May 2, 2013
I was awoken in the middle of the overnight bus journey to Southern Thailand to a stopped bus. As I was opening my eyes, I could hear the storage compartment of the bus being opened. There was apparently someone else joining our bus. After a minute, our driver entered the door in front of me and there was a woman of about 30 behind him. He pointed to the empty seat next to me, and she promptly took her seat. We nodded hello to each other as I moved my bag and made room for her to sit down. I was only half awake, but was a bit disappointed that my extra leg room was being taken away from me. I couldn't really complain because I was the only person on the bus that had a vacant seat next to them. As much as it sucked to give it up, I had to appreciate the extra room I got for the first 3 hours of the ride. While she was settling in, and I was re-situating myself, I looked out the window. What I saw out the window was a first for me. There was a 20 year old woman driving a scooter with what appeared to be her mother, of about 40 something, sitting on the scooter behind her. Her mother was sitting with both of her legs hanging off of one side of the scooter as she sat sideways. She was holding an infant of no more than 3 months out in front of her. I think she was holding the small baby like this to maintain her balance while they began to move. Neither woman was wearing a helmet and they were doing a U-turn in the middle of the road. Now, in South Korea, I witnessed all sorts of unorthodox scooter practices including, an entire family of 4 on a single scooter, scooters driving on sidewalks, down crowded alley markets and through red lights. However, I had never seen an infant on a scooter before, let alone one being held by a woman who didn't even appear to be safely seated herself. After the scooter disappeared from view, the bus pulled away and I tried to fall back asleep. This would just be the first time I would see ridiculous situations on scooters in South East Asia. I would eventually become quite numb to the danger and craziness and Vietnam would eventually set a new standard of scooter insanity.
About an hour later, the bus was once again stopped and I woke up. People started to stand up and the bus doors opened. I looked out the window and realized we were at a rest area, so I got out of the bus with everyone else. I walked into the building and took my first look at a South East Asian rest area. The first thing I noticed was a strange smell that was not appetizing in the least. I can't describe the smell, but it was something awful. Closer to a smell I would expect in a port-o-potty, not a place where I might eat something. The building did not have a wall in the front and was opened to the driveway where buses were parked. There were rows of things for sale and a kitchen in the back. The kitchen had a counter with a window in front of it, and there were some girls working in the back. To my surprise, there were travelers ordering food and sitting down to quickly eat before the bus would leave. The food was white rice covered with some sort of meat and vegetables, all covered in a brownish sauce. Now maybe I'm just paranoid, but there was no way I was going to eat anything coming from that kitchen. Not only did the smell dispel any slight appetite I had, but I was about to get back onto a bus for another 8 hours. I mean I like to try different things, but that is only if there is a bathroom nearby. Granted the bus did have a tiny bathroom, but not one I would choose to have an upset stomach in. I don't mind an upset stomach in my own home, but I would prefer not to have one in the middle of the night, in a third world country, while I'm surrounded by a bunch of strangers.
After deciding that I wasn't going to eat the "fresh food", I decided to check out what kinds of packaged foods were for sale. They mostly had all sorts of unidentifiable snacks that I won't even attempt to guess at. I could tell that there was a fair amount of dried fruits that looked edible, but I wasn't in the mood for that. After I wandered a bit, I decided to go to the bathroom. While I walked down the dark corridor to the bathroom, I could see the reflection of a woman in one of the mirrors at the end of the hall. I immediately thought I was walking into the women's bathroom, so I turned around and walked back to the beginning of the hallway. When I reached the store again, I looked around and saw that the women's bathroom was indeed across the room and I was in the right place. So I walked back and awkwardly passed the woman that was brushing her teeth and proceeded into the area with the toilets. I was greeted by a dark, damp room that had a bunch of stalls with squat toilets in them. Each stall was really dirty, and wet, and the whole place reeked. There were also dozens of lizards crawling on the walls and ceiling. I quickly did my business and got out of there, as it reminded me of a place that I might imagine in a nightmare. After getting back to the front of the building, I got on the bus and hoped I hadn't touched anything in that place. A few minutes later, everyone else finished their food and cigarettes and we departed. At around 2 am, about half of the people on the bus got off the bus and went somewhere else. I think they were getting on a ferry to another island further North. I really had no idea at the time and didn't bother to find out.
I was able to sleep for most of the remainder of the trip, and we arrived at Surrathani a few hours earlier than I had anticipated. It was about 5 or 6 am when the bus stopped at a small house that had been turned into a store and office. The sun was just peaking over the horizon when we were told to get out of the bus. The sky was clear and the air was humid, but not too hot. The driver unloaded everyone's bags from beneath the bus and set them on the ground. After the bus left, I walked around confused by our current situation. I was under the impression that we were being taken to a dock to get onto a ferry to Koh Phangan. Instead we were in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere with no water in sight. I took a seat next to some other travelers and watched the stray dogs on the road. One of them was missing a front leg and was hobbling to walk very slowly. I felt quite sorry for him and wondered how he managed to lose his leg. The dog laid down in the road and rested as some cars and scooters drove past him. Then another dog appeared down the road and the three legged dog sprung up and sprinted over to greet it. It ran so well on three legs that I don't even think his condition slowed him down at all. It was only walking that was apparently difficult for him. I would come to love the stray dogs in Thailand. In America, strays tend to stay away from people. They tend to be very wary of people and don't always seem very nice. Strays in America have learned that people generally try to capture them and bring them to the pound. People also tend to mistreat stray dogs and fear contact with them because of diseases. I found that in Thailand the strays are the nicest dogs. I met hundreds of strays while traveling and they were as friendly as any dog you might find in your friends back yard in America. They might be covered in scars and missing a leg here and there, but they are wonderful to interact with while traveling.
Here's a view of the sunrise while we were waiting that morning.
This is a stray I met on Koh Chang later in the month. You can see that his back is covered in scars.
After a few hours of waiting, I was called into the building. All of the other travelers had already been called into the building one by one and I wasn't sure exactly what they were doing in there. When I got inside, I was told to take a seat and a man was sitting at a desk. He asked me if I already had accommodation on the island and I told him that I did not. He asked me if I wanted to stay in the busy area of the island or in an area with less people. At the time I didn't have any idea where the best place to stay was, but I knew I was just booking the first night and I could always change location the next day. After looking at a map, I opted for a more quiet location on the island. I paid the man for the accommodation and he gave me a card with the name of the place, so I could find the free hotel taxi when I arrived on the island. This situation is another example of how easy it is to get around Thailand. I didn't even have to plan or search for a place to stay. There was always a quick and painless transition from one place to the next.
When I left the building, everyone was already in a van, so I grabbed my bags and hopped in with everyone else. After a 10 minute van ride, we pulled up to a bus and joined a larger group of backpackers. The van was old and the seat in front of me was broken and kept falling in my lap. I remember that a group of German guys around me were having a good time teasing some girls from Hungary that were sitting next to us. They had a few laughs with some jokes that included "Oh you are from Hungary? Are you Hungry?" I remember being embarrassed for all men everywhere. After a thirty minute bus ride, we pulled up to the ferry and I was happy to finally get a glimpse of beautiful Southern Thailand.
The ferry ride was beautiful and the deck on top was extremely hot, but I made sure I got a few pictures while I was up there. After we stopped at Koh Samui, to drop some people off, we made our way to Koh Phangan. I finally arrived at the first tropical island of my trip and my vacation could really begin.
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