12 hours later we arrived in Bangkok at 06:00 as the sun tried to rise above the layer of smog enveloping the city. I was glad that the journey was over as I didn't really sleep through the night, especially as we were woken at about 03:00. Ian then declared that he thought it would be a good idea to jump straight onto another 12 hour bus to Chiang Mai. This was immediately after I declared 'I'm not doing that again.'
We soon established that we were at the wrong bus station for travelling to Chiang Mai and got a taxi to the North bus station. We couldn't find an obvious super VIP bus vendor so after making some enquiries at the first class booths on the third floor, none of which mentioned Chiang Mai as a destination, I managed to acquire two tickets on the best transport we could find, and hoped we hadn't just paid out for second class travel. Our bus was due to depart at 08:00 so we had almost an hour to kill.
We took breakfast in Dunkin Donuts and I was so tired I felt like I did when we transitted through Singapore for 13 hours on our way to Auckland.
At 08:15 our bus departed Bangkok. It was quite an old bus with old fashioned dentist chairs but at least they reclined fully and we had ample leg room. We were treated to lunch at one of the 24 hour hawker stalls. My dinner was graced with the presence of another bug and the chicken turned out to be very, very strong ginger chicken, but it was free food!
At 18:00 we arrived in Chiang Mai, witnessed the sun set, and took a songthaew to the Homeplace Guest House where we stay for four nights. We sampled some Mexican food in a popular restaurant. Unfortunately, my beef chimichangas had seen better days.
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.