opposite way of our train.

Since we had hours before our train came through Bruce decided to hop on his unloaded yellow steed and go down the road a piece and photograph a white bridge. It’s a famous bridge and it’s white, that’s all I know about it. What it’s famous for is unclear, this is not the River Kwai. There is a big ol’ golf course on either side of the bridge and he photographed that too. Meanwhile I sent my Wordle score to my sister and watched birds and butterflies. It was a lovely morning.

The golf course associated with the White Bridge.

Looks like the aftermath of a nice night together with friends.

After Bruce returned we watched the maintenance crew climb up onto their little rail coaster thing and chug-chug-chug off to go work on the railroad all the live long day. The dudes working in the station were watching television, talking on the radio, telling jokes with each other, eating breakfast. Eventually they sold us tickets with no drama or resistance. 11 baht each for us, 90 baht each for the bikes. 11 baht is 34 cents. Large baggage receipts were stapled onto the bikes. Would this train have a cargo car? We had no idea.

More local folk arrived to take the train and conversation got livelier. We were directed to take our bikes up the track a ways, and our bags too, which can be quite an enterprise but as we started moving all our kit and caboodle we turned around and the villagers were right there with us, moving bags and wheeling my bike like the angels they are. I was quite moved, actually. The train arrived a couple of minutes early and no, no cargo car, it was the old heave ho up the steps with an awkward bike and try to get ‘er done quickly. A young guy on the train lifted the front end of mine up, bless his heart. Bruce was right behind with his, he got them leaning against a seat while I was blasting panniers onto the train steps, along with the station master who shed his stiff officiality to hand them to me like we were a well-oiled bucket brigade.

We got everything secured, settled into our seats (but not in the row reserved for monks) and took off to see beatific smiles from the station master and his assistant for a job well done getting those problematic foreigners and their bikes onto the train without getting behind schedule. Mind you, four trains a day, so this was a fair amount of excitement at the adorable Tha Chomphu station. I think they appreciated that we hustled our crap onto the train and weren’t waiting around for assistance, which they were then delighted to assist with.

Everybody was happy on and off that train.

Almost immediately the carnival ride started. First of course the famous white bridge, then steep climbing up through incredible native jungle, then the adorable station at the Khun Tan Tunnel, then deafening tunnel darkness, then back into mountainous jungle, heaving and rocking, over very high steel viaducts, more adorable tiny stations, past momentous bank stabilization projects that were very impressive given that this was a milk train route, and finally back down into the plain where our destination lay, the city of Lampang.

The little village that has sprung up around Khun Tan railway station.

Khun Tan Station. Just a few feet further is Khun Tan Tunnel.

This little friend was tearily nervous after he and grandma got on the train, but relaxed pretty quickly.

I know virtually nothing about Lampang. First impressions: it’s big, it’s spread out, and it’s a truly Thai town with very little foreign tourism. We were kindly assisted off the train at the station, thanked our helpers, loaded up our bikes, and collapsed onto a bench to map the way to our hotel. That had been the most fun train ride we’d had in a long time and we were delighted and a-buzz that it all went so well. Totally worth the $3 apiece.

After weeks of relatively expensive accommodations in Chiang Mai we are now in Cheap Hotel Mode. This one is old-style but perfectly fine and the beds are comfy. After I took a shower we gathered ourselves and took an exploratory walk in the mysterious Lampang. There is a weekend Walking Street nearby and I’m sure it’s very cute but on this Monday afternoon it was deadsville, nobody around, most shops closed, like the Rapture had just gone through and only left a few little stalls selling things we do not consider food. The nearby neighborhood also seems to be heavy on Japanese restaurants (also closed on Mondays) but eventually we had some noodly soups and called it good. The predicted drizzle was falling and we hightailed it back to the venerable Pin Hotel for a good night’s sleep.

The Pin Hotel lobby in Lampang, Thailand.

There are lots of well preserved old buildings in Lampang.

Horse carts are sort of a thing in Lampang.

We’re not sure yet about Lampang. But we’re excited to explore here for a couple of days. If nothing else, it’s worth the train ride to get here.

Today's ride: 7 miles (11 km)
Total: 142 miles (229 km)

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Jen RahnMilk train for the win!

Fun and interesting and a great alternative to the two riding options for getting to Lampang.

Also, I wish I could see your librarian energy & voice in the interactions with the Thai dogs!! We could use that energy with teenage Luca sometimes!
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2 months ago

Andrea BrownTo Jen RahnUnfortunately I do not seem to carry the same authority with American dogs, I’m not sure why. 🤷🏻‍♀️
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2 months ago