Yesterday proved an interesting and cultural shocking day. We departed Chiang Mai and flew to the bustling city of Bangkok where we were to find Mo Chit bus terminal and travel to our next destination of Pak Chong and Kao Yai national park. Both of us thought the bus terminal wasn't far from the airport but it turned out to be 70km!!! Lucky we didn't try to walk. We hopped in a taxi only to get majorly hassled by the driver. We wanted to drive us the whole way which would have cost 2500 baht (approx $70) for the 260km trip. The bus, which we intended to take only cost us 130 baht each which is not even $6!!! Bit of a scary trip mostly for Alicia sitting in the front as we ducked and weaved through the traffic. It's surprising there aren't more accidents in Thailand considering the way these people drive. The taxi driver starts to serenade us with classics like Karen carpenter, John Lennon and the Bee gees. As the music was the same as what was being played in Chiang Mai, I'm assuming these are a common favorite for older Thai people. Possibly because they can understand the lyrics. We finally get to the bus stop (many times I didn't think he was going to stop there) and we experience our first taste of non English speaking Thai's. Somehow we work out which bus to get on and pay and climb aboard. The trip seemed to take forever!! (Three and a half hours in total). And we received many stares. Obviously westerners aren't a common occurrence in these parts. After nearly getting off at wrong stops because signs with English stopped a good many kms ago, our bus driver grunts something about Pak Chong and we got off. By this stage it's pouring down rain. Next challenge... find a telephone and work out how to call the hotel to come pick us up. By this stage we were running 2.5 hrs late. Much confusion as these Thai's don't speak English and our Thai was fairly... minimal. So there we were sitting at the bus stop in the rain with the Thai bag lady and stereotypical alco who reeked of alcohol. At least he was polite enough to offer to share what was in his bottle. Thankfully after not too long our bus arrived and delivered us safely to our resort where we found out we were the ONLY two guests to stay for the night. Our room is fairly interesting. It is completely constructed from concrete including our beds. Concrete must be cheaper here than at home. The shower is gravity fed and I commented to Alicia that I think it rains harder here than the shower. At least we get the option of having an indoor or outdoor shower. If its warm enough tonight (good chance). I'll be having a shower outdoors. It's so quiet here compared to Chiang Mai and the bustling Bangkok. Reminds me more of home and last night's was a very restful sleep.
