The bus it is.

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I have traded bustling Bangkok for chilled out Chiang Mai. I stayed longer than expected in the capitol, waiting through a holiday weekend for my Vietnamese visa to come through. The travel gods rallied against me this past week as I read with growing concern about the floods in central Thailand. I had heard rumors that the trains had all but stopped, and indeed, my plans to stay in Ayuthea on the way to Chiang Mai were utterly thwarted. But such is travel. I managed to get a refund on my train ticket and was quoted about 35 dollars, more than the train, for a "VIP" bus complete with "snack and beverage" service. Much to their chagrin, I decided to look elsewhere.

Although I had heard horror stories about cheap buses leaving from Koah San Road (thefts, breakdowns, and the like), for a third of the price, I decided to risk it. I waited outside the travel agency at 5:45 sharp for my pick-up to arrive. A few minutes later, a petite thai man with a track jacket and the stub of a cigarette dangling between two fingers took my voucher, put a green sticker on my shirt, and led me away. I followed him like a duckling through side street after side street, cutting through open air bars and back entrances as we collected more passengers from various meeting points. One Aussie captured my sentiments exactly: "So here we go."

The bus was pretty much as I had imagined it: Soviet looking. It was clean--no crumbs or trash lying about, but there was a kind of settled-in grime that no amount of scrubbing could remove. A kind of cheap, "homey" decoration had been attempted--yellowing doilies draped over the headrests, grubby silver drapes hung Grecian style in the windows. It was all a last ditch effort to disguise a bus whose glory days were well behind it. The ten Russians on board only intensified the ambiance. I won't even mention the toilet which was obviously created for hobbits. But it was cheap, it had A/C, and it ran, which was good enough for me.

Around 11:30 I woke up to the sound of rushing water. It was dark, but the light from the highway lamps illuminated the water flooding the road underneath. Our bus was fording it like something out of the Oregon Trail game. It must have felt something like driving in a blizzard--no lines to follow, no road, no way to tell pavement from dirt, dirt from ditch, forced to trust the tail lights of the car ahead of you. After several tense minutes, we made it through the worst, and with a new found respect for mother nature. Though some people had slept right through it.

Around 1am we stopped for a longer break at a sort of open air convenience store, for lack of a better word. Out of boredom I piled out with the others and looked at the large selection of packaged food. I couldn't pick out a single familiar object: something with a fish on the package cut into strips and still quite juicy and sticky looking through the clear plastic window, squishy cakes that were made to resemble eggs complete with "yolks," all manner of cookie-esque things cut into cute shapes, and everything of the fried and dried variety. My fellow travelers were equally fascinated, poking and prodding these alien snacks with their index fingers. One thing I have learned here thus far is that you may think you know how something will taste and feel, but you will usually be wrong.

Stepping out of the bus was a relief. The weather is cooler, the pace is slower, and the accommodation is cheaper. I could get used to this...

Many more tidbits about Bangkok to come as well as a whole trek's worth of activities when I get back on Sunday.

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Comments

[kathy manning]

"I made it safely" was kind of an understatement Kait! all I can say is you got cojones kid. cooking class and treking will seem tame by comparison. can't wait for the next installment. jess and nick are spending halloween in nyc- and i am hiding in the basement to avoid the trick or treaters, who unless they are over 60, probably don't live on cape cod. love you.

[Ruben]

Hey Kait, Ur blog is fun to read, its so good to read that everyone goes through the same procedure to find there way around in south east asia. At least its all very cheap and with beerlao we cant go wrong. Hope we can catch up in Hanoi or just after that. Enjoy the rest of ur trip. Xx Ruben

[MoveItManning]

Thanks for reading, Ruben! Headed to Hanoi tonight, probably staying for 6 days or so, including a little side trip to Halong Bay....lemme know what you are up to!