So school is over and I plan to travel for the next two months.  My first stop is Chaing Mai.  This is the second largest city in Thailand and I remember when I was here in 2006 I love it.  This is the town I asked to be placed in, but was told “you don’t want to live there”.  By car, Chaing Mai is probably 3 hours from Sam Ngao, but by bus, longer.

So, my instructions for travel were to come to the school at 7:30 and get on a bus.  A certain student would meet me there to tell me which bus to get on.  Then that bus would take me to Baa tan cuen which is the bust stop on the side of the highway.  I then had to walk past the police box and find the lady that sells bus tickets.  Then get on the bus to Chaing Mai.  Well, that sounds like a solid plan.  What could go wrong?

I showed up at school at 7:30 towing a suitcase and answered “Teacher, where you go?” about 15 times.  The student showed up and pointed to a bus.  She walked over to it with me and said something to the driver.  15 minutes later, the bus took off with me and a monk.  It drove so slow I could have walked faster, but considering I had a suitcase and no real time agenda, who cares?  It drove through both villages and picked up a few people along the way.  It dropped me off at Baa tan cuen.  I looked up and directly in front of me was a lady sitting at a tiny table (on the side of the highway).  I said “bus to Chaing Mai?”.  She made a phone call, told me 9:30 and I paid her.  At 9:25 she said “Chaing Mai” and motioned me and two other people to stand near the median.  A minute later she grabbed my suitcase, said “Chaing Mai”, and took my suitcase 20 feet down the median.  We followed her.  The bus came at 9:30 and took me to Chaing Mai.  I can’t imagine any of that going smoothly in the US.

Tonight I met Rob who lives in Chaing Mai and Annaliese for dinner.  They were both in my TESOL class.  Some of Rob’s coworkers joined us.  I had pizza and it tasted like pizza and it was wonderful.  Another teacher, Adi, and her mother joined us later.  Let vacation begin!

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore