I walked into one of the stalls of the public bathroom.
"You've got to be kidding me!" I groaned out loud. I heard a quiet giggle come from a stall next to me. The soft wimpers of another girl crying a few stalls away informed me that I wasn't the only one in discomfort.
I swatted at my face. They were flying all around me.
Flying termites had made this place their home. They were everywhere. An investation, like a plague. You could see them from a distance, a cloud forming around all the flourescent lights, as our bus pulled up to the rest station. It was 1:30 in the morning.
I looked down at the squat toilet at my feet to disover that it was full of termites.
"Well, here goes nothing." I said as I pulled my pants down, placed my feet on either side of the porcelain and hovered, attempting to perfect my aim as I peed. Termites landed on my head as I steadied myself. 'Just as long as they don't fly into my bum, I'll be fine.' I reassured myself.
I still haven't quite figured out this squat toilet deal. I mean, I can hover just fine over a regular (western) toilet and not worry about backsplash, but this is different. I don't think I have the form or the guts to hover so close to the ground.... not when there's cockroaches, termites, and/or other strange bugs scurrying out from unseen crevices in the floor. I think I'd rather pee in a bush somewhere...
We were in Bangkok again for about two days. This time around we felt more comfortable with our surroundings as we knew where to get cheap accomodation and even recognized the faces of a few street vendors and our first Tuk Tuk driver, ChaLee. The only thing that seemed different was the vibe. I could sense a bitterness coming from the people here around Khao San Road. Or maybe I just didn't notice it before because I was so distracted by being in a new place.
Bangkok has gone through a tough time lately with all the political unrest that's been in the news the past couple of months. It's taken a serious toll on the tourism industry here as many countries have advised their citizens to avoid all travel to Thailand.
My friend Will is heading back to Canada in a few days and so we needed to catch a bus north to Chiang Mai, then on to Pai to meet up with him. Along with dozens of tattoo shops, jewellery shops, 7 Elevens, and pharmacies, there were also way too many tourism agencies to choose from for information on travel. They were all advertising the bus trip to Chiang Mai as costing 350 baht. We knew the bus left at around 6 pm, so we went about our day, eating a late breakfast and doing some last minute shopping in the market before making our way to one of the agencies to buy a bus ticket.
"The bus is full." The man behind the counter informed us. Chris and I looked at each other with despair, "Now what?" We said to each other. "There's got to be another way. What about the train?" I asked. "The train left at 2:30pm." The man stated without remorse. "But there's another bus. It's better. It's a V.I.P. bus, second class with A/C, reclining seats to sleep, and bathroom. It also leaves at 6pm tonight. I call and see if they have seats left." He got on the phone and spoke quickly in Thai to whomever was on the other end. "Only a few seats left." He said. "Thao-rai? (how much?)" Chris asked him. "550... but I can give you better price if you also book guesthouse and trekking tour with me. If combine with package then I can discount you 10 %. Special price for you." Chris and I looked at each other, wondering what we should do. We could stay in Bangkok another night and pay 350 for the bus tomorrow... but we only have 12 days or so left on our VISA. We've got to get to Chiang Mai.
The man pulled out a brochure for The Plaza Inn, "This is the hotel we have connection with. Room is 500 to 600 bahts a night. If you book with me I get you 300 to 400." "What if we don't like the room? Can we book with you for one night and still get the discount?" I asked. "Noooo... you have to book for minimum three nights to get special price." Chris and I asked him about trekking tours and prices and found out that the total price for the bus trip including accomodation for three nights would come to 1050 baht each. "No way!" I said. Chris and I decided to just go with the bus trip for now and figure out our accomodation and activities once we got there. We were able to barter him down to 500 baht each for the bus, but he wouldn't budge past that.
I don't really care about all the extra frills that you get for paying more for a bus trip. I'd rather travel how the locals travel and pay the same price as they do. But, since I figured we were paying for the luxery of riding on a 'better' bus, then I figured that we better darn well get V.I.P. treatment. Ha.
After eating at an Indian restaurant for dinner, we noted that it was getting close to 6pm so we grabbed our packs and waited at the travel agency for our bus to arrive.
A scrawny kid in ripped jeans and a black t-shirt showed up and said to us "tickets?". We gave him our bus ticket then he said "follow me". We followed him down Rambuttri Road, gathering other farang (foreigner) backpackers along the way. We wound up on the side of a busy highway and waited for an hour in the sweaty heat for our bus. "This isn't V.I.P. treatment." I joked to Chris. "We should all be kept in an air-conditioned room and served ice cold water."
Several fancy buses along with local 'lower class' buses passed by as we waited, and every time we questioned if this was the one.
Suddenly a bus came to a screeching halt just past where we were all waiting. I stared in disbelief. "That is not our bus!" I declared, as everyone picked up their bags and proceeded quickly toward the bus.
The front left window was shattered, it's body rusted and warped with cracks in random places. "This is not a V.I.P. bus!" I said angrily. "Yeah... maybe it was in the 70s" Chris agreed. We boarded hesitantly, wondering what to do, but the kid who had taken our ticket was gone. We basically had no proof of how much we had paid or what type of bus we had paid for.
The interior wasn't any better. We all stashed our packs in a storage compartment on the bottom floor and walked up some steep steps to our seats. It smelled like old.
Throughout the entire night there was a steady drip of condensation falling from the ceiling onto my lap. I managed to drift off into a light sleep, but at 11:30pm was startled awake by the sound of a loud "BANG". Chris said that I practically jumped out of my seat with fright when it happened. The interior of the bus filled with a dark smoke that smelled like burning rubber. The bus kept moving forward, bumpily, then pulled over to the side of the road into what just so happened to be a tire repair shop. There were tires piled up everywhere, along with all the tools needed to fix or change them. "This seems rather coincidental" said a British girl sitting in front of us.
We all hopped off the bus in seach of a toilet. There was only one and whoever had already claimed it was taking taking their sweet time, so all the boys walked off into the yard to go, while the girls waited anxiously. I decided to hold it.
The tire right underneath where I had been sitting on the bus had blown! A group of men were gathered around it, working together to exchange it for a new one. The whole situation seemed like the perfect setup for a robbery, but as far as I could tell, our bags were safe in the storage compartment inside the bus.
I couldn't fall back to sleep after that, so I read some of my book until we stopped again. This time at the termite invested rest area.
The remainder of the bus trip was uncomfortable. Odd smells of animal dung, burning rubber, and stinky body odour wafted through the bus throughout the entire trip. Our bus crawled at a snail's pace up hills, while acutal VIP busses raced past us.
We finally arrived in Chiang Mai at around 7am and funny thing is, we checked ourselves into The Plaza Inn for 200 baht/night, NOT 500 - 600/night like the travel agent had told us. It certainly pays to figure things out on your own. We're so thankful that we didn't book anything else through him... we could have been out quite a bit more money. We asked a few other people on the bus what they had paid and most answered 350 baht. One of them also told us that VIP is just the name of the bus company...
We ran into a couple of the other people who had been on the same bus trip later on that day and they informed us that their packs had been riffled through. I am missing my good tweezers and Chris and I are both missing our razors. Strange things to be stolen, but we're thankful that nothing else had been taken.
That was definitely the sketchiest, most unV.I.P. bus trip ever!
--
Travel tip of the day:
You can't trust anyone! I know it sounds rather negative, but it's the unfortunate truth.
Actually... there are times when people are trustworthy, and we have been lucky to come across a few. I think the best thing to do is trust your intuition. When something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't.
Also, try not to go the easy route and have all your travel plans booked through an agency. It's far cheaper and more rewarding to find your own way.
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