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Published: June 27th 2006
After our usual breakfast of twelve little deep-fried doughnuts (about the size of an apricot, and filled with a delicious mixture of bananas and white pepper - strange but true), we finished packing our bags at the Blue Star Guesthouse. Another feline friend, a very cute black kitten who we baptised Catchanaburi came by to say goodbye and help us with our packing. He was very curious and tried on a couple of occasions to climb into our rucksacks...
The guesthouse called a
songthaew for us, and we were duly driven to the bus station about 10 minutes away. There we began the first leg of our 3-step trip from Kanchanaburi to Lopburi. The bus was waiting in its bay, empty and due to leave 20 minutes later. We loaded our bags into the rear of the bus (where there were a couple of rows missing to accomodate luggage) and settled in for a two and a half drive to Suphanburi. No aircon buses on these minor routes, so we aimed for two seats beneath one of the six or so rotating fans embedded in the roof of the bus ! The bus filled up rapidly, and before we knew
Catchanaburi comes over to say bye-bye
If only we could have taken him with us...we were surrounded by a gaggle of extremely curious Thais who wanted to know more or less everything about us.
farangs are obviously a rarity on this line, but a Thai-speaking one ! You'd have thought I had three eyes... Let's just say I didn't get to spend a second of the trip snoozing - it was non stop questions for the whole journey. It was great fun but quite exhausting. Still I'm so glad we travelled by the usual public bus rather than by air-con
farang-wagon. We arrived in Suphanburi more or less on time. From here there were two options : a direct, three and a half hour bus to Lopburi, or an allegedly more scenic route via Singburi with an extra change of buses. The direct bus was quite infrequent and we weren't in a rush so we opted for the scenic route. We made the connection with barely 5 minutes to spare. We were expecting a little wait so had not brought any lunch. I asked the driver not to leave without me (Alex has already boarded with our bags) and ran off to search for some lunch. Nothing was forthcoming so I opted for a
bag of fried bananas and a packet of crisps ! The banana lady was serving her bananas in little bags made out of her children's homework (see photo) - a nice variation on wrapping in newspapers I thought.
Running back onto the bus, I realised that the second leg, Suphanburi to Singburi, might be a little less comfortable than the first. Indeed, the bus was an aging bustbucket on wheels. The fans weren't working and the windows were falling out of their frames...Tucking into the bananas we pulled out. The journey through the lush green paddy fields of Central Thailand was indeed extremely scenic. The bus never got above about 30mph, but we nonetheless were able to keep cool by sticking our heads out the excuses for windows. During the two hour journey we were accompanied by boy scouts, schoolgirls, housewives, all sorts. We managed to get to Singburi without being interrogated...Towards the end of the trip though, the driver decided it was time to enjoy a little music. We were treated to half an hour of full volume Thai love songs through an extraordinarily well-developed sound system for such a pathetic vehicle. Woofers, sub-woofers, it had the lot.
Countryside near Singburi
A sea of rice fields as far as the eye could see. This region is Thailand's ricebowl. Most entertaining.
After yet another lightning-change in Singburi onto the Lopburi-bound bus (45 minutes) - with the charming stewardess from leg 2 guiding us into the 3rd bus screeching to her colleague "here are two extra ones - this one speaks Thai !". Thus we arrived in Lopburi at about half past three, which was quite an achievement for such a cross-country trip. In Lopburi we were dropped off outside a centuries-old brick temple surrounded by modern shopfronts. This is what, we are told, Lopburi is famous for - juxtaposition of old and new.
That. And monkeys.
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