The Joys of Travel

Thank you all for your patience and faithfulness to the blog, as I have been tardy in my updates. I could make excuses, but instead I will not. Again, thank you for continually checking.

Anyway, this last weekend was a long one as I had to make a journey out to the western part of Thailand (for those of you who received my newsletter, you will notice my mistake when I said I would be going east to Burma...haha. Way to go Jessica!) for a visa run. It took me 7 hours to get there with every connection happening quickly and smoothly. I had the great priviledge of being able to connect with a few friends out there, enjoy an amazing hamburger (which are a rarity out here), and have hot showers (no hot water heater in my house). It was a great time of getting away, meeting people and experiencing life on the border. It's a different world over there! Plus it's cold (I suppose that's relative, but I got lots of use out of my hoodie and jeans).

My journey back proved to be somewhat different than my one going out...I took a van from Mae Sot to Tak which took about 2 hours, and from there I caught a bus to Nakhon Sawon. I finally arrived around 6pm and was hoping to catch a bus to Lop Buri from there, but to my dismay there were no more buses running that evening. I caught a motorcycle taxi to the train station only to find that the last and only train going to Lop Buri was at 10pm. So, being as I had no choice, I bought a ticket and waited my alloted 4 hours only to find out that the train was delayed by an hour. Now you have to understand that here in Thailand, a woman travelling alone is somewhat unheard of. It always surprises/worries them when they see it and so they make a special effort to care for and protect the lone ranger, which happened to be me. As I sat there (making crossword puzzles to stave off the boredom), at least 3 different women approached me and told me that it's dangerous for me to travel alone...a little late now if I may say so, but sweet nonetheless. My train finally left a little after 11pm and my lady friends made sure I was on it and had a seat. I arrived in Lop Buri just after 2am. Literally 14 hours of travel, and double the time it took me to get to Mae Sot! One girl that I met on the train offered me a ride home in her car and took me to straight to my door. I was really grateful for that after all the talk of danger...

I am home now and don't plan on travelling for at least a little while...my faith in Thailand's transit system needs some time.