that is, unless, you are on a city bus during rush hour in Bangkok.

Sometime last week, its hard to keep the days of the week straight, but I think it was Dec 2nd, I took a bus from Chang Mai to Sukhothai. Sukhothai was the first capital of Siam, so it is a place rich in history. Arriving at the bus station, I hopped on a songthaeuw into town (the new city) and got a room at the Garden Place. The new city, is just an average city... nothing all that special. I wandered around a bit, watch all the local kids march by for the World Aids Day parade, had some food and went to sleep. Really an exciting day? Arent you glad you are reading about it?

The next day, I got up early with the intention of heading over to the old city. Well I was a bit slow moving... then it got to be noon... and I am not a fan of walking around in noontime Thailand sun, so I waited until the afternoon. Another 10 baht songthaeuw gets you to the old city. The Old City is the original city of Sukhothai.. but since no one lives there anymore, the place is in kind of a state of disrepair... also known as ruins. These were ok to look at for a few hours... some even quite nice in the setting sun, but how many old stone buddhas can one girl look at in one day? Satisfied I'd seen enough Buddhas I decided to get back on the bus the next day and continue south.

So Thurday rolls in (and I only know this b/c I have a calendar handy), and I am back on the bus. This time its a 7 hour trip to Bangkok. It was a charter style bus (better than the Blue Jay bus)... with air conditioning and a TV. you'd think this would make for a relaxing drive, but its hard to relax when American movies are blasting their Thai voiceovers. I definitely saw the Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker movie... ohhhh... I forget its name. All I know is that Chris Tucker's voice irritates me in English and his Thai counterpart is equally annoying. Somethings are universal I suppose.

In the afternoon, I got into Bangkok... and right away had to start fending off the irritating tuk-tuk drivers. "Hello miss, tuk-tuk?" But being clever I went to the information both and found out which city bus went to Khao San Rd. I didnt really want to stay on the infamous Khao San Road, but thats where all the cheap travel agents are, and I wanted to find one and arrange my passage out of Bangkok ASAP! Well... just my luck, I got into Bangkok at like 5pm... and since this is pretty much rush hour everywhere all over the globe it took a solid 2 hours for bus to get to its destination. I found myself an overpriced room in a real dive of a place, on the street next to Khao San. The place really reminded me of a frat house. Nice and loud and dingy. The worst part really wasnt the rat I saw in the bathroom the next morning... the biggest problem was that the bathroom/showerroom was only on a "half story". They must be really pressed for space, that they have to cut the floor to ceiling height down to 5 ft. Obviously, a shower was out of the question... and of course I hit my head atleast once. Its becoming a tradition to do this in all my guesthouses. I found my travel agent (Limpoo Travel) and booked a bus, a boat, 4 nights on Koh Tao and PADI open-water diver certification....all for 6900 Bahts. This settled, I strolled up Khao San Road once, just to see it buy a forged diploma so I can skip grad school now. :) A good traveller doesnt always know where she's going, but a lot of the people on Khao San dont look like they know where they've been.

Wednesday, my bus/boat combo to Koh Tao was leaving from the travel agency at 730pm, so I had a whole day to kill. I checked out of the Green House a fast a possible, left my bag at Limpoo's, had breakfast on the street, wandered a bit, and hopped on the city bus to Jim Thompson's house. Take that tuk-tuk drivers! I can get around on the bus! So what if I got off at the wrong spot and had to get back on and try again. I still got there for 10 baht, and w/o being taken all around town, or to any tailor shops, gem stores, or iffy "massage" parlors.

Jim Thompson was an American guy (from Greenville, DELAWARE! where is Greenville?) who was in the OSS (precursor to CIA) and was stationed in Thailand at the very end of WWII. When the war ended he decided he liked Thailand so much he just stayed there. He got very interested in the local cottage silk industry and revolutionized it so that "Thai Silk" became a major industry. This made his somewhat wealthy so he built an oustanding teak house in classical Thai architecture. Thai architecture is really beautiful. Very simple, yet elegant. His house was very impressive and the tour was quite nice. Then I successfully navigated my way back to Khao San, ordered a pizza from "The Pizza Company", bought bread and water from 7-11, and arrived at Limpoo's right on time, for probably the first time ever.

A van took us to the bus station, which was a crazy hectic place with far too many buses and not nearly enough space. Eventually our VIP overnight bus left at 10pm. It was bloody freezing on the bus. I dont think the Thai people understand that airconditioning can be put on different settings.... such as low or medium. It is either set to "ARTIC BLAST" or "OFF". Thank goodness I thought of this in advance and got out my long sleeved shirt. Then wrapped in the provided blankets, it wasnt overly comfortable but not unbearable. Especially with 4 Tylenol PMs, the next thing I new it was 5am! and we were pulling into the station at Chumphon. A truck took us to the pier and at 7am the boat pulled out. It was about 2-3 hours.. the seas were fairly calm, but then I dont usually have a problem with motion sickness.

We arrived at Mae Sat, the main port on little Koh Tao. I stepped out on deck, and wow was it beautiful. The mountains were so green, the sand so white, and the water so clear and blue. Another truck picked us up and brought us to the Buddha View dive resort. They stuck me next door in the Sunshine bungalows. I was definitely mislead about the "5 star dive resort". "5 star" has to do w/ the PADI status... and I think "resort" could pretty much refer to a tent as long as its on Koh Tao. Regardless, my room isnt too bad. A big step up from Bangkok. No rats so far, but I did hit my head again on the bathroom doorway. You'd think it would kill them to make the bathroom doorway the same reasonable height as the main doorway. Geez. Anyway, later on in the day I met up with my dive group and we filled out some paperwork (basically releasing them from any culpability if I drown myself) and watched some videos on diving. Then exhausted from all the buses, I went to bed nice and early... oh at say, 7, so that I would be ready to face another day on this gorgeous island. I dont know I am ever going to leave.