25. THE GUY ON A BUS WHO FELL ASLEEP ON MY SHOULDER...

Our Arrival at Chiang Mai bus station marked the start of an unfolding drama. Apparently the bus tickets we thought we'd bought last night online for our 3hour one way journey to Chiang Rai, had in fact since been resold to a monk, and all busses leaving today (bare in mind that they left every hour and it was only 10:30am) were already full up! This presented us with a problem and left us with two options. Option one: take a taxi, Option two: stay another night in Chiang Mai. Neither option ideal and both options more expensive. A taxi for 2 was 8x as much as a bus ticket and to stay another night would cost more still...Option 3 surfaced in the form of two dual national Iranian / German brothers also heading to Chiang Rai. They'd teamed up with another German couple and asked if we wanted join them to fill a 6 seater taxi. An American couple who overheard our conversation also wanted in, and we soon decided that it would be more cost effective to charter our own bus service to Chiang Rai! A bit of running round and negotiating on the street secured us a driver with a minivan and promotion around the bus depot enticed more people. Pretty swiftly we managed to fill all 12 seats. The driver threw everyone's bags on the roof of the mini van, held in place with a bungee net and we set off our 3 hour journey. It was a great trip getting to know our fellow travellers, from all corners of the globe.

Some of our group.

The most hilarious incident to date happened 2 nights into our 4 night stay in Chiang Rai. To set the scene, at this place there happened to be quite a quirky open aired reception area so on evenings we would sit down there, drink their free tea and coffee, work on the blog, sift through photos etc. It was more social than sitting on our balcony and apart from the overweight pug who gave off a whiff whenever he trotted past, it had good vibes. So...on our second night L came back down to the reception after popping back up to our room to get something, and in a hushed voice exclaimed "I think I've caused a problem!.." He now had my full attention. L went on the explain how he'd accidentally discovered that our room key also opened the room next door! He'd gone up, unlocked what he thought to be our room door, kicked open the fly screen, fumbled to switch on the light and scared the living day lights out of himself and a woman, who had until a few moments ago, been asleep in bed!!! There was a 'scream off' between the pair of the them as L hastily retreated apologising profusely. For the coming days this humoured me greatly, I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall.

Neither of us were particularly impressed by Chiang Rai it was smaller than Chiang Mai and there wasn't that much to do. In a way this was great because we'd done so much in Chiang Mai, it was nice to have a bit of time where we were not packing tons of stuff into each day, and so we could just chill. We took a ride out to the white temple just south of the city, which is as its name suggests, is a white temple. We also took a ride out to the black house museum which turned out to be a collection of around 40 interesting, mostly timber, buildings containing artefacts with a slightly sadistic twist...

We left Chiang Rai on an old red bus which looked like it had  just rolled out of a scrap yard. We paid £1.60 each for the privilege of sitting aboard. This bus had no doors, some windows, a few holes in the floor and a selection of fans attached to the ceiling which were faced downward onto the passengers, circulating the already circulating air. Not only did the bus transport people, but it also appeared to act as an unofficial delivery service. Various stops were made to deliver parcels and letters, as well as sacks of produce and reels of plastic pipe. Both L and myself were sat on the same row of bench seats behind the driver, not next to each other but either side of the isle. Half way into the 2.5 hour journey the Thai chap sat next to me fell asleep against the side of the bus. This wouldn't have been a problem if the bus driver hadn't taken such a hard left causing the still sleeping man, to lean onto me. At first his head began to slip down towards my shoulder, which for a time became it's ultimate resting place. Then his whole body weight started to lean against my side almost pushing me off the seat! Feeling a little imposed upon and conscious I was not able to indefinitely support both our weights to avoid slipping off the end of the seat entirely, I hatched a plan and ran it by L (who was finding the whole situation hilarious.) I thought that if I was to lean quickly forward perching on the end of the seat, the sleeping man would fall flat behind me which was guaranteed to shock him awake. L suggested I just push him back over to the window, I couldn't. I'd already tried pushing, tapping and prodding, none of which seemed to wake the chap from his slumber. I proceeded with my plan and luckily It worked. He was flat out on the seat when he woke and after realising what had happened, he laughed, smiled and went back to sleep leaning the other way. Another oddity to the journey was when the lady sat next to L, had the driver stop so she could buy a carrier bags worth of mushrooms from a lady at a road side stall. She knew exactly when to ask the driver to start slowing down, perhaps it was a regular request she puts in when she catches the bus!?

Our cheapest most basic accommodation to date was on the Thai side of the Thai-Laos border. £5.75 for the night bought us a private room with 2 single beds, 2 mosquito nets (1 with holes), in what can only be described as a large garden shed with a concrete bathroom out the back. This was the first night we didn't pay the extra for an air-con room so instead made do with a fan. Bizarrely the place, as cheap as it was, did have a fairly large swimming pool. Sleeping with only a fan wasn't actually too uncomfortable and we figured it would be good to acclimatise to sleeping in the heat because our next instalment of fun would take place in the heat and humidity of the Jungle. After crossing the border into Laos we would be spending a few days trecking, zip lining and sleeping in tree houses in what would turn out to be the most incredible experience....