Bus ride from Hell

The 48 hours after leaving Koh Phangan were basically the most interesting of our lives. We left our bungalow at about 11am and took a shanty truck cab to the pier to get on the boat to the mainland. After getting out of the taxi it was pure madness. There were hundreds of people, all with massive backpacks just milling about. There was of course no one telling people where to go, or what to do...things don't work that way around these parts. We finally make it onto the actual dock and file in like cattle to the various boats. Luckily we were able to find 3 seats together, and we immediately pulled out our inflatable neck pillows and eye masks to try to possibly catch up on sleep. After about 10 mins on the boat, Liz looks up to see that Twilight is playing on the tvs up front. When she announces this Michelle literally springs ten feet in the air out of excitement and frightens all the people within a ten feet radius of us-we we're in heaven. The boat ride took about and hour and then we we're stranded at a dock for another 1.5 hrs waiting for a bus. We of course were the last people once again at the dock, but this time it payed off...or so we thought. All the people were being herded onto shanty buses which we assumed were going to take us all the way to Bangkok. We however got on a deluxe double decker bus with reclining seats and acon. Never mind the fact that it was pink satin and shag carpet and looks like the kind of thing your parents warn you never to board, even if the man who owns it says he has puppies. Okay, moving on. We were on this bus for about 2 hours and then got shoveled off at a bus station in Surat Thani where we we're informed our bus to Bangkok would not be leaving for 5 more hours. So we set up camp under a tree and waited it out. We finally got on the bus and used our teamwork skills to land 3 seats at the very front on the top level. The bus too was outfitted in pink and blue satin and fluorescent patterned carpet. After getting situated we all popped some ambian and attempted to sleep the night away. Liz and Michelle were basically pretzeldon top of each other and spent the night cuddling. Robyn, who was a row behind us, had the fortunate pleasure of spooning with a random stranger all night who may or may not have given her lice. We all managed to doze off slightly, but were awaken at about 1 am when our bus was pulled over by 4 cop cars (2 of them unmarked). Michelle was awake to witness the whole situation and said that our bus driver had gotten in an altercation about 20 mins before at an intersection. Well the cops pulled over the double decker bus that contained around 100 sleeping twenty somethings.We then all watched as our bus driver got arrested and taken away in one of the unmarked cop cars. We all just kind of looked at each other in our dazed stupor and wondered what we were supposed to do. The other cops did too as they just stared at the bus and laughed. After another 25 mins the driver got dropped off back at the bus and just hopped on as if none of that had occurred. At this point we were all so delirious and semi drugged from the sleeping pills and just had to laugh it off. We finally made it to Bangkok as the sun was rising and got a cab to the train station to attempt and complete our journey up north. We were informed that the next bus to Chiang Mai did not leave until 9 pm so we ditched our bags at the travel agent place and decided to brave the streets of Bangkok on about 3-4 hours of sleep. We roamed for a while and did a little too much walking and shopping for the next 12 hours until we needed to be back at the train station. When we got back the train station was completely packed... this is when we learned about the riots going on in the city. Apparently protesters had laid down on the train tracks so all trains were cancelled. Fortunately, we were taking a bus so we figured this didn't affect us. Oh man were we wrong. All the people who had train tickets were now forced to also take buses to their various destinations, causing the whole bus scene to be even more chaotic than usual. This time around our bus had assigned seats and we decided that Robyn shouldn't have to share with a random again so Liz decided to buck up and take the lone seat. Let us remind you all that in the past 36 hours we have gotten about 6 hours of sleep. We were all extremely cranky and very emotionally fragile at the time. Okay, so with that in mind you can see just how delighted (note the sarcasm) Liz was when a Thai woman and her small child sat down in the very cramped seat next to her. This child doesn't even miss a beat and with in the first moment of boarding the bus she is jumping on Liz and throwing pillows at her. Awesome...NOT. She also felt the need to disconnect the iPod multiple times and punch her. Of course her mother could not be bothered with this since she was on the phone the whole time. And this child was barely 2 years old and of course spoke no English. We all knew it was going to be a very long night. About an hour into the ride we stop to get gas and Michelle figures this is a good time to use the bathroom. Liz is trying to sleep so the devil child will stop harassing her so she doesn't even know Michelle is missing. Robyn begins to worry after about 10 mins and gets up to see what has happened. She goes into the hall where she hears Michelle pounding against the bathroom door...she was locked in. The door handle had popped off and Michelle was stuck in the worlds smallest and grossest bathroom while on a moving bus. Long story short, Michelle ended up punching out a screen in order to breathe and a little Thai man somehow helped her escape. Mind you this was all within the first hour on the bus. Oh we forgot to mention that another child in our compartment projectile vomited within five minutes of getting on the bus. After another sleepless night we made it to Chiang Mai and high tailed it to a guesthouse to sleep the day away...