This is a blog entry about our adventures driving to the small town of Pai, pronounced "bye." It is about a 3 or 4 hour bus ride north of Chiang Mai, where we are currently living. Last Friday we had morning class and then took a songtao to the Chiang Mai bus station. We paid 72 baht for our tickets, so about $2.30. This is how I learned that no matter what country you are in, you get what you pay for, and 72 baht is very cheap for a bus ticket.
When the bus pulled up we almost laughed in anticipation of how miserable the ride was going to be. It was old and rusted with no door and no air conditioning. It was booked to capacity so we sat two to a bench seat covered in hot, sticky vinyl. There were fans attached to the ceiling and all of the windows were open, but the fans were still only blowing hot air and the windows weren't held in place very well so they would randomly fall down during the drive so we made sure to keep our fingers and arms out of the windowsill.
We found out later that this was the bus that the locals take and that the tourists usually opt for the vans or the mini buses for the long journey. I was sitting next to one of my friends from the trip and we would talk, read, and listen to our ipods. Unfortunately there was an uneven number of us so one of the girls had to sit next to a Thai man who kept falling asleep on her shoulder! She said it was pretty awkward.
Luckily after the first half an hour or so it started to rain so the temperature cooled down immensely for the remainder of the trip. The road was extremely windy and steep but as long as I looked out the window I was okay and we had some awesome views of the mountains and forests.
We had quite an interesting driver as well. He would stop randomly to let people off or pick up others walking along the road. This one time we picked up a man who looked at least 90 years old and was carrying what I think was a brain in a plastic bag! I wanted to take a picture but I didn't want to be rude. Here is a picture of some people we let off at a store to buy things and then they just hopped back on. I couldn't believe it! Our bus system is just so different in the United States.
Our driver was also talking on the phone and texting while he was driving us through the windy roads. I definitely did not appreciate it but apparently some of the people in our group were afraid we were going to crash or drive off the road a couple of times. I was also hearing this strange noise throughout the drive which I later found was the sound of him using the emergency break while we were going down the hills. I have no idea what was going on with the regular breaks that he felt that he had to use an additional one, but either way we made it there safe and sound.
Needless to say, we chose to pay the extra couple of dollars to ride back on the air conditioned van where we all ended up having two seats to ourselves that reclined, and they provided some snacks for us! I'm still glad we ended riding on the local bus first though because it was quite an adventure.
Until next time!
Michelle <3
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