In 72 hours we rode in 2 tuk trucks, 3 charter busses, 2 Ubers, and 1 city cab. We slept in 1 hostel, on 3 bus station floors, and 1 baptist church tree house. We hiked over the border of Thailand to Myanmar with all of our gear on a rainy (meaning muddy) day then an additional 20ish minute hot walk to the bus station. We showered 0 times and ate very little. Our brains were tired and our bodies were achy but we made it!
We left our debrief in Pattaya, Thailand on the 2nd of June and made our way to Bangkok where we stayed in a hostel for the night. The morning of the 3rd, bright and early all 40 of us headed to the bus station. Tyler and I (logistics coordinators) planned on booking a bus for 9am but they were all full. We were blessed to get the whole squad on one bus that left at 10:25pm. Though this wasn’t ideal we were happy. The bus station had an air conditioned waiting area with access to a few restaurants and convenience stores. This was the beginning of the exiting part of our journey!
That night we boarded our overnight bus to Mae Sot near the border. This bus ride lasted about 9 hours maybe more. I don’t know, things started to get a little blurry at this point. We were woken up every couple of hours for food and bathroom breaks. Bathroom breaks I understand but I have no idea why they thought we would want food at 1 am. We were also stopped at 6 am to check passports.
We arrived in Mae Sot on the 4th and we were able to connect with a World Race alum that works full time with a local ministry. She helped us set up transportation for us for once we crossed the border. I can’t even begin to explain how huge of a blessing this was because we were already running behind schedule and from our research all the buses to our destination were booked until the 7th. She also filled us in on everything we needed to know for crossing the border and even helped some of us get there with her truck! I believe it took her truck and 3 tuk trucks to get us all to the border. Btw a tuk truck is a pick up truck with a covered bed that has benches on either side. A very handy and cheap mode of transportation out here!
At this point we are about halfway to our destination!
Crossing the border was fun. Not really but it’s all part of the adventure! Did I mention that it was raining? We threw all of our gear on our backs, fronts, and sides (I have too much stuff) and went on in. We had to go through customs and pass out visa papers. Then we walked over the border. Which was a bridge over the dividing river. It wasn’t that long of a walk but long enough to get us pretty muddy and tired. Doesn’t take much with all that gear! When we got to Myanmar we had to fill out entry papers and get checked in one by one. Not sure how long this actually took but it seemed like forever. But we were all able to enter and everything went smoothly!!
Once through we had to get to the bus station. It was about a 20 minute walk in the hot/humid mid day sun. We arrived to a tiny little shack, the bus station. Not really suitable for 40 people to crash for 6ish hours. But look at God… some of the guys noticed a baptist church across the street and went and asked if they had anywhere for us to chill until our bus left. They very generously gave us access to this awesome tree house thing that was big enough to fit all of us with a separate area for our gear under a roof just incase it rained again. Another amazing blessing that made this adventure much more enjoyable.
After resting we boarded the bus, another 9 hour ride. It took us through the jungle and mountains. It was one of the most beautiful trips I have ever taken. I was in the very back of the bus and after about 3 hours I started feeling extremely car sick. The bus driver was flying around those curvy roads like a never ending roller coaster. Oi. But once again we made it safely and I didn’t throw up all over my self. We arrived at like 2am and none of us really had a plan. Our ministry contacts were epithet not answering or we weren’t able to connect. Just to set the scene for you; this place was DIRTY, and smelly and overall spiritually dark. The cab drivers were rude and pushy. We were all exhausted and little unnerved with the lack of a game plan but we found a place outside that was a quieter waiting space. We rolled out our sleeping mats and passed out for a few hours.
This was as far as we traveled as a squad. My team and I got a cab to an outer city and got dropped off by a temple. We were able to get ahold of our contact and walk to the meeting space. There, we were greeted by our host’s sister-in-law and escorted to our awesome little apartment! We passed out on the floor for a few hours then showered and got some food in our bellies!
I hope when reading this you were able to see the positive in it like we did. It was exhausting yes, but it was really fun. One for the books for sure!
Thanks for reading and thank you for the prayers and support!!!
Love you all!
In the back of a Tuk Truck
This was the tree house.
Crashed outside the bus station.
Almost there!!!!
Made it!
