Can you believe that it is already time for us to get our visa’s renewed? It is, so on Monday we hopped on the not-quite-reliable truck, and headed for Chiang Mai. On the way there, we decided to head for Lao right away so that Travis would get back in time to do part of the video training that Jon Wood was doing this week. ( nice idea anyway) So, we got on a first class night bus, thinking that since it was “first class” we should get a good nights rest. OK, so I might be gullible after all! Our seats were in the very back of the bus. Now, that may not sound bad until you see them. All the seats are down on a normal level, except the back seats, which are elevated by about 18 inches! So, to get the picture, you have to imagine a bus loaded with small, black haired people, with one row of big, tired, elevated gullawahs conspicuously perched on their thrones! Of all things, we did not want to stand out in that crowd! But, there we sat, with little black haired people making quick, furtive glances at us. But, we have to travel right? So, it is a good idea to make the best of this situation and go to sleep. Well, that is where problem number two came in. All the seats in the first class bus have little foot rests for your comfort. Ours were against the step, 18 inches below us. Not exactly convenient, to say the least. So, we will have to sleep sitting up. We had just resigned ourselves to this reality, when the TVs suddenly turned themselves on and the speakers, which were level with our heads, right smack dab in front of us, started blaring. To add to our extreme discomfort, the only thing we could read on the TV screens was that this movie was rated R! I carefully insructed Travis and Tremaynne how to study their shoes. ( it is hard to find anything really interesting about flip flops)  I even tried to get them to try to take a nap, but that seemed a little rediculous under the circumstances. So, we covered our faces with anything we could find, and tried to ignor the bloodcurdling screams, and hellish music blasting at us. After several hours of this abuse, they finally turned off the noise and lights so that we could “sleep”. This is when we found out just how important those little foot rests were. And, to make matters worse, the ladies in front of us decided to lay their seats back. This left no room for our legs, which we find to be a necessary part of our bodies. We twisted and turned and tried every way imaginable to get to sleep, but just when I got only 16 body parts to hurt, instead of the customary 59, they would turn on the lights, and more people would stare amazed at the gullawah row, while searching for their newly acquired seats. We did live through the night, but only by a miracle of God. In the morning, we were greeted by very loud rock music over those same loud speakers. Needless to say, we would have kissed the ground if it had not been so dirty, after getting off that bus!

(while reading this section, remember that I was sick, with absolutely no voice. I could hardly even whisper, because when I do, it makes me cough really hard)
When we got to the bus station, we found that our journey had really just begun. We had to hire a tuktuk to take us to a different bus station, where we boarded a very nice, comfortable bus, with no TV’s in it! About 5 minutes down the road, the bus stopped, and we were told that this bus was too empty, so we had to get on an old dilapidated bus to go the rest of the way. Well, you do what you have to do, right? There, we sat next to a little boy who really wanted to steal our stuff, and a monk with a very nice cell phone. It was slow, and stopped at every concievable place. We noticed this because we knew that we had to get into Lao and get to the Thai Embassy before noon, or we would have a wait an extra day.  When we got to the next bus station, we had to once again hire a tuktuk to take us to the border. He tried to charge me a really exorbitant sum, so we walked away. He followed me and finally gave me a good deal, so we hopped on his tuktuk expecting to be taken just where we told him to go…the border! It seems that this was too much to ask, since the man took us to a “visa” store, where they insisted that we had to stop in order to go to the border. I let him know in no uncertain terms that I wanted to go to the border…he looked at me blankly….so I said “emigration”.  At this he smiled and we were off again. When I saw him turn the wrong way at the road that went to what looked like the border, I was beginning to get a bit nervous! How do you get a tuktuk driver to take you to the right place? Anyway, he took us to a big building, and I once again told him “NO, BORDER!!!!!” He finally had to admit defeat and took us straight to the border. But by then, we were really looking at our watches, calculating the time we had left to get to that embassy!  The border was a place where nobody was in a hurry but us.  And then we had to hire another tuktuk to take us to the Embassy. We made it very clear to the driver that we were in a hurry and needed to get to the Thai Embassy on time. ( we had about 5 minutes left) He smiled, made sure that we knew he was the best man for the job, and then slowly pulled out into traffic. We tried to tell him to hurry some more, but he decided that now would be the best time possible to get some gas, even though the tank was still half full. Half way there, we gave up. We knew that at the snails pace we were going, there was no way to make it to the Embassy that day. So, we directed him to show us to a nice quiet motel. He did a good job of that…. we thought. Our room is very nice and clean, it has a warm shower, and a real toilet, which is something to sing about around here! The only thing that they did not tell us is that it is right next to a night club, where there is the loudest devil music you have ever heard in your life from around 8 p.m. until midnight. The walls of our room shook so that I had to pray that they would not fall down. I mean litterally! The whole building vibrated, and I had to wonder how they can make the music that loud. The next morning I found out that Roy and Travis had actually SLEPT through it! Amazing. But what a blessing. I wish I could sleep through stuff like that.
This story is not over, but I will tell you more when it happens. For now, maybe you should just pray for us!