Just When I Thought the Adventures Were Over...

Famous last words said by yours truly last night over dinner:
"What a great trip! And we've had some mishaps, but on the whole everything has turned out beautifully. I always expect at least one expensive mishap when I travel, but other than a stolen motorcycle mirror that set me bck $10, there was nothing!"

I should have kept my mouth shut, I thought this afternoon at about 3:00pm when I was sweating bullets, not from the heat, but from the fear of missing my flight, which would be a very expensive mishap for me.

Let me backtrack.

Today was supposed to be uneventful. It was easy: Wake up. Get on bus. Drive to Thailand border for 5 hours. Get on other bus for 5 hours to Bangkok. Taxi to airport for 1 hour. Catch flight to Tokyo at midnight.

We were supposed to be picked up at our hotel at 7am.

The bus was supposed to leave at 7:30am and arrive at about 5:30pm. Lots of time, right? After 2 bus switches, we finally got loaded on the final bus at 9:30am. 2 hours late. Ouch. And this bus was in terrible shape.

To add insult to injury, there was no undercarriage. This means that all our back packs got crammed in the back. There was way too much luggage so they just crammed it in the isles! They told us to get in, and we had to hop over the seats to sit down!

And they crammed 35 people on the bus. They put a plastic lawn chair next to the driver and had one guy sit there!

I got stuck at the very back, in the aisle, squashed between 4 people, no leg room because of the luggage on the floor, and no place to rest my head because of the luggage on the back sticking out.

After 5 minutes, we stopped for gas.

The A/C was broken.

After 10 minutes we stopped on the side of the road for 15 minutes for no foreseeable reason! Of course, we cannot communicate with the bus driver to see what the issue is. So we just sat and sweat and sweat some more.

The roads were terrible. Not even paved!

We were insufferably hot and sweaty, crammed in like sardines.

As we bumped along, the luggage fell on our heads with the extra bad bumps.

We drove for 2 hours and came to a halt because they were fixing a bridge! All traffic was stopped. We all got out like herded cattle (hopping over all the seats because of the luggage in the aisles) and they were welding this bridge! Unbelievable!

Fortunately it was only about 1/2 an hour. But things were getting ridiculously delayed, and I was worried about my flight. You never know what kind of time lapses customs will bring.

The bridge was finally fixed and we breathed a sigh of relief as we got over it alive. we crept along on the unpaved roads, through the potholes, and welcomed the breeze from the open windows.

But there was so much dust, so we were getting filthy with the open windows. By the time we stopped for lunch, all the bags and our clothes and skin had a film of red dust over it. Then a truck spraying water drove by and we all got wet as it hosed us through the open windows, unintentionally.

After the 45 minute lunch break, I started doing the math and I was getting very scared that I wouldn't make my flight. What a stressful feeling, sitting in the bus, sweating, unable to stretch my legs or lean my head back, every so often putting back a fallen bag, thinking that I might miss my flight.

But I threw some positive energy on the situation after I was fretting myself into a frenzy and things changed drastically.

Customs went smoothly. We switched to a gorgeous double decker bus at the border. It had working A/C. Best of all, Kevin talked to the boss there and explained my potential flight dilemma, and they agreed to drop me off near the airport, thus saving me an hour! (The Bangkok airport is far away from the city)

Getting to Thailand was surprisingly soothing, in part because it was slightly familiar, and more so because it's so developed compared to the countries we've been in! I do love Thailand.

I was a little worried about the bus dropping me off. Flashbacks of Lynae and I's broken cab en route to the airport last year and being stuck on the 6 lane highway with all our luggage caused me some concern. After all, no empty cabs go to the airport- they only bring people there.

When the bus pulled over for me (the driver warned me) I was dismayed when the door opened and I saw I was on the side of the 6 lane highway. But a bus worked helped me with my luggage and lead me behind the bus...where there was a cab waiting for me. They had called him for me! What a great turn of events.

So everything worked out, but man, NEVER take a bus from Siem Reap, Cambodia, to the Bangkok border. And I know this entry is not written very well, but I'm in a bit of a hurry here.

One more day of adventures in Tokyo...