My bus left Chiang Mai bus station at 8pm on Monday.
13 hours later I arrived at Wat Pa Tam Wua, a Buddhist forest temple.
It was a bumpy ride. It took a toll on my body.
The ace of buses
As I wrote in my post “When online solutions don’t work”, it wasn’t easy to buy a ticket for the bus.
When I got on, I thought I understood why. It was a rural bus service, wrapped in a luxurious cloak.
They didn’t just take my ticket. They compared it with the printed list, and ticked it off on paper that I was there.
There were two drivers on the bus. After checking the ticket, one of them led me (!) to my seat. There was a wrapped, freshly washed blanket waiting for me there, in case I felt cold. Since there was only one blanket on each of the two seats, I knew I wouldn’t have any neighbors during the trip.
Nevertheless, there was a bottle of mineral water in the cup holder of each of the two seats.
The seats were comfortable, with reclining backrests and plenty of legroom.
The air conditioning was working at full blast, but you could close it above the seats. Despite that, it was still cold. I played for a while so I wouldn’t get cold. I played this alone. I was the only one on the bus in shorts and a T-shirt, everyone around me was sitting in sweatshirts and long pants. A few even wore hats. And I was covered up.
So, after a while, I unpacked the blanket. From then on, it wouldn’t come off.
After finishing my current book, I went to sleep.
I tried every position the two seats allowed. Well, I didn’t have a restful or balanced sleep. The truth is, every part of me was tormented by the time the bus finally stopped. Despite the blanket, I was still quite cold by the end of the trip.
All I knew about this trip in advance was that it would take 4.5 – 5.5 hours.
In reality, it was 8 o’clock…
So when I landed in Mae Hong Son at 4 a.m., I almost kissed the ground.
I think we took every curve in the world on the way. Twice! So by the end of the trip, my stomach was really churning. So I skipped the kiss.
Mae Hongson
The temple is located north of Chiang Mai. There are two ways to get here. One is through this city.
So when I arrived here, I was still 40-45 km away from the temple.
Four o’clock in the morning didn’t leave me many options. This town is already quite far north, and higher than Chiang Mai, in the mountains.
So it was cold at dawn. I didn’t really want to sleep at the bus terminal. So I went to a shop, bought some food and drinks and watched movies for a couple of hours.
I waited for life to start.
Those three hours flew by quickly.
A minibus left for the temple at seven o’clock. The only problem was that I didn’t have a ticket for it. I’ll tell you in advance that I couldn’t buy a ticket for it, it left before we could solve the communication problem with the little girl selling tickets.
After I told him that I was going to the temple and would buy a ticket for the small bus that was just leaving, on which I saw that there were still empty seats, he nodded to ensure that he understood what I was saying, and then he put the screen in front of me, with a bus ticket for the next day and to Bangkok.
I had no idea how we had put this together, so I explained to him again that I was going to the temple, on the bus that was just leaving, and I was very careful not to say more than basic words. I was sure that the word Bangkok had not left my mouth for weeks.
Now he understood what I said, he nodded, and then he put a ticket for Chiang Mai for tomorrow in front of me.
Of course, from the first moment I also put my phone in Thai. Somehow I couldn’t explain it, or make him understand that I was going to the temple, not coming from there.
The bus driver watched my efforts for a while, trying to help, although he didn’t understand any more of what I said or wrote than the little girl. In the end, however, he left me there because he was already late.
I didn’t give up, and finally – I don’t know how, but the lady understood that I wanted to go to the temple and as soon as possible.
Then she told me that all bus tickets were sold out today, she could give me tickets for tomorrow.
I had a feeling of deja vu. The same thing happened when buying a ticket here.
I had to give up, for some reason the communication wasn’t working now.
As I went out, a small tuk-tuk driver – the only one in sight – immediately offered to take me, he understood what I was saying, he knew where the temple was.
1,000 BHT. So, I rode a bus for I have no idea how many hundred kilometers for 8 hours, for 350 BHT, the last 43 km, which was about 45 minutes, the guy asked for three times that.
I had no choice. I jumped on and off we went.
Tuk-tuk
This was my first tuk-tuk ride in my life.
It wasn’t the best, I’m sure of it. The vehicle was open. I was already freezing on the bus, the fresh morning air didn’t warm me up, so I was cold as a dog in this open vehicle.
I couldn’t wait for us to arrive.
I knew the town from the map. I knew that if the guy turned off the main road, then you have to go about 1.5 km and there’s the church.
When we got there, I told him thank you for the ride, I’d get off here. He smiled, nodded, said OK, and didn’t even think of stopping. I tried to tell him once again that he was very sweet, that he wanted to take me all the way, but it would really be great if there was a “STOP” here.
He smiled, nodded and I could see that he didn’t understand the word STOP.
So, even though I wanted to warm up a little, to arrive at the church on my own two feet, the enthusiastic uncle took me to the door like a king.
Shoes off!
When I arrived at the church, I was asked at the reception to take off my shoes.
I took them off.
And I didn’t see them for 10 days.
Buy me a coffee?
If you enjoyed this story, you can buy me a coffee. You don’t have to – but it means a lot and I always turn it into a new adventure.
Buy a coffee for Steve
Linktree
Short introduction