Up by 24 seat VIP bus from Chiang Mai. Very comfortable, extra large seats. Hint
: be sure and get a seat as far as possible from the ftont of the bus where two
TV's will surely be playing a violent action movie. You will not be able to
escape the screams and gunfire at top volume since loudspeakers will be
installed all over the bus, but bring a pair of industrial strength earplugs and
suffer through it.
If you want to make a vain attempt to lower the volume try saying : "Kor thot,
Khrup, Khun tam siang nit noi lek wa, dai mai ?" to the "stewardess" or the
driver. If this results in any action on their part, be sure and write this up
for the Guiness Book of Records. You might try faking an epileptic seizure as an
alternative, but I have the feeling this would also not work, and would be
exhausting. What I would really like to say in these circumstances would be "Goo
mee Phii kanai jai krai meur-rai fang siang dum ao kin neur khon Thai," but that
would be most unwise.
Security check near Mae Jun resulted in one rather young and very pretty lady
being led away by cops. I asked the driver later why she was taken off, and he
said "she travel too alone and not speak too Thai very" : I am sure, in
addition to her grammatical deficits, she did not have documentation.
This time was required to copy white card and front page of passport (last time
was not).
250 baht to the Myanmar officials as usual. Hint : say "min-gel-aba" rather
than "Sawadee Khrup" to the Burmese for extra points.
On return to Thailand official asks to see money. I show him a one-day old atm
slip. Longer delay than usual. Then allowed to go in.
Bus back same same. On the bus back after the de rigeur action movie was over,
they actually ... mirabile dictu ... started to play the movie "The Shipping
News" which I am told is not a fore-play and gore-play fiesta. The sound track
was somehow mangled so that every fifteen seconds or so what sounded like the
death croaks of a tortured frog bleated out of the shiny loudspeakers. Fifteeen
minutes of this and, to my surprise, sounds of (no video) a relatively "cool"
Thai music group was put on : kind of a pastel lounge-lizard version of Carabao.
Cops were busy playing soccer at Doi Saket, so the bus was not stopped and
checked for illegals or whatever.
