The bus was broken. What else can I say to describe our mood early this morning after spending all night on the broken bus? We originally planned to take the sleeper train from Ayuthaya to Chiang Mai, but found out it was full for the next two days...we just didn't have the time to wait around for that, but our guesthouse owner said,"Bus is better. Bus always on time, Thai trains late very often. You take bus be very happy. Seat lay back, air condition, toilet - only 12 hour." Wow - this sounds good, except this woman would try to sell a rock off the street for $100 if she thought anyone would buy it. She was a pretty serious entrepreneur!
We took a deep breath and bought the bus tickets. That's how most backpackers travel anyway, it's cheaper, and buses leave every night for all destinations around Thailand. It's not like a Greyhound service where they are all run by a central company, but all of these little guesthouses and travel service people get together, so there are lots of buses going, and you just pick one. We did - thinking it would be easy to just leave from our guesthouse that night. The owner said - be here at 7:30 you can shower bus leave at 8.
At 7:00 we showed up to take our showers...too bad there were several other people there doing the same thing, so while Lewis took a quick shower, I decided to just wait, I'd be sleeping anyway! At 8:00pm, we all started looking for the bus, knowing there were no assigned seats, and it'd be a mad dash for the good ones. (Little did we know that almost all the seats were taken - the bus was full and we were the last stop............grr.....) At 8:25 we asked when the bus would arrive. "Soon, soon - it rain in Bangkok and there is traffic. Maybe 9:00, maybe 10 minutes" Hmm...so much for buses always being on time. We became quite doubtful about this whole adventure. At 9:25, the bus arrived and we loaded our bags below and ran up for seats. We got two together but they were in front of this bulkhead thing, so our legs were squished. At least we were together - there were two families with teenagers and they were split up all around the bus in the remaining seats.
Some problems came up...first, the bus kept stalling. I mean, like the engine would stop, and it would jolt and shudder like when you're learning to drive a car with manual transmition and you stall and it feels like an earthquake in the car. The bus driver would rev the engine, stop for a minute on the side of the road, and then start up again. I have no idea why it stopped and then was able to start again, but this happened about once an hour. Lewis and I began to seriously doubt we were going to get to Chiang Mai at all! After a crappy kung fu movie blaring for the first hour and a half we thought we'd finally be able to get some sleep. From 11pm-2am, it was stop and go with the engine, and then at 2:00am, we pull into a rest stop. 30 minute break. Great, who wants a break at 2am????? So we pile out, use the toilets that are actually working (unlike the one on the bus) and get back on.
By the time the break was over, we were so tired, that I at least managed to catch 3 or so hours of sleep, before the bus stalling got so bad that I couldn't stay asleep. It was bad - the whole trip other buses and semi-trucks were passing us even when we were driving at the bus's top speed. (note - this was a V.I.P. bus - I wonder what the qualifications are for that ranking?) We were supposed to arrive by 8am. At 8:30 the bus pulled over on the side of the road. It was clearly not a rest stop, so we were all confused. Some people got off the bus to have a cigarette, and the lady helping the driver said, "Sorry...bus broken - tell others get off." Um...what exactly were we supposed to do? We were in the middle of a small mountain pass!
It turns out, they had arranged for 3 pick-up trucks fitted with benches and roofs (open on the sides) to drive us the remaining hour to Chiang Mai. Which is nothing like a VIP bus - there were 10 people in a truck which was super crowded - no wiggle room. The best part was the fresh air - the driver of the bus had turned off the air conditioning earlier in the night due to the problems with the bus and wouldn't turn it back on...We were cranky to say the least. Lewis figures he never really slept at all, which kind of makes sense, because if my legs were squished his must have been. We got dropped off at a random guesthouse in Chiang Mai almost two hours later than our expected arrival time, and managed to find a place. It wasn't in the guidebook, which is probably why the price was cheaper, but it's a fine room, and we're NEVER TAKING AN OVERNIGHT BUS AGAIN. We will wait for the train again.
(Note - most people do not have this experience with the buses - we're just lucky)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment