Journey On

The following was written 6-30, as I was leaving Bangkok for Ayuthaya

10:45 Made it! The Skytrain got me close to the bus terminal, but I was still walking around for half an hour, trying to find the damn place. A friendly motorcycle taxi stopped me and offered to get me there for 20 Baht (I had planned to walk in the first place because I thought the weight of my backpack would tip the motorcycle over.) In retrospect, it was like 2 blocks away and 20 Baht was way too much. But that’s like $0.50, so I won’t complain.

The driver pointed me in the direction of the terminal for Ayuthaya when we got here. A bunch more friendly Thais helped me get to the ticket window and, a 50 Baht ticket later, I wait here at Terminal 113 for my air-conditioned bus.

I got here at 10:45 and the bus leaves at 11:00. It’s like I knew what I was doing.

10:57AM Just jumped on the bus. My ticket says I’m in seat A4, but I don’t see any assigned seats, so I just grabbed a seat behind the guy in fatigues.

You see a lot of military looking guys just wandering around Bangkok. It’s strange.

Yesterday when I was walking by some Naval building, one guy pointed to the entrance and then pointed his fingers at me like a gun. I guess he didn’t want me to go in there. Not that I planned to.

We’ve started moving.

And the bus just died.

It seems Thai bus drivers are just as crazy as the rest of Thai drivers. This guy is honking like crazy.

I should have brought a video camera and filmed Speed 3.

I’m the only Farang on the bus. Of course, there’s only about 12 people on here.

My seat appears to be infested with ants.

Bumpy ride. I wonder if I’ll be able to read this to type it up later.

11:10AM The guy just came by and took my ticket, so at least I know I’m on the correct bus. That’s a relief.

11:33AM We just stopped and picked up a couple more people in the middle of the highway. Strange.

I forgot to mention that this morning in the shower I noticed a couple bug bites. Malaria is only supposed to be a problem in the Northern border areas, though. And I only have a limited supply of drugs, which I’ll need since I’m heading there soon.

I just saw a sign for “The Church of Our Lady Mother of God”. God has a mother now? That oughta shake things up a bit for the Christians. I’m glad to see that someone has come to their senses and decided that if you’re going to have a god, and you’re going to assign it a gender, it only makes sense that it’s female. Plus, “The Church of Our Gentleman Father of God” just doesn’t have the same ring.