Phuket to Chiang Mai

Whew a long trip was coming up the next day, so I'm glad I started with a lazy day of shopping and hitting the beach on my last day in Phuket. I met up with the two couples for drinks and our final goodbye on Thursday night and headed out Friday morning for my early flight back to Bangkok. I had the afternoon in Bangkok which I used to blog a bit and then headed for my bus to Chiang Mai. The bus ride takes about 12 hours and is overnight so I wasn't necessarily looking forward to it, but it was included with my Chiang Mai jeep tour.

As it turns out, the passengers around me were very interesting and most were traveling on their own. An American working in Chiang Mai, a Canadian making a documentary about an elephant sanctuary, an Irish guy traveling Asia for three months before moving to Australia and two English girls. It was quite lucky that I enjoyed the company, as about 2 hours into the trip we heard an awful sound from the bus, but it kept going. About 30 minutes late the bus headed down a small street in a small town. We got to a corner and realized he'd never get around it. Turns out they never planned to. We were stopped there for 3 hours while the bus drivers dismantled the engine and attempted to put it back together. Luckily it was warm and not raining, so we all sat outside chatting. No one was awake around us, which was rather spooky as it was 10pm on a Friday night. We were all hungry and were laughing that just around the corner was a Pizza Hut and a 7-Eleven. I walked around the corner just in case, but nothing.

The drivers finally got the bus moving again, but had to back the bus down the street. At one point it got stuck, and the had to back up quickly to get over some sort of bump. We realized later this was a concrete ramp to a store that we were going over sideways. No longer an issue, now though, as the bus desinigrated it upon impact. Once we got to an open area, the bus driver decided that the appropriate thing to do with a bus not running very well in a small street is to attempt a 3 point turn. After a few turns, we were squarely stuck between two buildings. Go back, and we crumple the canopy of the shop whose ramp we'd already destroyed. Go forward, and we'd be in someone's living room. Plus the gears still weren't working well, so going from drive to reverse and back frequently was causing the bus to die. Eventually we all had to get out and push the bus a few feet forward, and then back and then forward again while the engine was off and the driver steered. Finally we were off, only to see a 24 hour 7-Eleven a few feet down the street! Sigh.

We drove for 30 minutes going about 20 miles an hour down the expressway, partly so the bus driver could time the lights appropriately and not have to stop. Then we stopped for snacks at a roadside stand, and then headed to Chiang Mai at the normal speed. Not sure what the brief stop did. Finally we arrived a few hours late, and had to head immediately on our jeep tour! That was quite the adventure as well, and will have to wait until the next post as the keys on this keyboard stick so badly that my hands are exhausted from typing!