I believe it was crickets, or was it a chicken? Hmm.
It definitely one of those two that woke us up early that morning. It was earlier than we were used to, hence the groggy details. Nonetheless, we were excited for the day that was to follow.
My friend Babur, and I, freshened up and got our joyful behinds to the breakfast. Not going to lie, focused more on the adventure we were about to embark upon, we could barely contain butterflies in our stomachs enough to get enough food into our bellies. That, coming from me, someone who lives to eat, is saying something.
It was partially the fact that we were about to begin our adventure in the glorious Thailand, and the crispiness in the air that is always present on the morning of your first day, on a new adventure. And partially, it was that we were about to be in a bus, IN THAILAND.
Long before we made our plans to come here, I’d see in movies characters traveling in and through Thailand in buses. Everything outside always looked pretty and we were about to find out if it really was that pretty.
After rushing through the breakfast, which we knew was a mistake, we went to buy some snacks and munchies to prepare for the consequences of said mistake.
We checked out of our hotel and walked to the office of the Private Bus Company which served as the Pick-up point as well.
Seeing tourists from different nationalities waiting for the bus at the pickup point made us feel safer and more comfortable, not to mention gave us a sense of community that travelers often feel among themselves.
The pick-up point resembled any other bus stop we’d seen so far. Vendors selling a range of products to tourists or at least attempting to, among other, more risqué activities.
But to paint a picture of the authentic Thai experience, it’s important to incorporate the entire truth.
It was odd at first but we’d learned it to be a part of the experience to witness men, more accurately called pimps in this context, showing pictures of scantily-dressed women to tourists, unsuspecting and otherwise.
We waited for an hour and a half or so before finally boarding the luxurious bus.
The spaciousness registers differently when you see two gentlemen sitting opposite you and still having a sense of privacy and personal space.
Not that that’s what we were looking for. We quickly made friends with the two gentlemen. The Italian accent was quite detectable in one and the other informed us to be Dutch.
Both were humorous and knew how to entertain themselves, as well as those around them. They could also hold their liquors, or rather, liquids I should say. If I remember correctly, they went through 24 cans of Extra Lager beer during the entire journey without going to loo even ONCE.
Every now and then all of us would go quiet, taking in the beautiful scenery that proved to us the existence of God, in a manner.
The bus stopped for the first time at 9 PM or an hour or so, at a village store for the passengers to freshen up and munch on.
After 16 hours of travel, we finally arrived at the first stop of Phuket, where we split into two groups. One heading for Koh Samui & Krabi, and the other for Patong city in Phuket.
In Phuket, we collected our luggage and were met by our hotel pick-up. That was the last thing we remembered after the extraordinary yet exhausting travel trip.
Have you been on a bus in Thailand? Share your experience with me in the comments below, I waiting to hear it.
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