Up and at 'em nice and early. Today we were heading to Chiang Rai, a mountain province even farther north than Chiang Mai. Our AirBnB host Charles offered to drop us at the bus station, so we accepted. Damn, was it crowded. I left the bags with mom, dad and Candace and headed in to purchase tickets. I got up to the counter and requested 4 tickets for the bus leaving thirty minutes from now. The woman just stared at me. There weren't any available tickets until 2pm. 2pm? What? How could that be possible? Traveling in Thailand is great because it's so easy. Because it's so cheap and because it's so spur of the moment. You don't have to plan ahead. Or at least that's how I had traveled up until this point. She had to be joking. Was today some thai holiday I hadn't been aware of? Otherwise, why, why would I not be able to get bus tickets?
Ok. New plan. We head to Baan Kuhn 2 Hostel and ask my friend New to help us book a van or car. Flag down a songthaew. Load our bags. Ride to Baan Kuhn. Unload our bags. Head in to see New. There was just one problem. New wasn't there. New was off on Tuesdays (Since when was New ever off?! When I was staying at Baan Kuhn she was sleeping on the floor in the lobby because she never had time off!) And who, who was this random man working reception who didn't know me? And didn't possess even a flicker of a desire to help me out? My family waited outside. in the sun. in the heat. with all of our bags. I couldn't admit defeat yet again. This young thai receptionist had to help me. He had to. I poked. I prodded. I pleaded. Nope. Nada. Nothin.
Ok. New plan. Back to the bus station to buy bus tickets. Flag down a songthaew. Load our bags. Ride to the bus station. Unload our bags. Head in to buy bus tickets. There was just one problem. Now, there weren't any available tickets until 4pm. 4pm? What? How could that be possible? I couldn't admit defeat yet again. I walked out of the bus station straight into a songthaew driver. Where was I trying to go? Chiang Rai. When did I want to go? Now. How many of us were there? Four. Ok. He would take us. We just needed to wait for him to get his car. His car? His car? He had a car and he was offering to take us to Chiang Rai? Today? Right Now? All four of us? It couldn't be possible. And he wanted how much? That's it? Literal pennies! Ok. Yes. Yes we accept.
I was feeling pretty damn good about my little negotiation when our driver pulled up to get us. in his songthaew.
WHAT?
His "car" was a songthaew. We'd be taking a songthaew two hours, through the mountains, to Chiang Rai. Ok. We could do this. We could definitely sit in the back of a pickup for two hours. And the mountains, they had to be beautiful, right? And the breeze, it would be nicer than A/C on a bus, right? Sure. This was shaping up to be a pretty great idea.
I called our host in Chiang Rai to let him know our new travel plan and anticipated arrival time. "What kind of beer do you like?" was his response. "Tiger. why?" I was confused. "You're gonna need it. A hell of a lot of it actually, after a ride like that." Hmmph. What a downer. He didn't know the McCutcheon's. We could rough it with the best of 'em. And this, this wasn't even roughing it. This was going to be fun.
Fast forward two hours. Stew is horribly songthaew sick and hanging his head out the window. Mom has a headache and is lecturing Candace about why she shouldn't sit backwards and lean on the frame of the songthaew while I focus simultaneously on not pissing myself and spilling the remnants of the XL fountain pop I'd been sucking down. Yeah, we could do this alright. We could rough it with the best of 'em. We just wouldn't be doing it again. Ever. That's for sure.
We reached our hosts, feeling hot, tired and hungry. They wasted no time in giving us the grand tour and setting the expectation that we would be back downstairs again in 15 minutes. 15 minutes! 15 minutes! that's it? you've got to be kidding me. we just drove 2 hours in the back of a songthaew and you want us to be chipper and mingle ready in 15 minutes? Ok. We're gonna need that Tiger.
Our host wasn't kidding; the Tiger went down easy, clearly a bit too easy for the McCutcheon's, because after only an hour of drinking, Stew and our host had to head to Sev to replenish the cooler of Tiger we'd already burned through. #chiangraiaintgotnothinonthechi
After consuming our fair share of brews, we settled in for a cooking class, taught by our host's wife, Fern. She's a native thai who grew up in the Chiang Rai region. She taught us to make many dishes including curry, pineapple fried rice, papaya salad, fish and mango sticky rice. We cooked for what felt like hours and then indulged late into the evening. By the end we were so full that we were barely able to eat our portions of dessert.
The best part of the night however, was yet to come. Candace and I headed to bed, exhausted by the day's events. Just before turning out the light, Candace saw a bug scurry by the bed. Alarmed, she jumped up and exclaimed that she would not be sleeping, nor would she be turning out the light until I found and killed this bug. Just looking under the bed and dresser did not suffice. I had to move lamps, drag bed tables and raise the curtains before I was able to locate this bug. After slamming it with a shoe I was excited to finally get some sleep. Before I was even able to let out a yawn, Candace spotted another insect, this time, flying near the drapes. She let out a high pitch screech and went flailing into mom and dad's room. My 23 year old sister exclaimed that she would not be sleeping, nor would she be allowing any lights to be turned off. #highmaintenancemuch?
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