Yesterday we started our day at 5:45 am in order to begin a very long journey!. We had breakfast at 6:30 in anticipation of being picked up by a bus at 7:00. As the clock swung past 7:15, we began to wonder if maybe we had misunderstood the plan so we asked our hosts about it. He told us to have a seat and that he would check to see where the bus was. Well, about 7:50 our bus showed up, however it had several other stops to make before it left town.

By 8:15 we were on the road, if you can call it that, headed for the Thailand border. We had heard this road was not great, but we had also been told that since the rains hadn't really gotten bad yet, the road was still in pretty good condition. Things started out pretty smooth as we were on a paved surface for the first 10 miles or so. Then the road became dirt, but still it wasn't too bad. After about 25 miles it became a mine field of pot holes, huge ditches and bridges that looked like a single pedestrian might collapse it. It took us a total of 6-1/2 hours to reach the border town of Poipet. By then one of my kidneys was floating around somewhere in the vicinity of my knees from all the bouncing. At least one passenger was quite sick most of the way, and I'm sure others were on the brink. Having good sea legs helps in times like that:)

When we finally got to Poipet, we were dropped off at a bus station and the driver just left us there. Typical good communication for these types of trips. I managed to get some info from a local who said there was a free shuttle to the border that would come by soon if we just waited.

About ten minutes later a bus came by and we got on! It literally dropped us off at the border. Just stopped, opened the door, and told everyone to get out. No information about where to go or what to do. I spotted a building with a line of people in it and decided to go stand in the line. Hey, I'm not stupid! They had to be there for a reason. As we waited, I could see passports coming out so I knew this was right.

We got our departure stamps, another digital picture taken of us to match up with the arrival photo to make sure it wasn't someone else trying to leave the country using our passports, and we walked out of the line. Now the question was, what next. There were dozens of people sort of milling around between what looked to be two borders, except there were two large casinos in between them. We started to walk towards the Thailand border, half expecting someone to shout at us and tell us where to go, but nothing. So we walked towards Thailand and eventually came to a fenced in area and spotted a bunch of folks over to the side of the road in line. This was our spot! Well hidden and not well signed. Or maybe it was, and it was in Thai and/or Cambodian:)

We got our visas and our passports stamped then headed away from the border. About 100 yards from the border, we were approached by two guys asking if we were gong to Bangkok. We told them we already had tickets ands didn't need them when I noticed one of the guys had a t-shirt that had the name of the bus company we were booked with on it (although it was spelled differently than the printed ticket:). They send us over to an area and told us the bus would be leaving soon. At least this part of the plan seemed to go smoothly.

He wasn't kidding! Within a few minutes of our arriving at the bus, they loaded everyone in and we were off to Bangkok. It was already 4:00 by now and we were a bit exhausted, but the air con was going and the road was smooth!!!!!

We arrived in Bangkok around 8:00 and caught a cab to the train station. The last train to Chiang Mai leaves at 9:30 so we bought two tickets that we thought were for the 2nd class sleeper car. When we got on the train, it turned out they were for 2nd class seats. I ran back to the ticket counter to try and upgrade, but was told all the sleepers were sold out:( Our night from hell was just beginning.

Now normally, anything with good air conditioning is a great thing here, but when you are trying to sleep in a slightly reclining chair with a towel for a blanket, a 60 degree environment feels downright cold! Especially after coming from 90 degree heat with 95% humidity. To add insult to this, we were in the last row of seat in the car and every time someone would come into the car, they door would not close behind then and you could hear and feel the noise from the train. Seems that in Thailand, they don't close the doors from the trains directly to the outside, so as you go between cars, you are actually outside and can see, hear, and even jump off the train into the surrounding environment if you like. We tried to close the doors each time, and a few people even realized it, but most people just walked on by and never looked back when the door swung open behind them and it sounded like a small jet engine was running in the car with us.

Needless to say, neither of us got much sleep last night! At around 6:30, the conductor turned all the lights back up in the car, and a guy started coming through with coffee. So much for trying to get anymore sleep!

We still had 5-1/5 hours until we reached Chiang Mai, so Val and I just started to read and tried to fall back to sleep. She had more success than I did:(

Around noon, we arrived in Chiang Mai and were greeted by a nice woman who offered us a room in a guesthouse right at the edge of downtown. We had already tried to book a place, but since we hadn't confirmed anything yet, and the price was good ($15) for a room with air con, en suite, and a clean swimming pool, we decided to head into town and get settled in.

We checked in, went out and grabbed a great lunch at a Mexican/Italian/Thai restaurant and then came back and showered and napped for a few hours. Around 6:30, we headed out to check out the 'Night Bazaar', an amazing spectacle of shopping that takes place after the sun goes down in one section of town. We window shopped for a while and grabbed a quick dinner off a food vendor, then found a German/Spanish/Thai restaurant that served German beers and had the World Cup game on. A few beers later we staggered back to our room where we plan to sleep for a very long time!

If the journey is the prize, we just won big!

Until next time,

Eric